Spiral Crystal Light-Up Pop Up Card

Chibitronics asked me to participate in a project they are coordinating with prompts from @5am_popup. My prompt was “reverse.” Thus, the switching mechanism for this card works by reversing the covers of the card, touching the front and reverse sides.

I took inspiration from a design by the late Professor Masahiro Chatani for the mechanical functioning of the card. The electronics and everything else were improvised as quickly as I could manage.

I made a video with a detailed walk-through of building the card.

Godar Blot Skull Pins

I didn’t post the wood inlay Mastodon logo pins I made a couple years ago but, they came out so well that I periodically think of other things that would make good pin designs. In the spirit of the season and, since I rarely get around to the “spooky season” projects I envision these days, I made some skull pins inspired by my old Godar Blot design.

There are two variants: one where white oak is dominant, with walnut for the eyes and nose and, padauk for the spiral on the forehead and, another where walnut is dominant with white oak for the eye and nose and, padauk for the spiral.

I was making these for friends and family but, I ended up making a few extras. They are up in the shop, if you want one (light or dark).

Two minute making-of video:

ESP32 Ad Blocker with Case

I made a DNS proxying ad blocker using ESP32-S2 with a custom laser-cut acrylic case. This is based on projects by “rubfi” and John Park, who are entirely responsible for the code.

The case is inspired by one from dsacademy that I modified for my networked USB flash drive. I designed this case from scratch to fit the Adafruit ESP32-S2 TFT Feather boards, which have a nice little integrated color display panel. I laser cut the pieces from 3mm and 6mm thick clear acrylic. I made some little EVA foam feet to cover the screw ends to avoid scratching up surfaces. The case assembles with four 20mm M2 screws with washers and nuts.1

Below is the design file for the case if you want it for personal use. If you want to do anything else with it (e.g., sell finished cases or incorporate it in your commercial project), please contact me for permission first.

Short assembly video:

This file is for personal, non-commercial use only.  Note that, by referencing this, you are agreeing to release any variations you create under identical terms.

Attribution-Creative Commons NonCommercial-ShareAlikeESP32-S2 TFT Feather Case (SVG)

1 Amazon Associates link benefits a local arts organization.

Reputation Tracker

Kira of Cryptid Dicecraft asked me to make a “reputation tracker” for their Victorian era fae-themed table top role playing game (TTRPG). I made a few changes and expanded on their rough design to make this.

Overall, it is 10cm square and about 3.2cm tall and, made of walnut hardwood. After a fair amount of sanding, I finished it with a few layers of wipe-on polyurethane, lightly sanded between layers.

The bottom is a box to contain the cribbage pegs used for tracking and, connects to the top with magnets.

The engrave on the face is filled using silver acrylic paint. I glued a piece of nice black card stock to the back of the top piece. I lined the lower box and put a gasket between the parts with cork.

I took some photos on my tarnished silver tea service and, made a short making-of video.

XOXO Rubber Stamp

A small notebook lying clipped open stamped with XOXO in rainbow colors. The stamp sits next to the impression. A multi-colored stamp pad and a purple pencil are visible around it.

XOXO is happening one more time in Portland (OR) right now! I couldn’t be there this year but, I made some rubber XOXO stamps and, sent them off to people who will be there. They are using them to encourage community and interaction. If you are there and have something you want stamped, look and ask around in person or in slack.

I made a short of assembling the stamps. I may do a video on rubber stamp design and file prep, if there is interest.

Update: I collected some photos of the stamps and impressions from the stamps in the wild (mainly at the festival).  Thank you so much to everyone for sharing your photos!

If you have any photos that include (intentionally or incidentally) the XOXO stamps or impressions from them that are not here already, please contact me to get them added.

Glow Engrave Deck Boxes

At the end of 2022, I made some tabbed deck boxes with glow-filled engraves. The originals were holiday gifts for the nieblings with their initials on the fronts. Those held a normal, unsleeved Magic: the Gathering deck.

Later, by request, I made a larger one that holds a sleeved “commander” deck. This one has a rune I used to use as a personal identifier on the front, as well as one of my Celtic key pattern panels on the side.

These are all made from hardwood ply (maple, cherry and, walnut). That makes the finger joints pretty pronounced.