Poking Things With Sticks

Update and Instructables

Tangerinepiggy — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:57:09 +0000

Hi everyone,
It has been a long time since I last posted of my adventures and so much has happened. I am back in Oakland, Ca and I could not be happier. I have had more work than I could shake a stick at and have finnally had some time off this month to relax and work on projects. Living so close to the S.F. Tech Shop has lead to more projects getting from my head to existing in the real world.

I recently made a messenger bag. Check out the instructable
I also made a old t-shirt into Cthulhu. Check out the instructable

Well I hope to do a better job of keeping this blog up to date.

Techno Gypsies and Hackerspace Art

Tangerinepiggy — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 04:28:27 +0000

Well The last week has been quite the whirl wind adventure. It all started with a lock picking class I decided to take at the ATX Hacker Space which was taught by the lovely and incredible duo that makes up the Tesseract Travellers.
During the course of the evening I discovered that they had no place to stay in while in Austin. They seemed like interesting, good people and my special lady was out of town so I invited them to stay with me. This was a great decision. I have been so inspired by having them around and hearing them make plans to live traveling from place to place sharing knowledge and making art. Sounds like a good life to live.

The making art is what I most got wrapped up in. I helped with my second hacker space mural this last week. You can read the illuminated details over on the Tesseract Travellers blog were my new found friends write of their travels from the perspective of time travelers from the future. If you just want to watch the time lapse video of it going down you can watch it below.

Vinyl Resist Silk Screening

Tangerinepiggy — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 04:06:34 +0000

So I really liked the dabbling I did in silk screening a few years back but I always was annoyed with the photo emulsion aspect of it. It took to long and I could never get my screens completely clean to reuse them. Last time I was at the Tech Shop in Menlo Park, CA I notice they were teaching a silk screening class where they used the vinyl cutter to make a resist sticker instead of photo emulsion. I looked into it on the internet and found that for doing low quantity runs vinyl resists seemed to work fine. With that in mind I dug out my old silk screening stuff and set the vinyl cutter to stun and decided to give it a shot. What follows is a detailed explanation of my experience and results.

It worked pretty well. I was not able to get a single “perfect” print but I could see how I could. My biggest problem was that my clear transfer tape had too much tack and so I was having trouble getting it off why living the vinyl sticker in place. This lead to a few stretched spots on the sticker that caused bleed through. The other issue stemmed mainly from cutting. I had the blade speed set too high and that caused the blade to pick up and wrinkle the bottom of the “R” in the yar. This lead to the problem seen on the red T-shirt where while squeegeeing the bottom peeled back and let ink through. Those are the only problems I can attribute the the vinyl process the rest are all due to me applying uneven pressure or not enough ink.

I think with the right tack tape and a bit of practice I could see this working quite well for relatively simple designs. This is not going to replace photo emulsion for doing images with shading and really fine detail but for everything else this is the way to go. Fell free to browse the pictures of the process and result below.
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A short video interview

Tangerinepiggy — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:12:43 +0000

Hey everybody my special lady had to shoot an interview for a class assignment. So if you want to see me in pajamas, hear a little bit about my creative process, and see the vinyl cutter in action. Take a gander at the video embedded after the break. If I learned one thing watching this it is that I need a haircut.

Arnold Palmer Sorbet: Tasty cool dessert

Tangerinepiggy — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 03:41:36 +0000

I just got done inventing and documenting a new dessert. It all started when I stumbled upon a recipe for green tea sorbet. I would have never thought you could make a tea sorbet but now I knew you could and there was no going back. Almost instantly the idea formed itself in my brain. I already knew how to make lemon sorbet and armed with this new knowledge that there could be tea sorbet I set out to make something that had been missing from my life. I just had not known it till now. I set out to make Arnold Palmer Sorbet!

I knew I would only have one shot at this today. As my ice cream maker can only make one batch of ice cream every 24 hours. So I woke up and began making a batch of lemon sorbet liquid and black tea sorbet liquid. It was here that I ran into a moral dilemma. Should I stay true to the Arnold Palmer’s flavor or it’s presentation. The two were mutually exclusive as the end result being frozen it would not mix easily once in the hands of the person eating it. Ultimately I chose to be true to the mixed taste and combine my liquids. After it was made and I had managed to let the sorbet firm up in the freeze for 8 hours, a herculean effort I assure you, it was time to taste what I had made. I must say I have found a new favorite dessert.

I decided I must share this with the world. So if you are interested in making your own check out the instructable that I made. If you just want to see some pictures check out the gallery below.

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78704 Market; Selling in the real world

Tangerinepiggy — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 20:49:03 +0000

Well I have finally recovered enough from sitting in the hot hot sun to let y’all know how it went. I had a 5′X5′ booth space at the 78704 Market for yesterday. I set up right along the sidewalk in front of a food trailer that sold vegan tamales. I will have to go back and try them some time. The day was pretty slow but it was also too hot for anyone in their right mind to be hanging out outside. I still made back my booth fee however. What will follow is a list of thoughts about the market and some pictures. If you are interested click on.

Lessons Learned: I can sit outside in the 100°+ heat with very little negative repercussions, I need an umbrella/to get that tent I took out of the dumpster fixed, it is possible to tan while slathered in SPF 50 sunscreen even if you reapply it every 3 hours, my work brings smiles to almost everybody even if they don’t stop to buy anything, it can get so hot in the direct sun that the adhesive on masking tape will melt and adhere equally to everything.

Dumbest Statement Made By a Passer By:“Damn I thought you were selling pills I got all excited” She was serious.

Awesome Moments:A dad bought a set of flat pack robots and said, “my kid will never figure this out.” 30 minutes later he came by with his two kids and showed them my built robots and said this is what you will be building and the kids eyes lit up and they got all excited.
Any time a kid looked at my work and their eyes lit up. It happened a lot.
At the end of the night just as I was about to pack up a couple walking past gave me a cupcake from Hey Cupcake for no reason I offered a sticker in trade and it turned into my biggest sale of the night.
The sun setting.(you have no idea how happy that made me.)

Most popular Item:Flat Pack Anti-Boredom Robots

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Purple outsides green insides

Tangerinepiggy — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:46:39 +0000

Well it turns out I missed a bean in all my snacking yesterday. So here is a picture showing the green insides. It was still warm from the sun when I ate it. Mmmmm purple green beans. I hope you enjoy the picture as much I enjoyed eating it.

Storm and tasty garden Surprises.

Tangerinepiggy — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 17:19:42 +0000

We had a big rain storm come through the past two days here. The tomato plant bent it’s wire tower and is now leaning over along with the corn. I will need to get some steaks to give these guys some needed extra support. The Tomatoes are proving so far to be the most prolific producers. There are at least eight tomatoes growing bigger everyday. While I was looking at the corn and tomato plants I noticed my purple green beans had five beans that were ready to harvest. The weird thing about the purple green beans is they are green inside. I had eaten them all by the time I realized this would make a good picture sorry. My edamame plants have pods I am not sure how to tell when they are ripe I think the leaves are supposed to turn a bit yellow. Any tips on telling when edamame is ready please send them my way. Other than that the potato towers seem to be doing well. They are tall enough for another tire so I will have to swing by the tire store this weekend before I head off on vacation. Well I have rambled long enough here are some pictures.
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Mr. Tramps Homeless Art Show

Tangerinepiggy — Tue, 11 May 2010 13:46:48 +0000

Well this past weekend I went to my first craft show as a vendor. In preparation for this I built a few neat display stands. I will be posting more about how I made these stands later. For now I will focus on the craft show. It was the first craft show at Mr.Tramps and I am pretty sure it was not publicized well as only 3 people showed up to buy things. That was a little disappointing on the other hand I sold two post cards and a button which puts me at a 100% conversion rate. Woot! Mostly I went to Mr.Tramps expecting very low foot traffic and as a way to get a table set up with out much pressure. In that sense it was a very successful event. Here are some pictures of my table set up.
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Victory Garden Update

Tangerinepiggy — Wed, 05 May 2010 03:05:29 +0000

Well the weather is getting warmer and I thought it was time I post another update of my garden. There is good news and bad news with this update. I thought I would start with the bad news. The first sad note is that my parsley seedlings who looked so promising in their self watering bucket were all lost as some creature’s midnight snack. Eaten just as they were beginning to grow their first real leaves. My Swiss chard just never even tried. So it is with sadness in my heart that I morn the veggies I will not get to eat. On the bright side I have planted some watermelon seeds where my other plants once were and the rest of the garden seems to be thriving. Read on for more info and pictures.

There are some new additions to the garden since my last post. New to the garden are two different types of roasting potatoes. I will be hilling them soon and in another month expect to place the second story on their tire homes. Also the soy and purple beans have sprouted and are doing quite well. Well enough that they are quickly outpacing the corn they were meant to grow on. So I will be investing in some trellising for them. The Tomato plant is doing well and looks like it will produce at least three tomatoes. It’s neighbor the pepper plant has become home to a cleaver spider who has been having quite the feast lately. With out further ado here are some pictures.[nggallery id=10]