Category: Projects

Being a maker is about adopting a growth mindset. It’s about strategically asking questions to get you from a point of not knowing how to do something to knowing how to do it.

For us, it also means a lot of play as we explore not only how to make things, but also how the things we make can create bonds between us.

Turning Physical Memories Into Digital Ones with Photogrammetry

trevor
First Spaceship

As much as I want to be able to keep every single thing the girls and I make forever, I have to accept at some point that we’re going to drown in stuff, hoarder-style, if we do actually keep everything. There are a lot of memories contained in stuff. Take, for example, this spaceship, hammered together out of old juice bottles, plastic bits, and cardboard. This thing has been shuffled around, banged up, broken and repaired a number of times over its years-long life and I’m starting to think that…

Miniature Comet Set (Work in Progress)

trevor
miniature comet surface set

The product of some pretty awesome work by my ladies (with my help) this afternoon. A great WIP model set for some indie filmmaking. #make #mo365 A video posted by Trevor (@lovemakeshare) on Nov 11, 2014 at 2:30pm PST This is an upcoming build. The girls are helping me to build a miniature set (which will loosely mimic the surface of comet 67P when it’s done) as an exemplar to use in my film class. Man, were they into it. A more detailed post and probably a podcast is definitely forthcoming…

Make: Kids’ Tron Costumes, Part 4

trevor

Read Part 1 – Read Part 2 – Read Part 3 Well, after a pretty big push in the last post, I figured that it was time to do another. After all, at this point I’ve got five days left to get these assembled and finished. No pressure. The list of things that needs to be done is getting pretty short at this point. The kids’ Quorra costumes are moving along at a good clip, and as of recently, Natalie Joy has made headway on hair and makeup: But my…

Make: Kids’ Tron Costumes, Part 3

trevor
Whistler's chest piece, taped together and tacked to the foam backpiece.

Saturday afternoon is fast becoming my “make day.” By 2 PM on Saturday, the house is cleaned (somewhat), the kids are fed lunch, and materials are set up for making something. With Halloween fast approaching, it was time to finish the patterns for the kids’ Quorra costumes (see part 1 of this build here and part 2 over here) and actually get the chest pieces cut out of the gross-but-awesome vinyl I have kicking around. The nice thing about using this kind of vinyl is that I can be lazy about the…

Make: Kids’ Tron costumes, part 2

trevor

We continue our kids’ Tron costumes – this time, printing a pattern on fabric! Time to find out if making a mask for the girls’ Halloween costumes by hand will drive me insane or not. #make #mo365Follow Trevor on Instagram Now that we have the base layers for the girls’ Quorra costumes (simple black long-sleeved T-shirts and leggings), it’s time to start dressing them up. Black duds and EL wire alone do not a costume make. Next step: patterning the base layer. If you look at the super-suits from the…

Make: kids’ Tron costumes, part 1

trevor

Testing whether the length of the EL wire I ordered (3m each!) will work for the girls’ Quorra costumes. Other than losing the arms, it looks like it’ll work great. #make #Halloween #cosplay #lovemakeshareFollow Trevor on Instagram It’s an early(ish) start to the kids’ costumes this year. In my past couple of Halloweens, I’ve scratchbuilt Whistler a pink Batgirl costume (that same year, I did a Supergirl costume for NJ and an Arkham City Batman costume for myself) and subsequently watched my girls wear store-bought costumes with the grim realization that I…

Make: The Fort Romaine and the Frontier

trevor

Spent some time drawing, measuring, and mathing for one of my many projects tonight. #startrek #makeFollow Trevor on Instagram  One of my long-term makes is to build a 24″ starship from scratch. And not a classic ship like the Enterprise. A new ship class, familiar but unique, and featuring a higher level of detail than anything I’ve done before. Something I haven’t done before, though, is to really dive deep into the design and to properly scale the base design (the Excelsior refit, as seen in Star Trek: Generations) up…

Make: Saint Walker Statuette

trevor

Used my Saint Walker model as the subject for a tutorial in class today. Blog post coming later. #mo365 #makeFollow Trevor on Instagram Spoilers ahead, by the way, for Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #1. My running obsession with Saint Walker, the Blue Lantern, has been documented on the site before. A couple of times. And I would LOVE a Saint Walker statuette for my desk, because it would be nice to be reminded to hope when I’m doing paperwork or lesson prep at midnight (the way I have…

Make: July 21, 2014 at 08:10PM

trevor

I often have this idea that a make has to be a scratchbuild, something from nothing — as though the kids also suffer my god complex. I have to remember that the joy of making doesn’t need to be from nothing and that my preconceptions and hangups and methods aren’t the same as theirs. Whistler and the Fish aren’t me, as much as it often seems like they’re picking up my mannerisms and values. And a kit from the craft store, plastic headbands and tape and time with Momma while…