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Antler Head is finished!

I carved a big wooden bone, hollowed it out, filled it with electronics and then affixed the Antler Head stone to the wood. I also deepened the grooves of the teeth to make them more pronounced.

The eyes are marbles glued to washers. It was important to have translucent eyes so that the lights from the LEDs would make them glow.

I’m really happy with the result. It looks great with the lights on… and it looks great with the lights off! The sequencing LEDs make the eyes glow and it makes the space behind the sculpture glow as well. It sequences between dramatic lighting, gentle fading, and blinking. It’s really cool!

There are 6 LEDs on the board, and 2 for the eyes. This give off a lot of light in a dark room and the effect is mesmerizing. It runs on 3 AA batteries. The board is homemade with an attiny22/44/84 chip running the LEDs.

The board is held in with a homemade bracket. The bracket allows me to remove the board in case I need to fix anything. The stone head is removable from the wood. I did this so that I can replace the LEDs, if they ever quit working.

I got to play with so many tools when making the different elements for this guy. Table saws, files, moto-tools, drill press, and various sanders and grinders. I even got to use an angle grinder with a blade that looks like a chain saw! What started as neat natural objects (stone, twigs & rock) are now a fabulous sculpture.

To see another video of the lighting effect, please watch this below or here:

I’ve been working on a series of paintings called “Woman in…”

The purpose of this project is to imagine and paint women in a bunch of different emotional situations. So far, I’ve painted 5 (but only photographed 3) and I have 3 more works in progress that are ready to show and another 3 works in progress that I’m still playing with.

I’ve really enjoyed this process because it makes me think a lot about the usually hidden, emotional life that exists in us all. I’ve really gotten to think about the characteristics and symbolism of different emotions.

Every painting contains thoughts that are both practical and philosophical. Much like Barbara Walters asking, “What kind of tree would you be?”, I ask practical questions things like, “What is the color of despair?” or “What emotion does thin stripes evoke versus thick stripes?

Then there are the philosophical questions; “What would a woman in trouble look like… What would her interior space show? How do you paint the feelings of being under attack?”

Combining these two worlds of practical painting issues with philosophical questions, I’ve come up with images that I think people can relate to. So, I’m going to bring all the ladies in my series out to show on one page, including the works in progress. This way you can see the emerging picture of some of the different worlds and images I’ve been exploring.

I don’t know how many women are going to end up in this series. I’m just going to paint until I run out of interesting emotions and symbols that appeal to me.

Here they are:

First are the completed works; Woman in Flames, Woman in Fear, and Woman Intense:

Here are my works in progress; Woman inside, Woman in Trouble, and Woman Inhaled:

Here are more works in progress; Woman In Darkness, and Woman in Sacrifice:

We have a trail that winds through cedar trees and grass lands and a big hill. The trail is winding and both dark and sun-speckled as sun light filters through the trees. There’s lots of stumps and rocks and perfect places to display art in a dramatic outdoor setting. But outside art needs to be designed in different ways than inside art. It needs to be durable, waterproof and repairable if it gets knocked over during a wind storm. So, here are a couple of sculptures that I made to put on the trail that should meet those criteria.

Sardonicus was a stone that I found that had a most enigmatic smile. He even had an eye already sculpted by nature. All I had to do was create a matching eye, widen the smile a bit and flatten the base. This stone was so ready to become “Sardonicus.” This piece is 8.5″ x 5″ and is made of stone and washers.

The Emperor is made from wood, washers, stone, cedar bark and marbles. The cedar had an expression on it’s bark that said, “Make me an Emperor!” So, I added some washers, bark, and marbles and attached the whole thing to a big, sturdy rock.

I will post photos later, of these sculptures in there new, wild habitat.

I got invited to participate in the Dallas Museum of Science’s Tech Week. We were part of the weekend part of the festivities. So, we packed up, designed some new jousters (the pdfs are at the bottom of the page) and headed for Dallas.

It was really neat to get to hang out at a museum after hours. We met a few of our fellow presenters that included Lockheed Martin, some guys showing off how a wii-mote works, some incredibly fancy Ferraris and Lamborghinis. There were also people who were showing how to build geometric structures out of toothpicks and marshmallows. But our favorite presenters were Arc Attack!

We were actually placed right across the hall from Arc Attack! While it is a fantastic performance that I enjoy every time I see them, they are LOUD! And all that electricity is bad for driving my RC cars. During Maker Faire, my cars refused to move during their act. But that gave me an opportunity to enjoy the show. If you ever get a chance to see them, I highly recommend it…just bring ear plugs.

During the course of the weekend, we got to meet about 3000 people and introduce them to the concept of Micro RC Jousting. I also got to hand out templates of my new jouster designs (courtesy of the Museum). It was a blast. The most amazing thing was that my cars actually survived the entire weekend. They were a little worse for wear but they are still driving.

Anyway, it was a really great weekend and I was happy to show off my new jousters.

My new designs: (the links go to PDFs)
1. Warrior Woman
2. A Roman Soldier
3. A Pirate
4. A Viking with Viking Ship (that fits over the car)
5. A Lion (the body fits over the car and the head attaches to the body)

Now, along with my two original designs (Red Knight and Blue Knight that are modified to fit my new cars) we have a total of 7 jousters to play with.

My new cars are:

Car #1 : Yellow Mini Cooper
Turbo Max
Scale: 1:52

Car #2: No idea, as I threw away the packaging.

I hope you enjoy these new jouster designs and let me know if you have any questions by leaving a comment.

Thanks.

J. & I have been working hard on a fabulous new project called the “Magic Screen Machine.” By using gears, stepper motors, a micro-controller and and two ULN2803’s we’ve re-created part of Jeff Epler’s Etch CNC project.

This is a multi-step process and we actually made it through the first stage successfully.

It all started off with an Etch-A-Sketch® and a plan. Jeff Epler made this project look easy and it was… up to a point.

These are the gears we used for this project. We picked them up at a local hobby shop. Initially, we were going to manufacture our own gears by learning how to do casting & molding. But saner heads prevailed and we decided to go the “already made” route. We do still plan to learn how to cast our own gears, but that will be another project for another day.

The gears fit perfectly onto the Etch-A-Sketch® knobs. The next step is gluing. I tried super glue but couldn’t get it to hold. So, I graduated to “Super Glue Super Instant Epoxy 90.” Good stuff! It is quite stinky, so ventilation is required.

Gluing is not as easy as it looks…

I got the gear glued to knob. Now, it’s time to lay out the design of the frame. One important aspect of the design was to make sure the the Etch-A-Sketch® was not permanently mounted. We wanted to be able to remove it for shaking or replacing or whatever. To allow device mobility, I planned to bolt a piece of 2X4 and use a wing nut to secure it. This piece will wedge the device into the frame and will easy to remove.

The motors needed spacers. I glued 7 tiny washers together to make a spacer. I built four of these things, without any mishaps, other than some of the washers not being the same height. I eventually found matching washers and my spacers are relatively uniform in height.

The frame has been built, a gear has been glued, and spacers created. Next, we’re mounting the motor to see if this idea is going to work. Lining up the motor with the gear was a bit tricky and involved a bit of guesswork.

In this step, we’ve attached the motor to the project bread board. It actually worked! The chip is telling the motor which way to turn. The motor is controlling the knob, which is drawing on the screen!

After this successful test, we glued the second gear to the left knob, added spacers and a motor. This was relatively simple and we were quite excited to get to the next step…

One of the vital elements that will make this a CNC Magic Screen Machine is the cable. So, we took an old cable, mapped the wires and soldered on new connectors. The first cable we mapped was not useful for this project. The cable and the map got thrown into a ziplock bag, for future use. The second cable was perfect.

In the end, we couldn’t get the computer to talk to the Etch-A-Sketch® before time ran out. Instead, J. programmed a design onto the chip and we used that for our demo. This project took about 8 hours. We had a few missteps that were not chronicled here. And we spent a bit of time trying to find the perfect gear. Hopefully, we can get the next step done in a couple of weeks and then it’s time to start programming the awesome designs. Yay!

*The source code can be found here:

The Etch A Sketch® product name and the configuration of the Etch A Sketch® product are registered trademarks owned by the The Ohio Art Company. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with this website.

I was recently compelled to add blinking LEDs to stone. I had a limestone rock that I carved and it really needed some eyes. I liked how light shines through marbles and wanted a similar effect. But once they marbles are set into stone, the marbles become less shiny. So how can I light them? LEDs, of course!

• Using a masonry bit with a drill press, I drilled some holes in the bottom of the rock that intersected the eye holes.
• Then I fed some wired LEDs through the eye sockets.
• And soldered pins to the LED wire.
• Next, I glued the marbles into the eye sockets and plugged the LEDs into a bread board with an attiny22/44/84 chip and “Presto!” my Antler Head has glowing eyes.

This is not a finished piece, as I am going to build another part to place the electronics into. A real LED controller board needs to be built, and I will also recondition the antlers and cover them with a protective layer of polyurethane.

But I love the luminous effect of the blinking, glowing eyes coming from a heavy, solid, rock. LEDs & rocks…together at last! To see a grainy version of what this sculpture looks live, check it out here, or below.

I needed a cool flashing LED effect (don’t we all?). J made a generic LED sequencing board and I made it groovy. By using a few materials (hot glue, a jar, a bowl, cardboard, more hot glue…) that I had laying about, I was able to create a groovy glue based ambient lighting jar. To see any image in greater detail, please click on it.

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Step 01: This board has an “AT Tiny 84″ chip that has been programmed to sequence eight LEDs. The LEDs are connected via cables on either side of the chip. The three jumpers control the speed of the sequence, whether the LEDs will chase or “bounce”, and how many LEDs will be lit up at the same time (2 or 3).

Step 02: The underside of the board looks like this. (Yes, this isn’t technically a step.)

Step 03: Add batteries. This project runs on 3 AA batteries.

Step 04: The component board is ready to go. The LEDs are on two flexible cables.

Step 05: Using an old VCR tape case, I drizzled hot glue on it. Once cooled, I peeled up the glue. This process was much faster when I used metal to drizzle upon, rather than plastic.

Step 06: Here is the giant pile of dried hot glue that I created to fill the jar.

Step 07: I started adding glue into the jar.

Step 08: Using a drill and a jar lid, I made a place to hold the LEDs.

Step 09: I used a hole saw to put a hole in the bottom of the plastic bowl. The hole is slightly smaller than the lid. I just need a hole for the LEDs to poke through, not the entire lid. In order to keep the bowl from cracking, I heated some water in it. I threw out the water right before using the hole saw.

Step 10: In order to attach the lid to the bowl, I used more hot glue. Then, I made a piece of cardboard with LED sized holes to use as an LED stabilizer.

Step 11: I brought all my parts together; battery pack, jar full of dried hot glue, my LED sequencing board, piece of cardboard and jar lid glued to plastic bowl.

Step 12: Here is the inside of the bowl. I poked the LEDs through the holes in the jar lid and through the cardboard on the other side.

Step 13: This is what the “mounted” LEDs look like from the top side.

Step 14: I carefully screwed the jar full of glue onto the lid and tucked away my battery pack and components.

Step 15: Turn on the LEDs & turn off the lights! Here is a blurry picture of the LED effect. The glue glows and shimmers as the LEDs go through the sequence

This is another painting in my “Woman in …” series. This is about fear; being trapped by and being liberated from. I was thinking about near death experiences and about how your perspective radically shifts at that moment. How things that were so important become meaningless and how the things that were holding you back are suddenly revealed as no big deal. In an instant, your life can change forever. And all the stuff you think is is critical may actually be a waste of time. And all the limitations you put on yourself were artificial and there really was a way you could have done everything you thought you wanted. The fears that were imprisoning you collapse. So, in that one moment you’re released from all the trivial experience and are free to welcome a new perspective.

Acrylic on canvas. 40″ x 30″. Started July 2008, completed September 2008.

Update: I won an “Editor’s Choice Ribbon” at Maker Faire!!!!

You can read what the editor thought here. Thanks Patti (the awarding editor) & Make Magazine. I’d also like to thank the Academy… er, the Robot Group for their awesome feedback and support and extra RC cars… I also met tons of really great people, parents, science teachers, chefs and Scout leaders who were so enthusiastic. To all the people who try this project, let me know how it goes and what your end results look like. Thanks.

I’m at Maker Faire all weekend!!! I’m showing off my Micro RC Jousters. Please visit this page to download the free PDF files I promised. Enjoy!

This is part of my “Woman in…” series. When I painted this, I was thinking about what “intense” would look like.

When I think about someone who is intense, I think:

-About getting up in somebody’s face.

-About having so much energy & emotion, you can’t get the words out.

-It’s about burning up.

-It’s about burning out.

-It’s about being more than everything around you.

The hardest part of this painting was spent trying to get the right facial expression.

The hair actually has more detail/texture. I tried to balance the flatness of the grey background with the textured hair.

I started working on this in July and finished it in August. The time between idea and execution was really short.

I’ve been working on other canvases that are 30″ x 40″ and seem to take forever to finish. This painting is much smaller, and so it was quicker to paint. The canvas is 18″ x 24.” Acrylic on canvas.