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Paper Circuits Intro Template + Tunnel Books
I designed a new paper circuit template for a workshop at Austin Book Arts Center last weekend, and was really happy with how it worked out as an intro skill-building activity. I think it’s the most successful I’ve been so far at bringing a group of electronics beginners to a point where they felt comfortable…
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Radial Shape Wrapper Function for P5.js
The radial wrapper function helps you make a radial version of any shape drawn in P5.js. View the code on Gist.
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Scaling shapes in P5.js Without Shifting (Wrapper Function)
Using the scale() function in Processing and P5.js can be tricky because it scales the canvas itself, causing your shapes to move rather than scale from a fixed point. Here’s a wrapper function for P5.js that helps you scale shapes without all that shifting around. View the code on Gist.
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Flip-Open Book Tutorial
I don’t know where this book structure comes from or who invented it; let me know if you do! I learned it many years ago by reverse-engineering a greeting card. It flips open in a very satisfying way. Here’s how to make it. Materials: You can make these as long as you want, and you…
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Table at Last! (Last Day of Crucible Woodworking)
Done at last! 2 minutes into cleanup time on the very last day. This is meant as a little art table for my sister, who likes to work sitting on the floor sometimes (me too!) Last step is to find out what sort of finish she wants. It was fun taking it home on BART, got lots of…
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Woodworking Week 2
Continued from last week, this week we measured and traced lines for the mortise and tenon joinery on legs and aprons. We used a nifty marking gauge to cut parallel lines for each needed measurement. We used a drill press to remove most of the material from the mortises and then a chisel to cut…
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Woodworking at the Crucible
I’m taking a Woodworking I class at The Crucible! Here are some photos from day 1 and 2. We are each going to build a little square side table like this: The first thing we did was make a “story stick” as a reference for all the measurements in the table. Then we cut some wood to…
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Zipper Sewing Tip
This might be obvious but it took me way too long to figure out! When sewing in a zipper, there is this annoying moment when the presser foot hits the zipper pull and your nice stitches previously parallel to and equally spaced from the zipper threads want to go all wonky. Tutorials say to lift the foot…
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Intro Programming Project: Textile Design With Code (Part I)
I introduced a new class project this past year: textile design! Students used Processing to program designs. Then we printed them using Spoonflower, a custom fabric printing service. Later in the year, Spoonflower launched a new service called Sprout Patterns that lets you print your design onto a sewing pattern (for example, to make a shirt or a bag).…