Self-capping cork pushpins
Clever concept design from Israeli designers Studio Ve: Keeps all your pushpins together in the same place, and keeps the sharp ends covered. [via NOTCOT]
Furniture & Lighting
The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for making furniture and home decor for every room in the house, including the garage.
Make a desktop-embedded USB hub
Wires, wires everywhere. I don’t like looking at wires, wires everywhere. Even though I have a USB hub, it’s a bit of an eyesore sitting on top of my desk, plugged into devices up top, and my computer down below. I decided it was time to embed the hub directly into the surface of the desk. Using the Dremel Multi-Max to plunge-cut the wood desktop, I fit the USB hub into the desk, and attached the hub to the underside using brackets. It’s now stable, stylish, and out of the way.
Sad bookshelf is sad…
…because everyone’s got an iPad. Or a Kindle.
It’s the work of Waynesville, NC, designer Blaine Johnston, aka Red F Studios.
Maker Birthdays: Eva Zeisel
Born in Budapest, Hungary on November 13, 1906 to a prosperous family, Eva Zeisel (nee Striker) would go on to become one of the most influential industrial designers of the twentieth century. Though she doesn’t consider herself an industrial designer, but rather a “maker of useful things”, at 104 she continues to crank out some of the most sought-after contemporary modern design.
Electric carving knife + router table = DIY upholstery foam saw
And quite an effective one, two, judging by this video from YouTuber Designbyg. Rain Noe, who brought us last week’s build-your-own-couch post over on Core77, compares it favorably to a $200 professional upholstery foam saw.
iPad portrait light array
When I first saw Jessee Rosten’s iPad portrait light array I will admit that I wrote it off as a goofy publicity stunt (which it seems to have done well at), but further analysis may have altered my opinion a bit. Who, in their right mind, would waste that much money on something that could be accomplished with better gear? Who cares? Seriously, if you’re putting together a photo shoot with a bunch of friends and you need some interesting lighting, why not borrow everyone’s iPad and mount them on some plywood for an interesting effect? Is it the best use of the technology? No way! Did it produce an interesting effect? I think so.
Make: Projects – Ball-chain plant hangers
Really the “plant hanger” thing is just an easy example. The cool bit here is the trick for making fixed three- and four-way joints in ball chain using the commonly-known “straight” couplings, plus one you may not already know about. You can use it to make snap-together ball-chain nets or meshes of any size or shape, for any reason you might want to.
