Here’s something every aspiring superhero need, a wrist-mounted crossbow with a laser sight. Built in ten days from scratch by maker and laser enthusiast Patrick Priebe, the compact armament thrusts hand-made carbon fiber bolts with pinpoint accuracy.
ITP students Matt Tennie and Lily Szjanberg designed and built a device depicting Michael Jackson with an exaggeratedly large, sparkly hand hanging from the ceiling at their school. Whenever someone gives MJ a high five, a switch is triggered, sending serial data to a Processing sketch. The sketch then tells a webcam to snap a picture, which is uploaded directly to a flickr account.
The next generation Proto-Screw Shield from the Maker Shed is a dual-purpose prototyping shield for Arduino. Not only does it have a large 0.1″ grid prototyping area but it also extends the Arduino pins to sturdy, secure, and dependable screw terminal blocks. You even get a few bonus terminals for extra GND and four ‘free’ terminals for whatever connections you wish!
Check out this yard installation of a giant spider made from PVC pipe by Florida-based maker Spring Chicken (no, really!). The legs are coated with polyurethane expanding foam, applied with rubber gloves of course (not bare skin), to give it that nitty gritty texture. And the body is made from sliced-in-half giant water jugs, which give the body a sort of ribbed appearance. I also like the attention to detail, including the pile of children’s shoes below the “spider victim” cocoon – creepy!
I stumbled upon these pictures of a homemade fire-breathing dragon by Memphis-based maker Early Ehlinger and I just had to share. This thing is so cool! It reaches 20′ into the air, from nose to tail is 40′ long, and is is accented with other props and decor in the surrounding yard.
Shawn Thorsson explains the build process for his props and costumes at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011. First he starts with a digital 3D model, then cuts the pieces out with a CNC machine, assembles them and fine tunes with wood shaping techniques, then casts molds so he can reproduce them. The result are authentic looking reproductions of popular costumes.
Ira Sherman is an artist who sculpts work that has been shown worldwide in museums such as the Smithsonian. At Maker Faire Bay Area 2011 he brings structures that are created from tubular frames in curvilinear shapes that are meant to fit the contours of the human body.
