Old-school Battlestar Galacticar
Built by Dean Shorey of Rochester, NY, using parts from a post office Jeep and a small chevy block V8. It has a cassette deck and no A/C. Details at Jalopnik. [via Dude Craft]
Science
DIY science is the perfect way to use your creative skills and learn something new. With the right supplies, some determination, and a curious mind, you can create amazing experiments that open up a whole world of possibilities. At home-made laboratories or tech workshops, makers from all backgrounds can explore new ideas by finding ways to study their environment in novel ways – allowing them to make breathtaking discoveries!
Featured Maker: Aaron Ristau
Colorado artist Aaron Ristau works in assemblage. His pieces include both functional accessories and pure sculpture.
I create art that compels the viewer to interact. The artwork creates curiosity by blending nostalgic aesthetics, historical references, and function.
My whimsical mechanics and functional lighting assemblages are an intricate integration and redefinition of reclaimed components.
Shown uppermost is his Frontier Cartography Droid (sold), which incorporates a working Sega Homestar planetarium. The body is made from a three-neck flask, the legs from sewing machine parts and clothes irons.
Urban camouflage iPad case
My friend Matt showed me the quick and dirty urban camouflage iPad case he made out of an old composition notebook cover and a scrap of non-slip rug padding. This has to be the coolest iPad case I’ve seen to date.
In the Makers Market: Stoplight lens bird feeders
Seller Illuminated Bird makes these lovely bird feeders from the lenses that once covered traffic lights, which she carefully reclaims, cleans, polishes, and fits with brass and stainless steel hardware. The two shown here are, immediately above, “Sunshine and Spring,” and uppermost, “Bird Feeder 101.”
This is not a spiral
Slightly off-topic, here, but I see lots of these optical illusion posts on the web, and although some of them are pretty impressive, this one borders on voodoo. I had to run my mouse pointer over the blue traces a few times to persuade myself. I’ve overlaid some big yellow circles on the original image, which you can see, below, after the jump, to save you the trouble. [via Neatorama]
Math Monday: Hexagonal stick arrangements
Math Monday: Hexagonal stick arrangements By George Hart for the Museum of Mathematics Interpenetrating hexagonal arrangements of sticks are a challenging mathematical exercise to assemble from pencils. Four different directions are used, as color-coded here. The above sculpture, 72 Pencils, has tiny dots of glue to hold itself together, but you can easily use eight […]
Never mind the table, check out the fake cardboard boulders
A glass-top table supported by a group of what appear to boulders may be to your taste. If so, that’s cool. This one from Brazilian designer Domingos Tótora is called the Agua Table. But even if not, I thought the process of making the “rocks” from a paste of old cardboard boxes and glue was pretty interesting. I speculate that Sr. Totora actually started out by experimenting with the cardboard-paste process, figured out he could make fake boulders using it, then cast about for awhile trying to find a use for the cool fake boulders he’d just taught himself to make. Slapping a piece of tempered glass on it and calling it a coffee table has worked for a lot of other designers… [Thanks, Billy Baque!]