The 2013 (or 2014, depending on who you ask; there were apparently some issues with the 2013 list causing YOLOCALYPSE) University of Chicago Scavenger hunt is either in full swing or panic mode (again, depending on who you ask). And this is something that everyone should know about. Here’s a summary for those of you who didn’t choose which college to go to based on criteria like “... »
This is an exciting moment for me. For months, I have not had time to make more than a skirt or a dress. And since I haven’t been making anything particularly interesting, it hasn’t seemed worthwhile to put in the time to write about it here. But this weekend I found myself all of a sudden with lots of reasons to procrastinate, and that meant finally finishing a project that I started ... »
Last week, I wrote about our involvement in a ballet recital and how I had the opportunity to actually make costumes for 3 of my daughters for the recital. The post discussed Zoë’s skunk costume and gave a bit of information about actual skunks themselves. As stated in the previous article, my twins were cast as frogs in the recital. Upon hearing that she got the frog part, Briar immediatel... »
Many cosplayers struggle with finding the right material to build their beautiful creations. In this series, I’m going to talk about different aspects of materials science from an engineering perspective, as it relates to Cosplay. First topic: Steel. Steel is much more complicated material than our limited linguistic treatment would imply. Colloquially, there are two kinds of steel: normal s... »
A few weeks ago I made a post about my genderbent Slave Leia costume. I had some requests to explain my process. I didn’t document my progress on that project, but I just finished a project on which I did. The following is my process on a Tywin Lannister pauldron from the Game of Thrones TV series. The first step in armor smithing is to create a pattern. This can be time consuming and often ... »
I’m doing a bunch of staining experiments at work right now. That means that, hopefully, in the next couple weeks I’ll get a bunch of pretty pictures to analyse. It also means that I had the good fortune to spend much of yesterday at the cryostat (basically a meat slicer designed to make incredibly thin, frozen, sections – or slices). Sectioning is a zen experience for me, much a... »
For today’s Random Acts of Art, I’d like to share with you some drawings of some cute, fuzzy bunnies that I then turned INTO STONE. Just kidding, I only turned them into ceramic. Random rabbit facts: Rabbits are mammals. With proper care, indoors a rabbit can live approximately 8 to 10 years but an outdoor rabbit usually only lives one year. Rabbits are nose breathers. Ra... »
Today’s installment of Random Acts of Art is inspired by a custom order I just finished. I was asked to create some ceramic coasters with a representation of the pathogen Listeria monocytogenes in mammalian cells. So I did. I enjoyed doing the drawing so much, I created a few extra. Click on the second link here to see a video of Listeria in action and google Listeria to learn more! »
