In case you were wondering why I was up until 3am last night, the reason is this: Felted Sonic Screwdriver, modeled after the 10th Doctor's (David Tennant's) own. It does not go beep. It was not made from a linear piece of metal; It was, in fact, made from a big ball of fuzzy-wuzzy, felty-welty, stuff.  More photos under the jump. EDIT: It's now up on for auction.

I've done quite a few different types of e-textiles over the last couple years, but never done cross stitch. Of course, I can't make a project without a geek reference or a good pun (best case:both!) and the Ohm Sweet Ohm cross stitch was born.  

I've never done cross stitch before, but I decided I could teach myself. It's surprisingly satisfying- and not totally unlike drawing up circuit boards. In this 'board', the silver/grey colored thread is OhmSpun conductive thread, the batteries are underneath the battery symbol (lower left corner), ground plane goes off to the right (through the ground symbol) and up the right side. Both the 'Ohm' symbols are conductive thread. The positive follows up the red thread to the left. I'm selling the kits in my Etsy store.

Another photo and video after the jump.

The Steampunk Bible contains an article I wrote on etching small candy tins with salt water and electricity. There was limited space in the book so we've provided this expanded compliment article to help you should you be interested in trying this project, enjoy!

Remember more than a year ago when I posted this? Well, since then I've partnered up with SparkFun (purveyers of enchanting electronics) and now they're finally available for sale! I still have my solderably conductive thread and will have special kits made up with StarBoards soon. 

Knowing the overlap between SPWS fans and Doctor Who fans is, to put it midly, healthy- I knew you'd enjoy this Tardis pattern I submitted to Spoonflower. Spoonflower is a print on demand site for fabric- upload your designs and order them with a choice of several fabrics.

If anyone winds up making a project with this, I'd love to see it! Each little Tardis Is a bit over an inch wide, and one every 8 square inches has the door slightly ajar. It's up to you to make your project bigger on the inside. Or time travel- though let me know if you figure that one out.

Link to my Spoonflower Store.

While digging through my old camera equipment I came across my Grandfather's 35mm Exa . While I have absolutely no desire to revisit the days of film, I was kind of interested in what sort of image the old German made lens would produce on my modern Canon DSLR so I went in search of a way to attach it. 

I found machined custom metal adapters, and adapters made with scavenged old Canon lens, but I was looking for something cheaper and easier to mod.

It all came together when I spotted an inexpensive plastic adapter made to mount the plastic lens from a Diana camera on a Canon DSLR.

Some projects take a long time. Sometimes I start something and then put it aside, in this case for more that two years! When Make:TV came out to the workshop to shoot a profile of me in July of 2008, one of the projects that I worked on for them was a coach lamp for my car. I built one lamp for them and just finished the other lamp today. Watch the video for the beginnings of the project and then click through to see some details of the construction and the completed lamps. 

I've named them Mjöllnir Lamps because my fellow SPWS contributor Annie (who is a Viking) says that they reminder her of Thor's hammer.

UPDATED: See the Whirlygig Emoto tonight October 22 at the Charles River Museum of Industry in Waltham Massachusetts!

Wandering through the industrial neighborhood of West Oakland, You'll find more than a few warehouse art studios, each one filled to the brim with all manner of projects; from giant robots to huge metal art - and of course steam machines.

A few days ago, I was fortunate enough to be invited into the studio of one of the artists that reside there; a fine chap by the name of Tom Sepe. After sending out a call for willing subjects (aka, interview-ees), Tom contacted me and, with but a few words, lured me into his studio. Those words were simply: "Want to come see my electric-steam hybrid motorcycle?". He calls it the Whirlygig Emoto.

Last year I wrote an article for Make Magazine volume #17 that described the construction of an electrostatic generator of electricity, a Wimshurst Influence machine, using parts and materials commonly available at your local home center and hardware store.

I was a little surprised and quite pleased when I realized that the contract from O'Reilly Media (the publishers of Make:) had me retaining copyright for the material I submitted.  What I sold to O'Reilly was basically a right to use and to publish first.

So here it is for your enjoyment! This is the first of a five part series detailing the construction of a Wimshurst Influence machine!  (UPDATE: added large dimensioned drawing.)

Hey guys, I made a TreeHat!

More pics after the cut . . .