Geek Crafts

I saw some very exciting crafty tool news today and blogged about it on Trans-craft-inental. Check it out!

Technabob posted this absolutely amazing Atari 2600 Console Cake by Cakes by the “Pound”, a bakery in Southern California that specializes in “custom designed edible works of art.” When I saw this picture, I thought that this was the most amazing cake I had ever seen. And then I clicked through to Cakes by the “Pound”s portfolio! Even if you aren’t into cakes, it’s definitely worth the time to take a look at some of their incredible creations. And yes, the entire cake is edible.

• Atari 2600 Console Cake on Technabob

This may be the one and only afghan that Craftster user CaterpillarPeacock ever makes. She crocheted this colorful Tetris afghan as a gift for her boyfriend - those are all double-crocheted granny squares put together with single crochet.

• Crocheted Tetris Afghan

My Pet Virus by Shawn Decker is probably the funniest book you will ever pick up. Now, I admit, this isn’t something you expect to hear about a real-life-story of a kid with hemophilia who ends up contracting HIV through a blood transfusion, but that’s only because you don’t know Shawn Decker. Shawn has faced down his HIV positive status with a twisted sense of humor and a series of anecdotes that will challenge what you think you know about prejudice, AIDS and life as a teenager while making you laugh until your guts hurt.

In addition to writing My Pet Virus and performing in the band Synthetic Division, Shawn, and his HIV-negative wife, Gwenn travel the world educating people about AIDS and safe sex. They believe that if a “positoid” and a “negatoid” (Shawn’s terms–read the book and find out more) can make a sexually active marriage work, then maybe other people should be aware of how to do it, too. In addition, Shawn has recently finished his first fiction work, a story about vampires, and if you are anxiously awaiting the release, you will find updates at his blog Shawn & Gwenn: Blog.

Even though Shawn has just finished one of the more hectic times of year in his life, he agreed to sit down and answer a few questions for our Geek Crafts readers.

So you grew up in a small town as a hemophiliac, HIV positive kid who loved
Depeche Mode…did you ever see yourself traveling the US speaking publicly
about your cult-hit memoir and safe sex?

I really had no idea I’d be talking about my HIV status with my friends, let alone strangers.  At age 20, around the same time I definitively decided that Black Celebration was Depeche Mode’s finest album, I realized I wanted to open up about my HIV status.  At that point, I’d been diagnosed half my life, and it seemed like an exciting thing to do.  Also, I was inspired by Pedro Zamora, who’d been on MTV’s Real World reality show.  He was young, HIV positive and speaking at college campuses.  He passed to spirit a couple of years before I started educating about HIV, but I was able to meet his partner, Sean, and his roommate, Judd Winick, both of whom I thanked for the inspiration.
Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not sure why, but crafts in the likeness of historical figures really crack me up and these bowling pins from Craftster user charmingflaws are no exception. With plaster molds, slip casting, paint and sewing, she created Ben Franklin, Marie Antoinette, Pocahontas, Ivan the Terrible, Caesar, Cleopatra and Elizabeth I. I would love to see these in person!

• Historical Figures Bowling Pins

If you just can’t bear to leave your Wii Mii all alone while you’re out and about, you have to check out these Wii Mii Pins by Craftsholic on Etsy (found Via geeksugar).

This is a perfect hand sewn way to carry your Mii with you always. You wouldn’t want it trapped in virtual reality while you were out in reality reality would you?

• Wii Mii Pins