I spied this wonderful green-haired spaceman softie in the Geek Crafts Flickr pool by yermit. This led me to yermit‘s Flickr photostream of all sorts of lovely softies and then I clicked through to her Etsy shop and you can buy them!!! You *must* click through and see everything. I love her use of textures! Love it!
Tag: space
Accuracy in Labeling – Supernovae
Space geek extraordinaire Rachel pointed me to these supernovae warning stickers that Matt Mechtley of biphenyl.org made — awesome!
Matt says,
One of the most amazing discoveries of modern astrophysics is that almost all of the chemical elements we see around us were produced in supernovae — energetic explosions that typically mark the death throes of massive stars. Elements heavier than oxygen are disseminated mostly through supernovae, and elements heavier than iron come almost only from supernovae. This means that literally everything around you is full of atoms that were originally created in massive stars that exploded and sent those elements flying into interstellar space, where they eventually coalesced into dust and became you and the Earth you’re standing on.
…I thought a sticker campaign would be the perfect cheeky way to engage in some informal education!
Stitching Endeavor’s De-orbit Map
Space geek extraordinaire Rachel Hobson live-embroidered the space shuttle Endeavor’s de-orbit pattern as it returned to Earth this week. She’d already covered the Endeavor’s launch for MAKE: live from Houston, but welcoming it back with live-crafting is taking it to the next level!
How could I not stitch the deorbit map of the first shuttle I’ve seen launch? I didn’t want to jinx her landing, though, by stitching the first deorbit map only to find that she was delayed or rerouted to some other location.
Just more than one hour before she was set to land, she was given the all clear for weather and the go ahead to execute the deorbit burn that would commit her to landing. I literally jumped out of my chair, ran to my craft room and gathered my supplies. I had one scrap of black fabric, perfect for the background. I grabbed one of my many containers of embroidery floss, and it just happened to have every color I needed. I printed the map, transferred it with carbon paper and was off.
The Handmade Christmas Telescope
My friend Rachel Hobson is a huge space geek — she went to Space Camp as a kid, she listens in to Mission Control chatter and follows NASA on Twitter, and she’s covering the upcoming shuttle launch for MAKE: magazine. Her husband Chris made her a secret, incredible Christmas present this year in their garage: a real, working handmade telescope!
Rachel has more to say about it on her blog… and don’t miss her space reporting for MAKE: coming up!