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.

  Photo courtesy of Fumi

This is from last year's Ada Lovelace Day but I thought I'd pop it back to the front page especially since Limor is doing such an incredible job over at http://www.adafruit.com/blog/ making one post per hour!

When I was growing up there were all sorts of electronics kits available for those of us who were interested in learning more about the subject.  My favorite birthday gift was the Radio Shack 150in1 Electronic Projects Kit I got when I was eight. 

As I got older I would drool over each copy of the latest Heathkit Catalog - I really, really wanted to build that 25" Color Television!

Unfortunately, many of the companies that made these wonderful products have long fallen victim to the pressures of globalization, the declining interest of hobbyists, and the fact that many of the classic projects have lost relevance to today's enthusiasts.

Enter the Open Source entrepreneur Limor Fried. Limor's company, Adafruit Industries offers a line electronics kits that are fun to build but even more importantly, relevant to today's technology - you'll not find any SCR 3-channel Color Organs here! She has made Adafruit a success by offering learning experiences and fun, not just a box of parts and a mimeographed sheet of instructions.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Limor about her company, click through for that and some pictures of one of Adafruit's kits that I've just completed.

Tomorrow is the Yankee Steam-Up!  From the New England Wireless and Steam Museum website:

The Original Yankee Steam-Up 
For model makers, Machinists, Engineers & Historians
Saturday October 3, 2009 8:30AM-4:00PM
1300 Frenchtown Road, East Greenwich, RI 02818 
Licensed Boilers & Licensed Engineers. 
New Englands Largest Steam-Up Boiler. 
Giant Working Steam Engines & Hot Air & IC. 
Admission, $15.00         Children under 12 $5.00 
All Steam-Up Proceeds go to Upkeep of the Museum 
Free Parking         Food on Grounds 
Phone: (401) 885-0545,
 E-Mail: newsm@newsm.org
Web Site: http://www.newsm.org

Click through for pictures from my visit in 2007 . . .

Last year I had the privilege of taping a segment for WIRED Science with Chris Hardwick.  As far as I know the piece never aired ("not sciencey enough" I heard through the grapevine!  ;-) ) but it's finally turned up on the WIRED Science website.

There is a larger version of the video on the WIRED Science website here.

You'll recall I posted a picture of my recumbent bike last week and that one of things I wondered aloud was how one would go about steampunkifying a bike?  Well Eric and Alan - a.k.a. Steuben's Wheelmen - sent me a whole passel of new photos that show exactly how one would go about this process!

Don't miss the video!

. . .

I'm very happy to have the opportunity to introduce you to Meredith Scheff who will be doing a series of articles for The Steampunk Workshop where she will "go exploring in the jungles of maker workshops; and share the images with you, the hopefully regular reader."

Meredith describes herself as "a cartoonist, maker, geek, and general silly person. She avoids everyone's advice and continues to live happily in San Francisco, no matter how tired of Top Ramen she may get. She is in her thesis semester for illustration/sculpture at California College of the Arts. Her website, until she builds a better one, is satiredun.deviantart.com."

In addition to her series Meredith has agreed to develop a regular cartoon feature for the Steampunk Workshop and I've asked her to do a bit of lampooning of all of us Steampunks - if you are as curious as I am as to what the result will be get thee to the front page and sign-up for the mailing list or grab the feed! - Jake von Slatt