Blog of Artistic Adventures

This is another project that I wanted to do, it’s more long term than the sampler, but is less involved in the long run. The idea of this project is that instead of blogging something or tweeting it or making it your Facebook status from your mobile phone you would write it down on something physical and leave it in the space as a physical presence. That way the experiences you  have collect in reality and can been seen by people who are sharing the same space as you but might not be connected with you on the web.

For my project I wanted to take something that is classically hand made and turn it into something that is completely done by a machine. This  is one of the images sampler that i wanted to use because it’s computer themed and works with the medium of machine embroidery. I intend on doing one that is more like ones from history, however, that would be easier to do with the preset images on the machine.

thedailywhat:

Automatic Tattoo Machine of the Day: We’ve seen homemade self-tattooing devices before, but Chris Eckert’s Auto Ink is slicker, and significantly more dystopian:

Auto Ink is a three axis numerically controlled sculpture. Once the main switch is triggered, the operator is assigned a religion and it’s corresponding symbol is tattooed onto the person’s arm. The operator does not have control over the assigned symbol. It is assigned either randomly or through divine intervention, depending on your personal beliefs.

[make.]

Good robot? OR BEST ROBOT?!

So, on Friday there was a little class at AAA V&C for me and one of the girls from the quilting museum and overall it was  alright. most of the time I felt like the woman who was running it was condescending but thats par for the course since I get that at work all the time. (I’M YOUNG AND THEREFORE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SEWING! ONLY OLD PEOPLE KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT SEWING!) There were however some really good things that she showed me like slowing the machine down while it’s in the embroidery function so the thread breaks less, and how to back up so if  it does break then we can go back and fill in what was missed. 

TARDIS SWEATER! 

I was challenged to destroy Disney, this is the result. You can’t see them here, but there are subliminal upside down crosses in his ears.

So, this is where the experimentation with the embroidery machine has taken me. The transition between the forward and reverse functions on the machine is so smooth that it’s possible to use the lines created by the thread to be “drawn” in the same kind of movements that you would get if you were using a pencil. The next step would be ironing it to smooth it all out and then mounting it on a wooden frame and present it like it was a painting on a canvas. 

Today some of my fellow classmates and I got to play with the fancy CNC embroidery machine that our prof. is harboring in his office. Once we got it plugged in, threaded, and running it went super smoothly. It politely beeps when it needs to have the thread color changed and CUTS THE THREAD ITSELF! It trims it’s own threads! Everything that this machine is capable of doing, and I’m thrilled that it cuts it’s own thread. 

The only color thread that came with it was a white bobbin thread and a bright orange embroidery thread so we were limited to what we could do so we picked a Pooh bear and Eeyore monogram “E” and embroidered it on my sweatshirt hood. Pics of finished product to come. 

Also since our prof. has given me access to Brother, expect rude handkerchiefs in the near future. 

Battlestar Galactica! 

This was a gift for one of my nerd friends birthdays. Awesome?

Plarn! My most recent project has been plarn which is pretty great.  

Advantages:

~ Can be used with wet stuff because it’s plastic so it’s good for making shopping bags or coasters and the like.

~ Recycling to the max! use up all the used plastic bags that are sitting around the house.

Disadvantages:

~ Takes a long time to do due to amount of stitches per loop and the amount of work that it takes to get loops.

~ Some kinds of bags (Target bags) don’t slide on an aluminum hook so they feel gummy and don’t work really well.