Week Notes - Comet Workshop
Apr 3, 2023
It’s been a while since I wrote any weeknotes, and although I’m just going to talk about one project - the comet workshop I did for Ryan and Andy at Wirral-based Convenience Gallery - it does cover a bit more than a week.
Week Notes - My Bike's Got LED (Of Course)
Nov 7, 2022
If you know me, you might be aware that I’m quite keen on addressable LEDs, so, while I already had a light up backpack for cycling (a prototype for Peloton Liverpool’s Disco breastplates), I couldn’t resist buying a MCQN Ltd My Bike’s Got LED board after watching the flurry of activity here at DoES Liverpool as Adrian and Chris got the first batch ready - they were launching with Peloton Liverpool Joyride cyclists taking part in Katumba Drumming’s Halloween event.
Week Notes - You Win or You Learn
Oct 26, 2022
A quote from Nelson Mandela apparently. It’s been in my head recently as I spent several days working on an LED project I shouldn’t have agreed to do with too little time, too little experience with the tools I eventually had to use, and without ever getting to see the physical installation. It feels like I’ve learnt a lot though and I’m inspired to learn more. So here’s a few rough notes, so I don’t forget, and in case there’s anything useful to other people.
Week Notes - All The Pens
May 1, 2022
Having done some maintenance on the pen plotter last month, I’ve mainly been experimenting with different pens and papers to see what effects they produce. I am aiming to use more refillable pens, but having been asked to produce a flower picture in the style of one of my earlier pen plots, it’s been more Sharpies, fineliners and gel pens recently.
Week Notes - Solidarity in Neopixels
Mar 14, 2022
A month since my last “weeknotes”, so quite a lot to write about. Firstly Mike G replaced the original power cables we’d used for the Plastic Flowers with white ones. We covered these with netting tube known as “millinery crin” which we’d first seen when makers from DoES Liverpool were involved in this project for Batala Mersey drummers with Uma and Mandy from Brouhaha International.
Week Notes - Straighter Lines
Feb 14, 2022
I’ve spent some time this fortnight trying to install the latest version of the WLED firmware on the My Baby’s Got LED board which controls my #plasticflowers (each flower contains a ring of 8 WS2812 RGB pixels, so I’ll be able to use the new grid feature to set them up as an 8 x 45 grid and light them up individually). This has proved more challenging than I’d hoped, so I’m putting that to one side for a while (they do look ok as they are).
Fortnight Notes - More on Plastic Flowers
Jan 30, 2022
At the time of my last blog post, the Plastic Flowers had been carefully positioned in the base grid, a difficult job as they’re pretty fragile, so thanks again Sanna!:
Month Notes - Progress with the Plastic Flowers
Jan 17, 2022
I thought I’d slightly sabotaged my pen plotting project recently by getting qualms about the number of disposable pens I was getting through, but trying out various reusable alternatives instead is proving just as interesting. I’ve done more with the Rotring technical pens and Lamy fountain pens which I had already, and I’ve bought Pilot Parallel Pens.
Week Notes - Plotting with Refillable Pens
Dec 12, 2021
Recently I’ve been spending a lot of my free time working on these lights, along with other members of the DoES Liverpool and Peloton Liverpool communities; now they’re in action I’ve had a chance to get back to a bit of pen plotting (I am going to do a blog post on the lights once I get a few more photos together though, and there’s definitely more work to do in the future to take full advantage of the MCQN Ltd “My Bikes Got LED” boards that control them).
DrawingBotV3 - Plotting without Coding
May 1, 2021
This is the pen plotter at DoES Liverpool. It’s an A3 laser engraver base with a penholder and servo attached. I’ve been working on it`for a while now, and have mainly been learning about p5js and using it to produce geometry-based patterns.
Embroidery x Glue - A Weekend of Experimenting
Mar 21, 2021
A bit of experimenting, mainly last weekend, with machine embroidery and glue film.
Biomaterials - Some Notes from the STEAMhouse Biobox course
Feb 16, 2021
I recently took part in STEAMhouse’s Biobox Workshop, an excellent 4 week course combining “self-led materials research with live sessions [exploring] different areas related to materials development”, led by Sarah King of STEAMhouse and Zoe Powell of Materiom. Ross Dalziel was also on the course - we’d both already done a bit of experimenting with biomaterials and natural dyes at DoES Liverpool.
15 Minute Liverpool - Familiar Sights
Aug 26, 2020
When I wrote my first post I intended to get out and explore the area around DoES Liverpool on at least 2 lunchtimes per week. It’s been more than a month and I’ve only made 2 more trips, and only now got round to writing them up…
15 Minute Liverpool - First Look at the 15 Minute City
Jul 18, 2020
I’ve seen a lot about 15 minute cities recently:
“this simple notion that all your basic everyday needs, from education to commerce to health care to culture and so on, are located within 15 minutes walk or bike of your front door”.