3D printed stegosaurus

I'm taking a class now on digital sculture tools; we've been using a CNC plasma cutter, Sculptris, Rhino, and a ZCorp 3D printer.


I designed my little stegosaurus in Rhino and printed it on a Zprinter. Polyline --> extrude solid --> chamfer variable radius, mostly; then the slabs are stacked next to each other.

It's been a LOOOONG several months since I've done any knitting or crochet at all, and the year before that I did so little! In July I had carpal tunnel surgery, and I'm really happy now with the outcome -- my hand therapists were awesome.

Anyways, I have some exciting knitting news coming up soon... stay tuned!

In the meantime, I've been working on some awesome art projects. And I have a cat. Meet Tuna Breath!

It lights up!

Oh yeah.

Embroidery project

For my textiles class. Not sure what I'm going to do next but it's not finished.

Pavers, vol. 2

The top photo shows what we did with the first pallet of pavers; the lower photo is a second pallet + some of the leftovers from the first.

Basically, we dug a very shallow pit, leveled the bottom with a couple inches of sand, and then laid the pavers into the sand. Sprinkled "jointing sand" over the top, swept it into the cracks, misted the sand to activate the mortar and ta-da! Since we don't have a freeze-thaw thing going on here, there wasn't really a need to do a gravel base under the sand.

In regard to the picture with the fountain, "we" means "Mr. Nick"; I was out at a sewing workshop on Saturday and then volunteering on Sunday. He installed the fountain, too -- there's a switch on the covered patio that turns the pump on and off, and it's on a GFCI circuit.

Once the weather is cooler, we'll put a gas fire pit and some comfortable seating on the larger patio. It's going to be great to sit out there this fall / winter!

FOR THE GOOD OF ALL, DO NOT DESTROY THE BIRDS

I found these really nifty old trading cards illustrating the "Useful Birds of America" on eBay -- they originally came in boxes of Arm and Hammer baking soda. Each has an illustration of a bird on the front (mine are all illustrations by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, who was an amazing bird artist), and then the back has a suggested use for baking soda and some facts about the bird. My favorite tip:  

CLEANING MEAT -- As soon as unwrapped, clean all meat with ARM & HAMMER or COW BRAND BAKING SODA solution (a small handful to 2 cups of water). This removes foreign matter and dried blood. Store on a clean plate in the refrigerator.

Close-ups of some of my favorites...
Check out the mayfly! A couple summers ago I saw a black phoebe catch a GIANT dragonfly and then spend about 5 minutes scraping it on the ground to get the wings off.

Nuthatches are awesome.

Basically, birds are useful on account of the bug-eating. 

"Like most of the Warbler family, it [Common Yellowthroat] performs a great service to man in the consumption of harmful insects."


"This bird [Black-capped Chickadee] is one of the greatest insect destroyers in the whole bird world."

Forgot to include this guy in my collage, which is too bad because it's really lovely -- see the tiny insect he's going after?



















The lot that I bought on eBay had assorted cards from series 9 and 10, with many copies of the same card -- perfect for my project because I wanted to display both the front and back of some cards. Once I thought of using the clear ruler for rotary cutting to get them all arranged it went a lot faster :-). The cards are quite small; about 1 7/8" x 2 3/4", and each collage is about 10 x 12. 

 

Classy, right?

Well, last time I posted I said that there would be more potholder content coming soon ... not sure I'm actually going to be able to make the swap this year -- been having a little trouble with some numbness in my fingers and need to give things a break for a few days. But I thought I'd give you all a sneak peak of what I've been up to.