Today at the Sustainable South Bronx Fablab I made some jewelry using a laser cutter, 1/16″ thick wood, and ready made earring hooks that I brought from a craft store. One of todays earring designs was inspired by a series of QR-code jewelry i previously made at the Fablab:

QR codes link to websites, personal messages, phone numbers, and images using only your cell phone! You can send messages to be discovered and provide specific, location based information…Say you want to label an object or a living thing. Perhaps you want to provide information, or learn more about a place:

If you want to read a QR code next time you see one on the street, all you need to do is a download a QR code reader for your phone model. If your phone doesn’t have a 2D barcode reader already, you can find and install a QR Code reader here. This week’s QR code series was inspired by Masaru Emoto’s book, The Hidden Messages in Water, also on Amazon. Masaru is a scientist who has documented how the messages we send change the physical properties of water. Since our bodies are 70% water, I made QR code earrings that link to the mobile-encoded wikipedia entry for words love and gratitude.

First, I went to Semapedia to download a mobile version of the wikipedia entries I selected, here. I added these designs in illustrator, used the “live paint” feature to turn the images into vector graphics (for crisp, clear etchings).

Next, I set the lines I wanted to cut to .001 point. The files were ready to print, and we just had to set up the hardware. Jon prepared the suction device (attached to the laser cutter) to extract any fumes and dust particles.

After the pieces were etched and cut, I was able to pop them out of the wooden frame. The results:

I also made these earrings today using illustrators rounded rectangle tool:

Finally, here is a laser-etched leather bracelet– The etchings are from one of my illustrations. I cut the leather in a swirly asymmetrical fashion.

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Hi, I am Yu-Chih (Yuji) Hsiao, one of the design fellow 2008. Recently I am making a new painting that is titled Line and Lines #2. I used the vinyl cutter to make a stencil, and carefully put the stencil on the top of the canvas (20”x20″) which I already painted the black color on it. Then, I used the acrylic matte medium to seal the edge of the vinyl, and painted the white color on the top of the vinyl. After I waited for 8 hours, I carefully removed the stencil vinyl. Here comes some images that show the process and result. I still need to spend times to fix the detail of the lines and background as well because the stencil did not precisely transfer into the canvas.

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Thanks to the energetic and learned assistance of Jon, Ed, and Zach, last night I made my first foray into DIY electrics. I successfully completed the construction of a QKits 25 watt audio amplifier. WAHOO! Though she looks small, I took this same amp home, connected it to a a single Bose 301 speaker, and was quite shocked by its hefty power! (horrid pun intended)

My focus at the Fab Lab will be teaching South Bronx youth the basics of electricity through sound generation and amplification. Since I know precious little about this subject matter and I am a hands-on learner, I felt that the best thing to do was build a kit, make it work, and then figure out what it is actually doing electronically. In this way, I would be able to feel the victory of getting something done, have the enthusiasm to follow it up with some research on “how things work” and be better able to teach the concepts to others.

More pix and descriptions to follow next week…

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Our first Fab Lab project, plastic logos for the studio door. Thanks Jon, we think they look great. Hope you agree.

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