November 2

Marvel craft: DIY LED Tesseract

Tesseract tutorial by Venessa Baez

Did you know that in geometry, a tesseract, also called an 8-cell or regular octachoron or cubic prism, is the four-dimensional analog of the cube? According to Wolfram MathWorld, in Madeleine L’Engle’s novel, A Wrinkle in Time, the characters in the story travel through time and space using tesseracts. According to Google, Tesseract is also probably the most accurate open source OCR engine available.

Of course, in the Marvel universe, there is yet another use of a Tesseract – as an Infinity Stone, one of the most powerful artifacts in the universe. It can open rifts in space, which ties in nicely with Madeleine L’Engle’s use of it. While Odin keeps watch over the Tesseract in Asgard, you can create your own replica based on this quick project by Venessa Baez (complete with 3-1/2 minute video). With an acrylic photo cube, a few swipes of paint, some LED garden lights, and waxed paper, you can have a great geeky decor item for your desk or bookshelf.

If you could open a rift in time and space, where would you go? And would you make the “Vwoop, vwoop!” sound effect like a TARDIS?

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October 31

Pattern: Hocus Pocus Cowl

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I hope everyone has been having a Happy Halloween. Anyone running afoul of the Sanderson Sisters, well, you are on your own!  But back to the Hocus Pocus cowl.  Wonderfallz on Raverly the designer behind Thea Eschliman Designs has another great pattern.  The Hocus Pocus cowl. A very fitting design for the season.  And the drop in temperature.

The pattern is available for purchase on Raverly, and intrepid knitters have converted the pattern into hats, gloves, and bags.

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October 26

The “Wendy” Hat from “The Shining”

wendy
Heather Boggs of Madison, WI, might be better known as “Stitch Boom Bang,” from her blog of the same name. And if you read through her blog, you’ll learn she is a knitting fiend and possibly a huge fan of the movie, “The Shining.” So much so, that she has created a series of hats, based on patterns in the movie.

My favorite: the Wendy. Made of wool, it matches the shirt and jumper Shelly Duvall wore in one particular scene.

Heather said, that typically, she doesn’t believe in pompoms because they are a waste of yarn and a pain in the ass to make. And I have to admit, I thought this was a pretty good crafting quote if there ever was one: “However, Shelley Duvall deserves a pompom. According to Wikipedia, which is the goddamn gospel of the internet, Kubrick made Shelley Duvall and Jack Nicholson do 127 takes of the baseball bat scene. For that, she deserves more than a few stiff drinks, but all I can offer is a pompom.”

And if you need your very own Wendy-themed hat, it can be purchased from Heather’s Etsy shop, for $27.

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October 26

My Bouncy Neighbor Totoro for Geek Babies

Totoro bouncer by Cation Designs

I get a little thrill when I see crafty projects that repurpose/upcycle a useful something into a geekier version of a useful something. Case in point: Cation Design’s Totoro variation on an existing “Snugabunny” bouncer. I mean, really, if a manufacturer can make up something called a Snugabunny, it equally stands to reason it could be morphed into a Totoro.

For those unfamiliar, “My Neighbor Totoro” is a highly popular anime movie written and directed by the world-renowned Hayao Miyazaki, who also made “Spirited Away,” “Princess Mononoke,” and “Howl’s Moving Castle.”

Cation’s post walks readers through her creative process, including crafting a fleece-lined Totoro-shaped slip cover and dangling Soot Sprites.

What geeky repurpose/upcycle projects have you created? Link us up in the comments!

Category: Anime, Craft, Geek, Movies | 1 Comment on My Bouncy Neighbor Totoro for Geek Babies
October 23

Mom’s Basement – Handmade Geeky Fun

Today’s post is brought to you by Holly of Custom Comix!

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Calling all Geekery Crafters and lovers of all things handmade and geeky! My name is Holly Donahue and about 4 years ago I started Mom’s Basement, an Etsy.com team aimed towards bringing geekery crafters together to share advice, participate in projects  and just talk and learn from each other. Like minded people who come together? Awesome.

Mom’s Basement was extremely active with over 1300 members and the community was filled with helpful people reaching out, making new friends and participating to keep the geekery on Etsy a community and not a competition. A geek crafters utopia! Unfortunately, with changes in Etsy’s interface, Etsy teams weren’t as accessible and almost forgotten. So, in an attempt to bring back the spirit of this community, I decided to create a facebook group for any and all geekery crafters that would like to join in and be among people that share your interests and struggles. Have an Etsy/Store Envy shop? Interested in selling your wares but don’t know where to start? Love to shop handmade? All are welcome!

This facebook group is brand spanking new, but I know we can catch fire and be booming in no time. I hope to see some new faces and look forward to making new friends! If you are interested in joining, you can find us by following this link – https://www.facebook.com/groups/825432380835397/

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October 19

KISS Garden Gnomes

KISS Gnome

Time for me to post one of my own crafts tonight: some garden gnomes I refinished into Gene Simmons and Peter Criss of KISS.

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Both of these guys were used and pretty worn when I got my geeky little hands on them. I used some Super Sculpey to smooth out some areas of Peter’s blousey sleeves, and then more to build up his boot tops, gauntlets and the front of his little shirt. For him, I used the Super Sculpey to smooth out where Gene’s vest and shirt ended, because he was going to have a pretty significant belt. All of this made him very front heavy. I wanted to use the tool handle he still had in his hand to make him a bass guitar to hold, but because of his front weight, he would have just tipped over with a bass attached to his little gnome body. After that, I primed them both very thoroughly. They were each painted with Testor’s model car paints, and have sequin and bead embellishments.

Category: Craft, Geek, Music | 2 Comments on KISS Garden Gnomes