photos by Jason Lentz

Over the years Jason Lentz has been creating various versions of a giant cardboard robot suit that he wears around to various events and locations.

Here he is trying to fit into the elevator at the Gazillion Entertainment offices.

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guest post by RICK!

Artist Spy Emerson is in desperate needs of wooden spoons for her new art project, Pankabestia, in NYC.

SPOON DRIVE
Oct 12th-Nov 12th
Prizes are awarded to top three donators, including a special, private performance from moses+spy. Anyone (or team) can enter email: spy [at] spygirlfriday [dot] com

Spy is collecting wooden utensils to be used in an installation for the exhibition “PANKABESTIA: Punk Beasts of the Swimming Cities of Serenissima” She plans to build a giant representation of the art rafts used to crash the Venice Biennale this past summer, and needs many many wooden utensils to do it.

Ritual Roasters, Lost Weekend Video, Flora Grubb Gardens and Cafe Que Tal will be accepting spoon donations.

OR just slap a stamp on an old wooden spoon, and sends it to:

spy
c/o anonymous gallery
169 Bowery
New York, NY 10002.

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guest post by Burstein!

The hackerspace Noisebridge is one of San Francisco’s cultural and artistic gems. Its members have contributed a wide variety of art, hacks and local culture.

Noisebridge is a space for sharing, creation, collaboration, research, development, mentoring, and of course, learning. Noisebridge is also more than a physical space, it’s a community with roots extending around the world. We help people build neat and awesome things.

On Friday, October 2nd, these über-makers and geeks are having an open house for their one year anniversary that will show off what they have done and can do. This alone is worth the price of admission, which is free. Things to see include:

The Brain Machine (which you can learn to make at noisebridge)

A Compass Vibro-Anklet (which you can learn to make at noisebridge)

A Makerbot Robot (which can be used at noisebridge)

Also at the event will be the Reverse Engineering Bar with only the geekiest of drinks and music by DIY-band Corpus Callosum and Cally McMorrow, circuit bender of legend.

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The 2nd annual Renegade Craft Faire takes place this weekend, July 18th and 19th at the Fort Mason Festival Pavilion in San Francisco.

Over 200 artists are traveling from all over the country and abroad to participate and sell their handmade goods at Renegade Craft Fair – San Francisco. From clothing and accessories, to stationary and concert posters, with everything from bath products and ceramics in between – there’s surely something for everyone!

via WilloToons

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Here are a few short videos that I shot this year at Maker Faire 2009.

Calliope by Neverwas

Soma by Flaming Lotus Girls

Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Boing plays his cigar box guitar

kid vs. robot in a chess match

Cupcake CNC by MakerBot Industries

Geneva Wheel, part of 10,000 Year Clock Project by The Long Now Foundation

Hand of Man by Christian Ristow

R2-D2

Jacob’s Ladder by Omega Recoil

Skull by Alameda County Computer Resource Center (ACCRC)

Video Gallery: Maker Faire 2009

Here are my photos from Maker Faire 2009.

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Make and Craft present Maker Faire 2009, the world’s largest DIY festival, which is returns to the San Mateo County Expo Center for its 4th year next weekend, Saturday, May 30th and Sunday, May 31st.

Following on President Obama’s call to “begin again the work of remaking America”, Maker Faire 2009 will be organized around the theme of Re-Make America. Held in the San Francisco Bay Area on May 30-31, Maker Faire celebrates what President Obama called “the risk takers, the doers, and the makers of things.” The fourth annual Maker Faire will showcase individual creativity and grassroots innovation in the largest festival devoted to DIY culture and technology in the country.

Here are my photos from Maker Faire Bay Area 2008.

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guest post by Burstein!

photo by unknown

Delving into the horrors merely skimmed by the Craftastrophe we did a while back, I present with scorched eyes Woolies (for lack of a better term). The good folks at Izismile have curated some interesting photos from a French wool fetishist site.

Ladies and gentlemen, Rule 34 strikes again!

via reddit

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Althea Crome talks about knitting miniature sweaters and gloves for the film Coraline.

via Neatorama

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Hine Mizushima has been making some really awesome hand-stitched felt squid iPhone cases that she is selling through her Etsy store.

Hine’s latest squid iPhone case is the “Deep Ocean” version.

See Previously: Hine’s Felt Camera Camera Case Stop-Motion Animated Video

photos by Hine Mizushima

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guest post by Burstein!

The worst dreams of the Great Old Ones pale in comparison to the horrors rendered upon reality through the accursed hands of malicious, vile and depraved crafters!  Behold a mere fraction of the abominations displayed at Craftastrophe, a blog featuring crafts gone wrong, very wrong. Witness the creeping revulsion that is The Peekaru!

Question your faith in God and all that is pure and right within your universe with Mr. Johnson!

And it… just… gets… worse….

Thanks Don for the tip!

photos via Craftastrophe

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guest post by Aaron Muszalski

Adafruit Industries, the New York City firm founded by noted electronics maker and DIY evangelist Limor “Lady Ada” Fried, is releasing a series of merit badges that recognize a variety of electronics skills. 

The first one is “learning to solder” – if you’re new to electronics, we’ll have a special bundle of tools, a kit and limited edition “badge” to show the world you’re proficient in soldering, once you complete the tutorials and kit that is!

We will have a variety of badges, the first is soldering – others include:

Arduino
LEDs (with conductive thread & real LED!)
Open source hardware
TV-B-Gone’ing
Reverse engineering
Dumpster diving
Laser cutting
WaveBubble

I’m especially looking forward to the LED merit badge, with conductive thread and a real LED. A micro-electronics project in patch form. Nifty!

Incidentally, Limor takes her “nom de souder” from Lady Ada Lovelace, aka Augusta Ada Byron, daughter of the infamous poet and libertine Lord Byron. Lady Ada is now known as the “first programmer” for having written, in 1842, a set of instructions to calculate Bernoulli numbers using Charles Babbage’s (unrealized) Analytical Engine.

See Previously:

- Nerd Merit Badges

- Laughing Squid Embroidered Patches

photo via Adafruit Industries

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guest post by Jackson West

Bre Pettis along with friends Zach Hoeken Smith and Adam Mayer have started a new company, MakerBot Industries, “to bring rapid prototyping and 3D Printing to the masses.”  Here’s more on the launch from Bre, NYC Resistor and investor Jake Lodwick.

MakerBot Industries creates open source robot kits that transform your digital designs into physical objects automatically.

The kits are modular, modifiable, and built to be hacked.

The initial product: The CupCake CNC for the incredibly precise, computer-controlled frosting of cupcakes.  And if buttercream isn’t your sculptural medium of choice, there’s a plastic extruder as well .  The bot takes up as much desk space as a printer, and can make stuff about the size of a Rubik’s Cube.  The company plans to start shipping next month, though pre-orders are available, and it’s priced at $750 (with discounts available on bulk orders).  Though individual parts can be ordered if you want to hack together something yourself.

Jonathan Coulton posing with the MakerBot at SXSW Interative 2009.

illustration by James Provost & photo by Bre Pettis

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guest post by Chicken John

Noah’s Ark no longer a myth…

In 2005 a Dutch contractor made a replica of Noah’s Ark, built to half scale. The creationist fanatic built a roadside attraction 8,000 miles from Route 66… and it’s kinda epic…. biblical even…

This thing is the size of a football field but I can’t tell if it’s a boat or if’s built on a dock. It probably doesn’t actually float.

The builder, Johan Huibers, believes in the LITERAL TRUTH of the bible. I’m glad someone believes in something. I’m having a hard time believing someone built a friggin’ ark!

I want to let visitors visualize what the Ark looked like to bring the account closer to those who believe but also to those who don’t. Noah’s story speaks to them mostly because of the animals on board.

There are many realistic polyester animals! Children can view various films, visit the Bible story displays and follow the footprints of the elephant while searching for the answers on the questionaire.

I think Mission Hipsters should take it over, call it the Elitist Ark. Cool animals only.

Is it starting to rain? Uh oh….

For more on the project see: http://www.arkvannoach.com

images via arkvannoach.com

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guest post by Simone Davalos

Many of the illustrious members of the Laughing Squid diaspora are familiar with the Snarky McF*ckbutton, a culturally indicative bit of personal accessory that saves the wearer the time and toil of actually verbalizing how much cooler they are than you (we have written about the illustrious McF*ckbutton in this space before, here).

CTP, the mover and shaker behind the Snarky McF*ckbutton, has been quietly supplying buttons for all occasions, often for free, at many exciting Bay Area events. He would like to continue snarking up the environment in a bigger way, and to this end he has a proposition for you:

The Snarky McF*ckbuttons Factory Improvement Campaign

So what’s this whole thing about? The popularity of our buttons has really taken off over the past couple of years, and it is time for us to take the next step and get a motorized button maker. This will allow us to not only be able to fill your orders more quickly, but will also allow us to finally accept large bulk orders that up until now we’ve had to refer to other companies. It will also allow us to give away even more buttons to even more fund raisers for good causes. Only trouble is the machine is pretty expensive. In order to help us get it we’ve put together a pretty simple and straightforward investment idea that we’re sure everyone will love. In order to help us get it we’ve put together a pretty simple and straightforward investment idea that we’re sure everyone will love.

We are asking for $100 from each supporter, limited to the first 70. We will collect the money over the month of February, 2009, and once we have reached the target of $7,000 we will get the button machine. What’s in it for you? In return for your $100 we will give you 100 snarky buttons of your choice (a $150 value), or a bulk order of 300 buttons of one design (that’s 33 cents each!!), plus you’ll get a 10% discount on all your orders for the coming year. We will fill the orders during March, 2009, in the order that people signed up.

Help Snarky McF get a primo button machine! Enable the advancement of technology that furthers the cause of sarcastic, pithily written button comments everywhere! Be able to say you were there back at the beginning, and whatever, it was way better then.

Details and ways to pay at The Snarky McF*ckbutton website.

See Previously: Snarky McF*ckButtons – Wear What You’re *Really* Thinking

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Nifer Fahrion created a lovely pink merino wool hand grenade that she calls “Love is a BattleField”. It recently won 2nd place in Craft Magazine’s Valentine’s Day Project Contest.

The “Love is a Battlefield” Hand Grenade is 1:1 scale replica of a real pineapple grenade. It is a needlefelted sculpture made of solid hot pink merino wool throughout.

photo by Nifer Fahrion / NifNaks

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Hine Mizushima made a great stop-motion animated video to promote the handmade felt “Camera” camera cases that she’s selling on Etsy.

See Previously: Giant Squid in They Might Be Giants’ “With The Dark”

photo by Hine Mizushima

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Tikaro Interactive and ümlatte have joined forces to create a series of wonderful 1.5″ Velcro-backed, embroidered Nerd Merit Badges.

They’ve released their 2nd Nerd Merit Badge, the extremely difficult “Inbox Zero”.

Follow @nerdmeritbadges on Twitter for the latest updates.

via Make

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guest post by Aaron Muszalski

Forget all the hubbub about amputee sprinters and world-record breaking “space tech” prostheses. This photo of a man with an apparently home-made flame effect foot (taken at last year’s Burning Man) deserves a gold medal for DIY ass-kickery.

photo by Foxgrrl

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Make Magazine and Craft Magazine present the 2nd annual Maker Faire Austin which takes place October 18 & 19 at the Travis County Exposition Center in Austin, TX.

Here’s are my photos from Maker Faire Austin 2007.

photos by Scott Beale

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Last week while visiting NYC, I went over to Brooklyn to take a tour of the Etsy offices and Etsy Labs, which are both located in The Clocktower Building. Etsy is an amazing online marketplace for people to buy and sell handmade items. A whole economy has evolved around Etsy, whose vision is to “Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade”.

My wonderful tour guides were Chad Dickerson, who formerly ran Yahoo! Brickhouse and recently moved to NYC to become CTO of Etsy and Bre Pettis who produces video for Etsy and has a TV pilot “History Hacker” that airs on The History Channel this Friday at 8pm and midnight.

While touring Etsy, I shot a few photos, here’s the full gallery.

Oh and if you would like to work a cool place like Etsy, they’re currently hiring.

photos by Scott Beale

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