Recap: Animazement 2012

             Thanks everyone who came out to Animazement this weekend we raised over $600 for the Red Cross which was twice last year and had a really awesome time. For anyone that missed out, we plan to hold more classes next year. :-) I loved all the cool designs people made with different silk painting techniques. I am in the process of posting pictures to facebook now.

             Nash and I had a booth in the dealer's room which was AWESOME! Thanks so much everyone who came out and saw us. It was a first and you all made it special. We loved seeing you. Can't wait for next year. While Nash manned the booth, I got to do something rare for me which was kick back and relax going to different panels and guest speakers. It's so nice to see the enthusiasm for sewing at these events and the general fearlessness people approach the craft. A small time to stop and dork out.
             My two favorite speakers were of course different master category designers: Jennifer Barclay and Catherine Jones. Both people create costume and custom designs, but from very different perspectives. One thing I like about large events is how you get to see people from different walks of life. As a designer, there's an almost infinite possibility for creation and it's fun to see what other people create for themselves. Because people are interesting and unique. After teaching a lot of art and sewing classes, I've really come to believe that everyone has their own flavor or perspective worth hearing to bring to the table. Ironically, both these ladies are out of Atlanta, GA.
              First, Jennifer Barclay who runs the website Idle Ambition. She is a master class cosplayer who besides being quite beautiful, also enjoys the esoteric and rare. The more difficult the costume, the weirder the materials used, the better. This is probably fair as Jennifer works for a modern sleek ad agency called Moxie Pulse. Both of them like unconventional answers. You can tool around the company site if you like. My favorite is the blog which crunches great every day information and spits it out. Very cutting edge, very interesting, very trend following. Her Saturday panel I attended was called "Costumes from Start to Finish" where she reviewed a beautiful Tali costume she had done from Mass Effects. It was pretty educational in terms of looking at flawlessly matching the appearance on paper to a final product. I tend to worry about the guts first and the outside last so it's good to meet designers who remind us to work in the opposite direction. Cosplay is also disposable fashion so there's not the expectations that it will last 20-60 years of my typical customer. I look forward to seeing what else she creates and maybe attending more of her panels in the future. She had this really great piping down the front of her costume that I was tempted to go up and touch to see how she did it as it looked so clean, but I refrained myself admirably. I love touching fabric and clothing to see how it's constructed and always have to do a quick reminder not to offend the person wearing their fabulous creation. Overall, very clean designs, very interesting product, wonderful talk.
            My other favorite speaker was Catherine Jones who runs a small custom cosplay shop called God Save The Queen Fashion in Atlanta, Georgia. She's a fearless patternmaker who I loved seeing her process and talked both about patternmaking in general and specifically leather making. Favorite speaker overall because we all know I'm a sucker for patternmakers. The piece work on her jacket construction was FLAWLESS in LEATHER. Talk about glutton for punishment. A lot of the basic building blocks of pattern drafting are the same, each designer adds their own flavor to the mix. She did some great math on the fly in both panels I attended which was very respectable. There was incredible substance to Catherine's designs and pattern construction. I've seen masters with 20 years experience in the industry who have sloppier lines and less attention to detail than she did. Very detail oriented. In the good way. I think she's late 20s, early 30s so I look forward to seeing her evolve and grow into her style now. I'll reserve the whole "master" title for when she's 20 years in, not because I think most people wouldn't give it to her, but because I look forward to seeing how high she'll fly. The great thing about designers is they get better with age. She's made so many costumes, I had a hard time figuring out how to show off her talents so I'm linking you to her flickr. The best part about all her stuff is how much better it looks in person and she takes unusual body types. Both irregular and plus-sized. In an industry that ignores 3/4 of it's population for being irregular, her perspective was a breath of fresh air. I look forward to seeing what else she creates. What lovely, lovely pieces of art and women.
              Thank you ladies! And to everyone who came out and supported us! Thank you too! Have a great Memorial Weekend!

Textile Friday: 3D Printer Class in March

        Today I am pleased to bring you a guest blogger, Rye Gewalt, who some of you may remember from the summer Hello Etsy Event. This past Saturday Rye and Luis hunkered down over a bunch of parts and built a fun 3D printer in a few hours from scratch that you can currently see by the front desk and will be available for members to try out during our weekly meetings this month. Like many fellow artists in the area, I have been interested in rapid prototyping for a while, but lacked the knowledge or engineer bent to work one of these wonders. Now...I am fixing that oversight in March. :-) Like a happy little kid in a candy store. I hope you get the chance to take advantage of this opportunity too.

   As some of you know, our March meetings are rather ambitious and these two guys wanted to go through and test the series to make sure everything worked. I am pleased to say the model was a smashing success and is sitting by the front door at Techshop RDU if you would like to check it out.

So who is Luis Freeman and why in the world is he teaching this event?

"Luis Freeman’s day job is at IBM where he is involved in engineering and supply management chains.   He has been building and designing 3D printers as a hobby since 2007 when hobby 3D printers were more a matter of conjecture than hands on reality. He has has built several dozen machines of increasing complexity and currently has six operational machines that will be used to make parts for the class machines..  His printers utilize proven techniques from the Mendel and Openscad technology. The photo below shows Luis with his Mendel Prusa based machine which is considered an ideal machine for beginners due to it desktop size and large 8” x 8” x 8” product capacity. It is easy for even less nimble fingers to work with putting parts together without being so clunky that smaller frames have difficulty putting it together.   

This class provides an opportunity to build your own fully functional turnkey 3D printer in a group environment with a the help of knowledgeable hands-on instructor and the collective experience of classmates with similar interests.  Reinventing the wheel is seldom fun, but figuring things out with friends can be quite rewarding.

Each student in the class will build their own fully functional machine, starting with assembling the Arduino based electronics and finishing with the final checkout and test of their full system.  The build process takes place during five classes spaced over a four week period starting on March 6^th  as detailed below.  

Week One (March 6th from 5-10 pm): You start with your basic kit and go over the basics. There are generally 50-200 separate parts that need to be soldered to your ardunio card as shown here such as stepper motors, capacitors, and hook-up connectors. This generally takes 2-3 hrs. depending on your prior experience soldering and doing electronics. No prior experience is necessary, but it is helpful if you have taken beginning soldering with Dr. Britton at Techshop RDU or have prior soldering experience.

Week Two (March 13th from 5-10 pm): You go to work on assembling the outside frame of the machine from wood. This part can be easy replicated with a 3D printer. Next you start filling in the gears and assembly that will house the extruder head and flat base you print on. You will use a combination of 3D printed parts and ball bearings. All the pieces have to come together cleanly and smoothly to function in real time. Extra steel wool will be provided for sanding and smoothing the parts.You will finish assembling the inside of the machine in the next class so focus on smoothing parts here is important.

Week Three (March 20th from 5-10 pm) Install and check all the parts you spend last week double-checking to create 2 platforms: 1 for the print head and the other for the print platform. You must check the that x and y axis move smoothly for when the extruder is finally installed. You will also practice printing parts on some extra printers Luis has on hand so you understand quality control when you need to replicate or replace parts on the machine. 

Week Four (March 27th from 5-10 pm and March 29th from 5-10 pm extra time for programming): On Tuesday you will finally install the extruder and wire all the parts you have been working on the past few weeks together. This includes wiring the printer cards, brackets, endstop brackets, and spool holder. You should be printing off your printer at this point. Thursday is available as time overflow in case you need to catch up. Luis will be going over using Openscad to do CAD design on your 3D printer and printing test parts. This time is for you to fine-tune and better understand how to use, fix, and work with your machine. This is what your Mendal Prusa will look like without the wooden frame around it. The wooden frame serves to stabilize the design and cause your pieces to printer with finer quality details." 

by Rye Dewalt

Happy Friday Everyone. I hope this post has been helpful about the next big leap forward in design innovation. And thank you Rye for all the photos and help. Neither of us could have done it without you.

If you have not already signed up, we have 2 slots left for the class on Skillshare: http://www.skillshare.com/How-to-Make-A-3D-Printer-Class-with-Louis-Freeman/1324082886

February Acorn to Oak Etsy Team Meet-ups

          Hey Everyone, so excited about the new space. This coming month we will be splitting our time between our normal Techshop RDU and our new expanded space team studio as we get ready for our 3D printing class in March. We will also have one class at the Durham Scrap Exchange on Feb 18th. I am so excited about this, great people one and all.
           I really think that 3D replication is where the industry is headed as a whole in the next 40 yrs. and Luis Freeman is coming for 4 weeks in March to teach us to build, replicate, and program 3D printers. 3D printers allow for rapid prototyping, especially of metal. Nash and I can't wait to make our own and we hope that some of our other fellow artists can do the same. I've wanted to be able to print my own custom buttons, zippers, and hardware for my clothing. WHICH is awesome! Ok, I'm getting sidetracked in my excitement.I'm just so happy about our cool classes this spring. Note, I have decided to not hold a meeting for Valentine's Week so everyone can have fun eating chocolate and being with people they love.


Locations: 

Acorn to Oak Handmade Etsy Team Studio
5825 Triangle Drive
Raleigh, NC 27617


Techshop RDU
5900 Triangle Drive
Raleigh, NC 27617


 Feb 7th from 7-10 pm: New Studio

7-8 pm Finishing Quilting from the Linus Foundation: Come finish our quilts for the Linus Foundation blanket day on Feb 25th. I have 5 quilts that have been sewn together and simply need to be hand sewn at 4 inch intervals to complete them. You can also bring back any quilts you finished to put in loft and backs. We will be hanging out in the lobby of our new space and putting them together over coffee and dessert.

8-10 pm Making Origami Jewelry for Valentines: This week we will be making jewelry from the ancient Japanese art of paper folding. There are two really good books that cover this topic that I like which you can get off Amazon (the book cover pictures come from there). The first is more traditional paper jewelry making by Ayako Brodek and the second is the popular metal silver clay origami which is folded and then fired in a kiln by Sarah Cole. They will run you $10-15 each and are great investments for people into paper crafting. I will have lots of paper and jewelry findings available which have been donated so you can make your loved one something special for Valentines. Paper jewelry is often sprayed with a lacquer finish to give it strength in regular wear.
Cost: Free and Open to the Public 
Register on Skillshare: http://www.skillshare.com/Origami-Jewelry-Making-Class-for-Valentines/1009706890 

Feb 18th: Sock Monkey Making Class- Durham Scrap Exchange

For anyone who enjoyed out sock monkey making class in the fall, we will be having it again at the Durham Scrap Exchange this spring. You can check it out on their website here: http://www.scrapexchange.org/programs/classes.htm. Use EventBrite to register. There is a $10 cost which goes directly to support this wonderful institution.

Feb  21st from 7-10 pm: Techshop RDU Conference

7-8 pm: Clark Whittington with Artomat: I am really excited about this partnership with established graphic artist and designer out of Winston-Salem. He does vending art all around the country that allows local artists to reach people in everyday venues. Clark is a lot of fun and I hope this will help our artists gain more exposure in the marketplace. With over 700 artists, I feel we need to work on growing sales as a group. You can listen to him on youtube. I love this quirky fun concept and can't wait to part of it. Starting in April, 1 meeting a month will be for making art to feature in his machines. Hopefully this will help the group in many ways and be a great partnership for everyone.

8-10 pm: Using Bamboo As A Natural Wood to make Beer Mugs: Tonight we will be using the rotary turner on the laser to show people how to make cool, one of a kind products from naturally grown local bamboo donated by Mike Shaperio. Thank you Mike! Everyone is welcome to bring a design or lineart to put on their own bamboo pieces. We will also discuss other things you can make with bamboo such as rain sticks, planters, audio sound systems, vases, planters, etc. There is lots of bamboo that has been cut so please feel free to come and take some. All left-over bamboo will be available through the 28th for artists to come and get as much as you want. I can't wait to see what everyone makes.

Cost: Free and Open to the Public
Register on Skillshare: http://www.skillshare.com/Bamboo-Beermaking-Glasses/1954327458

Textile Friday: The Race For Convertible Footwear

              I love shoes. I mean REALLY love shoes. I've made some, probably will make more, but won't claim to be an expert. There's a lot that standard, and a lot that's open to interpretation and personal style. One of the quiet revolutions that people are fighting for in this down market since Sheila's Heels in 2005 (some would argue earlier) is convertible 2-in-1 (or more) shoes that can function as multiple looks or most popularly as both heels and flats. Ironically this trend came out of the car insurance industry to improve female driving behind the wheel. Go figure. There are a number of companies failing at this concept and 2 that I think are doing a great job out of Chicago and Germany.
              The latest failure is made by Night2Day which features 5 different heel heights for office to work. This is one of several companies that has tried to launch this idea in the last 2-3 years and while the funding levels vary, I remain skeptical of the viability of the overall project. Every woman loves the idea of being able to switch in and out of those killing high arches at will. The major problem I see at this point is referred to as the 1/2 inch rule that most actual cobblers use. This states that for every 1 inch of heel height a woman increases her foot, there is a corresponding 1/2 shrink in the foot sole print. That's why many women drop shoe sizes as the heel height increases, you need a snugger fit or the shoe will fall off. You'll also see your foot literally come out of the shoe if you do not have strap on top. I have yet to see any major shoe company peddling the flat'n'heels idea address this specific problem that a shoe sole needs to shrink with heel height to some extent to remain comfortable. Until that I will be passing up buying a pair for $150 on their website: http://www.convertible-heels.com/Day2Night.html. No offense to the lovely ladies involved.
              In case you think I'm doom in gloom here, there are several other companies that have successfully bridged the gap of offering multiple shoes for 1 price. Their success is awesome and worth talking about as they've taken unusual solutions and should be rewarded in my mind for their creativity, beauty, and inventiveness. It's also a testament to their hard work in the face of a graveyard of companies who have not been able to do what these handful have accomplished. Their prices are reasonable and often affordable for a fashionista.
              My first favorite is the local US company, Mohop. They're an amazing Chicago company that makes convertible sandals using CNC and computer modeling technology! I really can not say enough good things about this company. I love companies that are using their brains to make a difference. They use sustainable local woods to create bases that can be custom finished with bands of fabric woven into different patterns and colors across the foot. Best of all, when you get tired of one look, a few pulls or new fabric and voila...a new you is born. Check-out the youtube video for further drool factor. Yum, yum, yum....These average between $70-170 range with new colored strings and accessories being $3-10. A totally affordable, ecofriendly shoe! If I only had enough money to buy 1 pair of shoes this year...these would be it!

               The second major company is more urban hip hop than my taste (read great brand, but a little too young for me in my opinion). It's a Munich company called Nat-2 and they're currently winning a bunch of awards. Their product is fairly easy to understand in which they use zippers to allow you to attach different uppers to your shoe sole. You have probably already seen them in several popular movies such as Transformers, etc. Their current 4-in-1 shoe is my favorite.They're a little pricey, but not over the top. Check out their website. The Nat-2 is more versatile, but more prone to failure as zipper teeth fail more easily than static loops do.

                I could easily mention a couple other shoe companies that are riffing on this idea of the year, but I won't because I have yet to see any of them indicate they're actually going to be successful vs. these 2 are worth investing in. You're seeing a lot of this 1 object/ multiple ways to wear it this year and it's a lovely trend despite it's limitations. A great way to stretch your dollars further in this recovering economy. Donna Karen did an awesome little black dress of this for her Christmas 2011 Collection and it's simply amazing. We'll also discuss the 6 inch rule next Fri which is why objects like this despite their popularity during down economies often do not have staying power as the overall economy recovers. Mostly, it gets down to fit.