Fade to Future

Winter Window Spinach

Zach — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:29:27 +0000

I wanted to see how some vegetables would fare in my office window. First of all, the Kale didn’t make it. They need too much light. The spinach took around three months to harvest using only sunlight that a Michigan winter sun provides and watering every few days. I wouldn’t exactly say the plants are thriving under my care. Adding drip irrigation for consistent watering and some additional grow lights would have helped my leafy friends. The search continues for a regular source of home grown Kale chips.

Growing spinach indoors.

Yo Gabba Puppets

Kim — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 23:48:09 +0000

Our daughter is crazy for Yo Gabba Gabba and she wanted to make a DJ Lance Rock sock puppet. I threw in some “Gabba Friends” finger puppets. Being crazy for packing thing in containers, she absolutely needed the radio box. So, a little felt and a little hot glue….

It’s ad hoc, but it covers.

Kim — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:59:58 +0000

The kids’ old tent bit the dust. It’s fair, it was a hand me down that survived 4 kids (and 2 of them are seriously wild). So, at 10pm I got it in my head we had to have a new one. There was a gaping hole in our living room and no home for all the stuffed animals. So, this one went together extremely quickly. I had some poles from banners I’d made for a Brecht play years ago (yes, a very minimal set). The poles were the perfect size to put together into 2 squares that pivot at their meeting point at the top. The fabric has a hem stitched in either end that the bottom poles run through.
In the morning our daughter helped me to staple a window piece at the top (it helped keep the tent stable and not slide flat open) and we stitched the kids initials in. It’s all very ad hoc but is working and was free.

2013 T-Shirt Batch 01 – Leaf and Knit

Zach — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:14:24 +0000

Progress has been a little slow in the studio. We’ll be updating Zach’s tee shirt arsenal and free downloadable vectors throughout the year. More to come.

Make Your Own
Download LEAF and KNIT pattern.

Tee Shirt KNIT and LEAF pattern

free KNIT and LEAF pattern

Make Your Own
Download LEAF and KNIT pattern.

Published in Design Solare

Zach — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:11:06 +0000

Some of our BEAM robotic creations were featured in an Italian book about solar design and applications. Our copy arrived in the mail today. These little robots have been published in books and magazines from five different countries now. Unfortunately, our whole collection was lost in the mail. If anybody sees one in the wild let us know.

Styrofoam Printing Plates

Kim — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 03:26:38 +0000

Our 3 yr old daughter has just learned to write her name and doesn’t yet have the patience to write it the 20 times needed for her school valentines. So, we made a styrofoam plate of her name so she could print it repeatedly on paper hearts and it didn’t take her long to get the hang of rolling ink and pressing the print all by herself.

We used a styrofoam box from a take-out lunch, cardstock cut into hearts, washable finger paint, a brayer, something to roll ink on (a plate, a bigger piece of the styrofoam box, or even some scrap paper would work), scissors, and a soft pencil.

First she wrote her name with the soft pencil onto a piece of paper cut to the same size as a flat piece of the styrofoam. She rubbed that face down on the styrofoam to transfer the name so that it was mirrored and then used a sharp point (e.g. a pencil) to press the letters into the styrofoam making an indentation. She rolled paint onto the styrofoam plate and then rubbed it face down onto the card stock hearts.In the end, these were strung onto the recycled/melted crayon necklaces we made.

We’re saving all of our styrofoam from restaurants as it’s a really great project that even our son at 20 mos can do. He uses a chopstick to draw directly into the styrofoam and we roll washable paint together.

Hand Print Workshop

Kim — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 02:37:27 +0000

I just put together a few demos for an upcoming Hand Print workshop I may be teaching. These were simple, quick motifs to show potato printing, rubber block, and hand drawn screen print.

A Very Laser Thanksgiving

Kim — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:31:32 +0000

The holidays bring out the crafty in us and this year we hosted Thanksgiving so we had to get extra fancy. We wanted one big table so we used 2 pieces of plywood braced with 2×4′s. We covered that with a layer of quilt bat followed by $1.99 white muslin. To cover the seam down the middle we laser cut a leaf pattern runner. On the ceiling we hung the starry lights from Restoration Hardware (one 100′ strand!) and our 3 yr old daughter and I laser cut snowflakes and sewed them in to garlands.

We sustained our first laser cutter fire when I tried to over do how many layers of fabric I cut through. We both stood there staring at the fire holding a glass of water feeling hesitant to dump water or fire extinguisher on our machine. I think we’ll have to fashion some sort of smother cloth. Finally, Zach just grabbed the burning fabric and ran outside.

Download the free vector of the leaf pattern. It’s only 6″ wide so you can use the eps file in both a laser cutter or vinyl/paper cutter. I folded the fabric in 2 layers so that it mirrored and was double wide on the left side.

leafRunner

Mr. Bunny Pattern

Kim — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 18:08:29 +0000

We’ve decided to close our Etsy shop. Years before Etsy & Threadless, we had an online store selling printed shirts, posters accessories and learned that we didn’t really like doing mass (or mini) production. However, with the advent of Etsy we thought we’d give it another go and the fact is that we still don’t like doing production so we’ve closed shop and are offering this pattern for free now.

Download it here: MrBunnyByFTF

This is one of the stuffed animals I made for our daughter as a “gift” from her new baby brother. I used a wool felt so as to avoid edge complexities in the face appliques. The back is a vintage fabric I inherited from my grandma.

Tiny Duct Tape Double

Kim — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 16:06:49 +0000

I’ve never been too pleased with the result of the duct tape douple, diy dress form method for myself. However, for our daughter it worked out great. Kids have so few curves and so much less fitting in clothes that this was perfect for making a little dress form. It’s crazy how little our little person is when seeing the form on a stand. She loved the process which started with wearing one of my old tank tops and a quick duct tape wrap. After marking lines for center back and front and horizontal marks for chest, waist, and hip we carefully cut up the center through both shirt and tape. I have a vintage form stand from one of my grandmothers that we stood this on and stuffed. It should work great and I’m reveling in this phase where she loves everything I make. I’m sure the teen years are going to be much different.