Eggs + Sharpies And The Egg-Bot Will Do The Decorating Work For You.

Now you can impress the Easter Bunny with stylish and artfully decorated eggs created by the Egg-Bot, a robotic kit that is available for purchase.



The Eggbot is an open-source art robot that can draw on spherical or egg-shaped objects from the size of a ping pong ball to that of a small grapefruit-- roughly 1.25 to 4.25 inches in diameter (3 - 10 cm). The kit is based on the original design by Bruce Shapiro. The newest version, the "Egg-Bot 2.0," is a modern and friendly update, designed with the assistance of Bruce and his team.



The Eggbot is super adjustable, and is designed to draw on all kinds of things that are normally "impossible" to print on. Not just eggs but ping pong balls, light bulbs, mini pumpkins, and even things like wine glasses-- with a bit of work. In the photos, you can see just a few of the things that you can make with an eggbot: Incredible personalized golf balls, christmas ornaments, light bulbs, and (yes) eggs.




The Eggbot chassis is made of tough fiberglass, with integrated heat sinks for the included motors. The pen and egg motors are high-torque precision stepping motors, and the pen lift mechanism is a quiet and reliable servo motor.




The Eggbot kit is easy to assemble in a couple of hours, and only requires a couple of basic tools like miniature Phillips-head and flathead screwdrivers. You'll also need a recent-vintage computer with an available USB port (Mac, Windows or Linux), plus internet access to download assembly instructions and necessary software.



Eggbot w/ EBB Driver Board The Eggbot kit comes complete with a fully assembled and tested EiBotBoard v2.0 (EBB) USB interface/motor driver board. No soldering or programming are required.



The EBB allows your computer to directly control the stepper and servo motors. The onboard 16X microstepping driver chips along with the 200 step/revolution stepper motors give a combined resolution of 3200 steps/revolution in both axes. A universal-input plug-in power supply (9 V 1.5 A) is included with the Eggbot kit, as is a USB cable.

Basic operation is much like that of a printer driver: you import or make a drawing in Inkscape, and use the extensions to plot your drawing onto whatever object you've mounted in the Eggbot. It's all handled through an easy to use graphical user interface, and works cleanly on Mac, Windows and Linux.



The standard pen holder included with the EggBot kit is designed to fit various art pens including Sharpie Ultra Fine Point pens. However, it can actually fit almost any pen of similar size. If you want to use a pen that doesn't fit, the pen holder is made of wood and can be enlarged to suit your taste.

You can even fit a lot of things that aren't pens. One example: They'll be offering a diamond-point engraver tool as an optional add-on for the EggBot kit in the near future.


above: The Eggbot Logo on an Egg

If you have additional questions about the Eggbot kit, you may want to look at the Eggbot FAQ.

The Egg-Bot 2.0 kit was designed by Windell Oskay and Lenore Edman with extensive help from Bruce Shapiro and Brian Schmalz. The kit includes assembly and use instructions, open source hardware release documents and example plot files.

The Eggbot kit is available here.

Teepees & Cabins For Your Feline Friends From Loyal Luxe.

Simple and affordable ways to give your finicky feline a home of which she can be proud. Loyal Luxe designs and offers flat-packed, easy to assemble cat homes made of recyclable cardboard in the shape of Teepees and Cabins. And yes, they sell the faux bearskin rug, too.

Native American Teepee and Faux Bearskin Rug:


Canadian Cabin:




Modern and rustic simultaneously, the cute abodes- suitable for cats, kittens or even a chihuahua- come with additional adornments and can be easily customized.





Loyal Luxe was founded in 2008 by Maud Beauchamp and Marie-Pier Guilmain, two industrial designers and pet lovers who graduated from Université de Montréal. Born from the idea that products for domestic animals deserved to be different, they knew that people and their animals would be excited by the prospect of products that were more refined and daring, by products that were a perfect match with their tastes and the interior design of their home.



Buy them here

Star Wars Snowflakes & Templates To Make Your Own

It's beginning to look a lot like Star Wars...
I spotted these awesome Star Wars paper snowflakes over at Geekologie submitted to them by a reader of theirs named David (and subsequently featured on Gizmodo, Laughing Squid and Neatorama). However, if you haven't come across them yet, here they are, complete with template instructions, so you can try your hand at your own:








The text that accompanies the snowflakes reads:

My wife is a genius. She made these little beauties while making paper snowflakes with the kids. She saw our son Ethan making one that somewhat looked like a Storm Trooper. She then ran with the idea and made these masterpieces. The top one is Boba Fett and a Clone Trooper. The bottom is obviously Darth Vader. Notice the nice touch with the Galactic Empire logo in the middle.

David did not provide us with the name of his talented wife, but a big thanks to both of them! The link to the original post is below and rumor has it they will be adding more snowflake designs!

http://dancell.cwahi.net/star-wars-paper-snowflakes.html

Don't want to make your own? here's a bunch of Other Star Wars Christmas Decor you could consider.

Other Star Wars toys, Star Wars christmas ornaments and more

The Best Halloween Costume Ever! Banksy's Flower Thrower Comes To Life.

The Design Director of San Franscisco's Y Studios, Pittsburgh born George Schnakenberg III, gets my vote for the best Halloween costume I've seen in years. With ample design skills and impressive execution, George turned one of stencil street artist Banksy's most famous works, The Flower Thrower, into a full costume designed to emulate the 2D image.


above: George created the flat looking outfit by creating black and white shadows on his pants, hoodie, bandana and gloves.


The original artwork by Banksy:

Matching the prop:


Throughout the Halloween evening, George had photos of himself taken with various friends and in various environments (please note, I have cropped and adjusted the lighting and levels on some of these images for greater visibility):





George even made up his face to emulate the stencil art:

and managed to eat:


Nice work George!
You've set the bar really high and I can't wait to see what you do next Halloween.

all images courtesy of George Schnakenberg III

Coloring Book Couture. Dressing Between The Lines In A Dress You Color In Yourself.

Amsterdam-based graphic designer Michiel Schuurman and and textile designer Berber Soepboer collaborated on this fabulous bit of Fashion DIY.



The "Colour-In" dress is a black and white graphic print dress that is actually sold with colored textile markers, so you can color in the pattern yourself.




Fifty dresses were produced in four different sizes and if, still available, they run 238 euros (without shipping).


The completed dress below was colored in by Michiel, but you can do yours any way you'd like:



Sizes in cm:
- A: chest 81,6 cm, waist 58,4 cm, base width 164,8 cm
- B: chest 89,6 cm, waist 66,4 cm, base width 172,8 cm
- C: chest 97,6 cm, waist 74,4 cm, base width 180,8 cm
- D: chest 105,6 cm, waist 82,4 cm, base width 188,8 cm
and in inches:
- A: chest 32.1 in., waist 23 in., base width 64.9 in.
- B: chest 35.3 in., waist 26.1 in., base width 68 in.
- C: chest 38.4 in., waist 29.3 in., base width 71.2 in.
- D: chest 41.6 in., waist 32.4 in., base width 74.3 in.

Order a dress by sending an email to soepboerschuurman@gmail.com mentioning your name, address, number and size.