Do you long to exterminate a friend with cuddly goodness? Deeanna created this friendly Dalek from a pattern on Ravelry to give to as a gift.

Want to make your own “Extermiknit”? Check out penwiper’s free pattern!

You can download this ipod sized video file (which you can also get by subscribing in iTunes) or you can watch this hd video file full of pixels!

Needlepoint portraiture without a thimble has the highest thumb pain to awesomeness quotient. Megan Fenton breaks it on down for us and shares her amazing needlepoint project with us.

Ok, subscribing in iTunes will now bring you the iphone/ipod compatible video file and I’m working on getting an hd iTunes feed but until then, you’ll just have to go get the big luscious hd video file at the wonderful blip.tv.

Erica, who is the animator for Drawn By Pain, has a great tutorial here. She shows Erik Beck how make halo armor. It uses one of my favorite tools, a 3D unfolder called Pepakura!

photo.jpg, originally uploaded by bre pettis.

My friend Erin Shafkind is organizing a wonderful series of portraits taken at the sears portrait studios. I got to participate in orange.

I found Matt Shlian’s work while surfing Youtube. I’m a big fan of paper engineering and after seeing the way he makes paper move, I had to know more!

How did you get into paper engineering?

My studies in paper engineering began the way we often find our passion; it starts in the peripheral, something casually noticed and then slowly becomes central and soon the focal point of one’s the world. Nearly ten years ago at Alfred University, I occupied two studios: one in the printmaking department and the other in ceramics. However, I effectively managed not to make any traditional prints or ceramic work that year. Instead I focused on learning the art of paper engineering. I made large-scale digital prints then carefully worked them with cuts, scores, and creases to achieve a third dimension. The pieces would not become dynamic until the viewer chose to interact with them. The folds I was using, unknown to me at the time, were the building blocks of paper engineering. Right after I graduated I was hired as a “Paper Engineer” working in Essex Connecticut- I designed greeting cards, pop up book type ads, and all manner of movable paper whatnot.

What’s your process like from idea to execution?

My process is extremely varied from piece to piece. Often I start without a clear goal in mind, working within a series of limitations. For example on one piece I’ll only use curved folds, or make my lines this length or that angle etc. Other times I being with an idea for movement and try to achieve that shape or form somehow. Along the way something usually goes wrong and a mistake becomes more interesting than the original idea and I work with that instead. I’d say my starting point is curiosity; I have to make the work in order to understand it. If I can completely visualize my final result I have no reason to make it- I need to be surprised.

On the technical side I use all sorts of tools to make my work- copy paper, fox river corando acid free archival paper, PVA glue, #11 xacto knives, Autocad R13, and a Graphtec fc4200-50 Flatbed plotter cutter.

Who or what has been inspiring you lately?

I try not to look at people making work similar to mine. I am a sponge and won’t remember seeing something, and then think I came up with it a few months later. Instead I draw inspiration for unlikely sources; solar cell research, protein misfolding, Brian Eno, Matthew Goulish and Goat Island, Lothar Meggendorfer, Vojtech Kubasta, El-P, Daniel Libeskind, Thea Eck, Dondi White, Christian Marclay, Ren Weschler, Buckminster Fuller, George Hrycun, Stephan Sagmeister, Edward R. Tufte, etc.

Do you have any advice for people interested in learning more about paper mechanics?

I would recommend buying pop up books and dissecting them. I used to buy two copies of the same book and take one apart to figure out how it worked, the other I’d save as reference in case I couldn’t get the first back together. There are also a few great books on the basics of Paper engineering. The Pocket Paper Engineer and Elements Of Pop Up Those were two books I wish I had back when I was first learning.

Make sure to checkout Matt’s website, blog, and youtube channel to learn more!

I am having fun making these flat glasses. I’ve added a bit of foam that makes the glasses much more comfortable on the nose and ears.

Eric Beug from assaultwithsugar.com is a serious individual. He’s my first sunglasses customer.

Related Post: Day After Wednesday Sunglasses - Link

Custom Lasercut Sunglasses, originally uploaded by bre pettis.

Sometimes I have to make something, ANYTHING. So I dug out some Optik Acrylic and lasercut it into a shape I like. Then I held it over a flaming torch until it became flexible and I bent it just right.

Want a piece of the action? If you’ve got a lasercutter, here is the svg file to make your own. (Released under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License.)

If you don’t have a lasercutter and you want to buy a pair off me, I’ll make you a pair. Just give me a shout and I’ll hook you up.

I love the photos from the expedition to the moon at the Natural History Museum here in NYC. If you ever get a chance to go there, plan to spend at least half an hour or an hour just staring at these beautiful huge prints around the second floor of the part of the museum with the planetarium in the middle of it.

Looking at the photos, I could imagine feelings of intense excitement, utter loneliness and a fear of death far away from home.

The landscape is so grey.

I love the moon buggy. The tires are especially wonderful.

You can tell that these suits were zig-zag stitched and that the velcro is failing on some of the pockets! Space boots are awesome! More photos in my Man on the Moon flickr set.

Recently I made this video about Natalia. She’s an artist from Uruguay who lives here in Brooklyn. I have always wanted one of her rings and so finally I bought one! Check her site, her store, and my article about her on Etsy’s storque.