May 17

Skyrim Craft: Keening Dagger

Skyrim Keening dagger by Bill Doran Punished Props

You have admire some people’s dedication to their craft. Because he is so committed to attention to detail in his prop building, Bill Doran from Punished Props spent 10  hours on Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim gameplay to get just the right screen grabs of the Keening dagger. After he had the images, he crafted the schematics and got to work with resin, foam PVC, styrene, and Bondo. And a toilet paper tube. Lord Kagrenac, Chief Tonal Architect of the Dwemer, would be proud to own such a fine piece.

Be sure and check out some of Bill’s other projects, including a Borderlands Claptrap puppet, a Tomb Raider bow, and a Halo sniper rifle.

Links of Interest:

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April 9

Outwit Winter with 8-bit Spring

Today as I gazed out my living room window at the nice April spring afternoon SNOWSTORM in my front yard and resigned myself to an entire lifetime of winter weather, I found my thoughts wandering (trudging) to…Steve from Minecraft.  Steve from Minecraft has all kinds of warm weather biomes to choose from.  Steve from Minecraft can play in the snow, sure; but when he’s bored (or his feet start to go numb in his diamond boots (are diamond boots even warm?)) he can go to a desert, or a forest, or even a jungle.  Steve from Minecraft can be standing in a snowy blizzard one second, and then take a step into a swamp biome and immediately find himself delicately wrapped in warm, balmy, humid rain.  Not to mention Steve from Minecraft’s freshly-planted daisies that he got for his Easter party four days ago don’t take one look at the incoming north winds and promptly die in their planter. (At least, not in the XBox 360 version.)  So why should Steve from Minecraft get everything?!?!

Good news!  Instructables poster lirpaeel has shown us how to bring some of Steve’s coveted greenery to our very own biomes!

minecraft tree2

The best news?  You don’t even need to build an ax to knock it down!  (Or a sword, like the kid in the picture.)

Happy Spring!

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March 14

Nom nom – International Pi Day!

Nom nom - International Pi Day

Today is the 14th of March and that can only mean one thing. No, I don’t mean the birthday of Albert Einstein and Johann Strauss, I mean International Pi day! According to the Pi Day website:

Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th (3/14) around the world. Pi (a Greek letter) is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — which is approximately 3.14159.

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March 5

Skels and her Geeky Bead Weaving

I love Red DwarfHey there, geek-crafters. My name is Skels and I’m thrilled to introduce myself as another new writer.

I’m British, but currently living in Sydney, Australia. What makes me geeky? It could be my love of SciFi TV and movies, or my crafty habits as a self-proclaimed “tinkerer”. Or perhaps it’s the months and months of my life that I have invested in various MMOs over the years (sup, EU Argent Dawn WoW?!), or it could be that I’m currently studying for a degree in Natural Sciences in my spare time, you know, just for fun.

My all time favourite TV show is Red Dwarf, favourite game is Simon the Sorcerer, favourite movie is Twister and favourite colour is yellow. I like beading, drawing, photography, piano playing, baking, and jewelry making. I’m also a keen amateur astronomer; my most beloved posession is my 6″ Meade telescope.

I’ve been a fan of Geek Crafts for a while now, ever since discovering how to make pixel art keyrings and things out of teeny tiny seed beads. The great thing about pixel art is that it is so easy to reproduce with loads of different crafts – quilts, cross-stitch, bead weaving, pearler beads, even Lego. And who doesn’t love a little 8-bit nostalgia?!

8-bit Bead Weaving by Skels

If you want to find out more about bead weaving there are some really clear tutorials over at BeadItBabe.com. I used the square stitch for my designs, working with 3 mm seed beads and black waxed beading thread. And if you want some geeky designs to follow or inspire you feel free to check out my selection of keyrings and earrings: Click here to see the 8-bit beading set on Flickr.

Until next Tues, stay nerdy! And if you like, follow @Skels on Twitter. Cheers!

March 5

A Magnetic Attraction

tetris heart

Do you know the feeling of standing in front of the fridge and just not knowing what to make for dinner? I certainly do! This colorful set of heart-shaped cross-stitched Tetris magnets will surely give you something to puzzle with in these moments of despair. Kirsty Willis sells them on her UK-based Etsy store, together with other cross-stitching work, embroidery and patchwork.

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July 21

Metroid To Go.. and other game pieces

Metroid To Go Gaming is not part of my geekness — well, except for Angry Birds.  But I do have friends who are quite proficient in various video games and so have heard the term Metroid bandied about amongst them occasionally.  However, I did not realize just how cute they could be until I spotted Ellen Kramer‘s series of plush keychains of various characters from video games.  For sale in her shop on Etsy called Smellestine, the key chains include Pokeman, Mario Star and Metroid.

 

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