[Caveat lector: I am not a scientist. The interwebs taught me everything I know. Or think I know.]
Culinary airs & foams, those frothy darlings of the molecular gastronomic world. Like a sauce, but much lighter, more controllable, and not prone to making things soggy on the plate. And remarkably simple to make: take a suitably dosed liquid, whip it until bubbles form, then sit back amazed as those bubbles *don’t pop*.
All this magic happens by dosing your liquid with an emulsifier. And even though we aren’t technically making an emulsion, the science at work is nearly the same. Read the rest of this entry »
A lifelong dream has been to have the ability to design a robot using a CAD program and then easily produce a prototype or finished product from that design right on my desktop. After a few months of tweaking my Reprap Mendel 3D printer, that dream has finally come true. I’ve always been interested in designing, modifying and refining robotic grippers. Last week I used Solidworks to create and test a new design that would lower the complexity and number of parts. The great thing about Solidworks is the motion study capability. It lets you simulate the movement or your assembly before creating a physical object. This tool saves a lot of time when figuring out if the assembly is functioning as desired. When the simulated design was working properly, I exported the parts as sterolithography files (.STL). Another program named Skeinforge was used to create g-code that the control software uses to direct the 3D printers movements. The grippers were printed using a strong biodegradable plastic called PLA. I really like the white plastic because it reminds me of the Star Wars storm trooper body armor suits.
It”s ten to 9PM as I write this, and when the clock strikes 9 the theme for Ludum Dare 23 will be released. Darcy, Alex and I will all be writing games that meet that theme in the next 48 hours. If you’re interested in watching us, we’ll be on the live stream. Can’t promise too much excitement, though.
Thanks again to KwartzLab for hosting, and to CCJ Clearline and TribeHR for buying us food throughout the weekend.
I’ve been a friend of kwartzlab for almost two years now, commuting from Hamilton to visit on various Tuesday Open Nights and for other lab related events including SoOnCon and Hacky Halloween where I had a lot of fun de-gooping pumpkin seeds. I was the artist of the month in January 2011 where I showed my embroidered Brick Wall and other embroidery works. The most delicious part of the show was my 2′x2′ Cake Wall which was baked in custom aluminum pans that I fabricated in the lab! You can check out a time lapse video of me assembling the cake here.
When Gus Gissing brought up the idea for an Artist in Residence program I was totally gung-ho! What a super oppourtunity to use the lab, and set aside some time for just making work. I find myself easily distracted because I get so excited about a lot of different projects…I guess you could say I have Makers A.D.D, but who around here doesn’t? Being able to move away from home for two months has been great, but has taken me a couple of weeks to settle in here in KW. I tend to be one of those artists who thrive on last minute pressure and the looming deadline, so I am trying to make the most of my time left here.
Here’s a sneak peek at some things I’ve been doing at the lab.
I’ll be here until the end of May, and will be hosting an artist’s talk as well as a public workshop, so stay tuned for more information on that! You can check out more of my creations on my website, agnesmakes.com and follow me @agawaffle on Twitter for timely updates!
Working on a 1/12 scale Police Box for my kids since they started playing Doctor Who (no really, honest.)
Based on pictures of the 50′s era Police Box, but lots of liberties taken to make it easy to laser cut. First version was 1/8 scale to make it easier to figure out the cuts.
Laser cut from 3mm hardboard and assembled with a bit of glue, but mostly it press-fits together.
Earlier this year at Guelph Game Jam 2, I decided to go analog and build a card game with real, physical cards. After the 8 hour jam, I ended up with a quick little game called Monster Mages, heavily inspired by aspects of Dominion and Magic: The Gathering.
Basically, we’ll be trying out the first Ubuntu 12.04 beta (to be released this week!), triaging bugs, fixing things, working on artwork and promotional materials and anything else that we feel can help Ubuntu be better than ever. If you don’t have a computer you can bring, we have some at the lab you can test with.
We’ll also have drinks for sale, order out for food and maybe break out a game of Hedgewars or Teeworlds. Because games need testing too!
My project for the winter was to build a spinning wheel. Something utilitarian, like the Lendrum I learned on, but without the sticker shock. My mechanical requirements were pretty straightforward: a flyer-lead single drive wheel, preferably in an upright, or castle, orientation. Two treadles. This isn’t a difficult project, and if I were as interested in woodworking as I am in spinning, it would be finished by now. Read the rest of this entry »
Join Kwartzlab on Saturday, January 28 between 12:00 PM and 12:00 AM for our third annual Winter-een-mas Celebration!
Winter-een-mas is a holiday for gamers, spanning from January 25th through the 31st, and celebrated by spending time playing games with friends and family. We hope you’ll join us for this free event – featuring twelve hours of gaming goodness – playing classics from Settlers of Catan to Halo.
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