Washer Set Game
Make a washer set — it’s a fun and easy game to play and/or make.
Hand saw
Inkle Loom
Weaving is one of my favorite crafts because it’s meditative and challenging, practical and artistic. It combines plain-woven cloth’s simple elegance with the astounding complexity of a kilim split-stitch tapestry. I love the way woven straps look, but the idea of warping my floor loom just to make something as narrow as a strap for […]
Corrugated Glow
A friend of mine recently finished a deck remodel, whose highlight (literally) is a transparent corrugated roof that diffuses sunlight in a delightful way. This inspired me to find some way to continue that glow after sunset, in the form of a lantern illuminated by tea light candles. There are many colors and styles of […]
Catnip Castle
As a pet lifestyle expert, I’m often asked the question, “What do cats want?” The answer is simple: A fun outlet for their instinctive needs to scratch and climb. Unfortunately, most commercial pet playgrounds consist of towers (aka “cat condos”) and scratching posts swathed in hideous nylon broadloom. If you dread displaying these eye- sores […]
Photo Lamp and Lightbox
I shoot a lot of still life and product photography, where a good light source is essential. On-camera flashes are almost useless, even bounced off the ceiling. Off-camera flashes and triggering systems are expensive. Natural light is unpredictable, uncontrollable and often unavailable. With the advent of cheap, low-power bulbs (‘Compact Fluorescent’, ‘CFL’, or ‘energy saving’ […]
Build a Wirebot
When you hear the word “wirebot,” you likely think of those cameras racing along wires above sporting events, unobtrusively capturing amazing action footage. Our wirebot will be quite a bit simpler, and a lot cheaper, however it offers quite a few cool possibilities. Some of these applications include things like specialized holiday light displays or […]
On-Demand Benchtop Gas Generator
If you should find yourself in need of small volumes of gas at about atmospheric pressure for a reaction or project, generating it on the bench can be a convenient and inexpensive alternative to buying or renting a gas cylinder. It turns out there are a number of useful gas-generating reactions between solid- and liquid-phase […]
