Ray and Cape write “We thought it’d be sweet to make shot glasses out of ice. There are some bars in Europe and Australia which are made completely out of ice and kept below freezing, we didn’t go that far but these are pretty cool (no pun intended), check it out. We used Dixie cups. They come in several different sizes. You will need two different sizes, we used 9 oz and 3 oz cups…” Link.
Here’s something to make when it’s cold outside. Snow! This site has a couple of snow machine designs that can be built from stuff you might already have (an air compressor, a high pressure sprayer, various plumbing fittings). There also has a page describing the physics involved in snow making. Thanks J. Wolf! Link.
Rachel Metz at Wired has a great article about using store-bought toys as raw material for your own one-of-a-kind designs – “Remote-control cars are so over. If you really want to be on the edge of holiday hipness this season, try a home-hacked version that drives itself. Artist Federico Muelas is a remote-control-car-hacking expert. He cracks open the remote, then connects it to an external chip, which in turn is connected to a computer. Through the computer, he reprograms the remote so, for example, cars can automatically zoom through an obstacle course.” Link.
Clever idea – use capacitors instead of batteries that could go dead in some devices – all in a 9volt form factor – “GoldCap capacitors offer an interesting alternative power source when compared to conventional disposable or even rechargeable batteries. They can be charged very rapidly and can also deliver a high peak output current. Their voltage however is quite low so a little electronic assistance is necessary to raise the output voltage to a more useful level.” [via] Link (PDF).
Excellent guide on procuring LEDs from a cheap and plentiful source – “They come disguised as “Christmas Lights” – the “Forever Bright” line is especially good. And they are the subject of this article. Why bother? Cost. A string of 75 BLUE LED lights costs $10 on sale – and up where I am there’s a $5 rebate per string for “Energy Saver” lights. So that’s five bucks for 75 LEDs – or about 7 cents per LED for the expensive BLUE ones. Cheap.” Link.
In MAKE 04 we featured some great kit gift ideas in the magazine, “Kits for the Holidays”. But we didn’t have room for all the kits we found, so here’s another round for elves with makers on their list. MAKE subscribers can log in and view the full article here…Link. We also have our own kit for taking high speed flash photography to capture high-speed events — A splash. Popping balloons. Breaking glass. It’s an amazing adjustable flash controller triggered by light or sound. Link.
Article about holiday goods you can buy/make from a shop near MAKE HQ “Typewriter keys transformed into earrings, bike chains that become bracelets, journals bound between the covers of old books and decorative bowls made from old LP records. These are just some of the recycled goodies for sale at Renga Arts, a relatively new Occidental store that turns one person’s trash into another’s treasure.” Link.
