As we reach the dog days of summer here in the Northern Hemisphere, I hope you are getting a chance to get outside and enjoy the summer nights. If you are a star-gazer like myself, you might enjoy these plushy little planets. They have a few advantages over real planets such as: great visibility from your sleeping bag and a lack of toxic gases and or deadly temperatures. In fact, they seem downright friendly! Even our buddy Pluto made it in!
The soft precision that is accomplished by skilled felt sculptors always catches my eye, so I was mesmerized this week by the Things That Fly collection. Ms. Davis, the artist, has a range of crazy-cute felted items and it was hard to pick one to display, so I tried to err on the geekiest side. Check out her collection and see if you agree.
This weekend was Maker Faire at Union Station in Kansas City and my daughter and I happily attended. To be honest, it was more of the same from last year – 3D printers, robotics, Arc Attack, and artisians of various forms and varieties. But we enjoyed ourselves, and were pleased to see some new chainmaille vendors, and some sort of hand-to-hand combat demos going on outside the Station.
One interesting booth was the Urban Farming Guys, which was a demonstration in aquaponics. I hardly know how to explain it, but it was cool. They had this planter with a large water tank beneath it. Tilapia fish in the tank poop in the water, then the poop water feeds the plants above. The plants filter the water through their roots, and it cycles back down to the fish tank. When the fish get big enough, you can eat them. A complete recyclable system. Very interesting.
Other interesting booths/displays: a woman who made art from junk mail, numerous 3D printers and “printed” items, a Titanic ship made from Legos, a solar-powered car, robotics demos, and a craft gallery with lots of jewelry, knitting, and chainmaille examples.
I’m not going to say that the creations of Your Organ Grinder aren’t a little on the weird side, because they are. I mean, they’re felt organs. But they’re also kind of rad. Particular favorites here include the brain necklace, brain hairclip, and nose embroidery hoop.
Spring is starting to turn into summer. Change is in the air. Squirrels are finding their autumn treasures. Some lucky acorns will grow into mighty trees. Does are throwing baby showers for one and another in the woods and birds are looking for some action.
I have a feeling my favorite naturalist enjoyed this time of year. My hats off to The Greedy Crocodile for her felted busts. If you are more of a physics or literature kind of person, her shop includes some luminaries from those fields.
She’s also got an amazing sculpture of my girl, Marie Curie. I hope to see some more famous women in the future as well!
Flipping though Physics World magazine , I turned a page and caught my breath; there was the tiniest picture of the most beautiful quilt. I still, several hours later, cannot quite find words with which to explain how awe inspiring, how wondrous these quilts, made by Kate Findlay, are.
But what was a picture of Kate’s quilt doing in a physics magazine? Well, it turns out to be one of a series which she has made themed around the LHC. There are 20 quilts (so far) in the series, some inspired by particular particle detectors, and some inspired more generally by the science of supersymmetry, dark matter and particle physics. ‘Atom – Silver’ (pictured above) is based on the structure of Ag, while Atlas (below) is based on images of the ATLAS detector.
What initially caught Kate’s eye were the symmetry, repeating motifs, and colours present in CERN’s images, and I agree that quilting is a perfect medium to reflect those ideas – Kate’s mixed textures of silks, satins and sheers really capture the source material, the pieces feel modern,full of hope and wonder. Kate also cites the vastly disparate scales that any physicist works with as a source of inspiration – and I for one can see how the juxtaposition between atoms and astronomy, and the interplay between the two, is a captivating concept.
The early pieces from the series incorporate wire, card, beads,and other mixed media to further play with texture, while the more recent pieces are traditional 3 layered beauties. Kate has experimented with screen printing and dyeing to personalise her fabrics, and of course this adds yet another dimension to the quilts.