Tag: Pumping Station: One

  • A to Z Challenge, Day 24: X Is For X-Ray

    A to Z Challenge, Day 24: X Is For X-Ray

    The development of X-Ray technology meant that we could look inside things.  This revolutionized all sorts of things, from medicine to astronomy.

    But I\’m not going to talk about X-Rays in specific; I\’m going to talk about the Scanning Electron Microscope!

    While the SEM doesn\’t use X-Rays to see stuff, it actually uses electrons to bombard an object and then take a picture, it\’s a tool that allows us to see the surface of really small stuff – which is almost as cool as seeing inside stuff!

    Pumping Station: One has the only working SEM in the country, that we\’re aware of, that members of the public can see and that members of Pumping Station: One can be trained to use – and just for the price of a membership, which is only $40 or $70 a month depending on the level of membership you select.

    Curious?  Check out more at our website, here.

    What tool would you love to play with, that\’s usually at big fancy institutions or in another part of the world from you right now?

  • A to Z Challenge, Day 19: S Is For Station

    Pumping Station: One is a hackerspace located here in Chicago.  Part of a growing movement of makerspaces and tech labs, the defining characteristic of a hackerspace isn\’t the stuff in it, it\’s the community and culture that create it.  Simply put, it\’s a collaborative community-run workshop where the membership gets to decide the tools, resources, and whatever else is available.  PS1 is 250+ individuals committed to the open pursuit of knowledge, as well as the sharing of ideas and resources.

    What community are you part of, and why?  
    I\’d love to know!
  • How Many Hackers Does It Take To Write a Novel?

    How Many Hackers Does It Take To Write a Novel?

    The first NaNoWriMo Write-In at Pumping Station: One was a success and, in good PS1 style, \”It ain\’t over til you\’ve blogged about it!\”  Check it out, here!

  • A Journey Into 3D Notebook – What I\’m Working On

    A Journey Into 3D Notebook – What I\’m Working On

    November is coming, and with it, NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month.  During the month of November, NaNo-ers write 50,000 words on a draft of a novel – some more, some less, and the madness that ensues is infectious.

    I wish we had a NaKnitMo, National Knitting Month.  Wouldn\’t that be awesome?

    I was lamenting recently to Rachel Wilder, my partner in writing crime, that my stash is reaching epic proportions.  I typed up what\’s under the bed in bins and showed her pictures of my shelves in my office, which overflowed from the huge apparatus over there to the top of the filing cabinet over here.

    Unperturbed, she said, \”Just think of it as hours of pre-paid entertainment.\”

    Blink.

    LOFF!

    In celebration of that, I figured I\’d share a few of the things I\’m working on or have recently finished.

    This is an Ojo de Dios, or \”Eye of God.\”  Made by the Huichol peoples of South America, they are prayers of blessing and good fortune.  Ojos are made and placed in the central village temple for blessings on a child, a new business venture, a marriage, and many other occasions.

    This one was fun to make since I usually make much smaller ones.  This one is about 12 inches on 1/2 inch dowel rods.  I sanded the dowels and then stained them using a combination of varnish and stain.  I skipped the recommended steel wool sanding in between the two coats and I think, in hindsight, I wish I had done it; on the next project I will use that as part of the preparation.  Overall, though, I like how the dowels came out.

    I used a large, bulky yarn with an overdye pattern, which is what accounts for the color variations.  I also varied the weave in making the ojo itself, which is what accounts for the visibility of the dowel in the middle of the design in parts.

    At the October Nightweavers meeting, a chapter of the Weavers Guild of the North Shore, we made snowflakes for the upcoming Fine Art of Fiber taking place at the Chicago Botanic Gardens November 8-10, 2013.  The designs are surprisingly easy to put together and look quite pretty in white paper.  I am across some colored origami paper that\’s white on the back, so I decided to try the design using six sheets of that, instead.

    The white added a depth to the snowflake that I didn\’t anticipate and like very much.  I think it would look pretty, and very different, when done on paper that has designs on both sides, especially if the designs aren\’t identical.

    I nipped its ear when I was punching a hole to hang it with; you can see it on the tip of the red ear here.

    If you\’re curious, the location where it hangs is the Pumping Station: One, a hackerspace here in Chicago.  This is the art room and the view in the background is to one of the consoles for one of our 3-D printers.