B.Light Design

A lathe chisel canvas roll-up carrying case (say that five times). She took an old canvas tote bag and turned it into this.

Thanks mom.

Recently, I got my hands on some logs that have been at the bottom of a lake for about 100 years. I turned a simple bowl, just to see what the wood would give me. I’m very happy with how it turned out. The imperfections give it so much character.

The wood was pretty stinky, I had to put the microwave outside while I dried it out. Thankfully the smell went away once it dried.

I’m not sure what species of wood it is, it might be maple. I believe the gray color is due to the fact that it has been absorbing dirt and silt for a couple decades.

After truing up the bottom of the bowl, I found it wasn’t exactly flat. The bottom comes to a point that allows the bowl to spin. It’s a bowl and a top. This was totally on purpose by the way.

I was at the AmDC’s Purpose and Worth show last night at DSW Flatiron. The show had some great pieces in it. The highlights for me were seeing one of Lindsey Adelman’s chandeliers in person (they are incredible), Leon Ransmeier’s glass coin bank (I want one), and Karl Zahn’s Pallet Mirror (what a great use of material).

The pieces are still at DWR today, I recommend checking it out if you get the chance.

I’m currently reading The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon. And I’ve never had so many people stare at my book on the subway before. They can’t take their eyes off of the cover. Good work Will Staehle. The book is pretty good, but (according to the crazy lady on the 6 train) not nearly as good as Kavalier and Clay.

By the way, the inside jacket is just as cool.

Mobile Homes for sale. Currently, they come in red and unfinished poplar. White will be coming soon.

I was at BRKLYN Designs this weekend. There were some great pieces there.

I met Hugh Hayden (nice guy), designer of these great ball-pit ball chairs. He had a piece in Hue Are You? as well.

My favorite piece though was by uhuru. They took a new pass at one of their signature pieces, the Stoolen.

The original Stoolen is scrap wood beautifully formed into a cylinder with a found bicycle rim holding it all together. uhuru’s latest is the Metal Stoolen. Made of leftover steel lengths arranged in a similar pattern. The steel fills up the empty space of the wooden Stoolen. Beautiful design, way to keep working on a great idea.

In the past, I’ve had a little success with origami and I’ve had a little success with mobiles, why not put them together?

After a little “you got your chocolate in my peanut butter, you got your peanut butter in my chocolate” design work, I came up with the Rubber Origami Mobile. Now for a limited time in red.

Last night I went to the littleBits launch party at Eyebeam. littleBits is an open source project that is trying “to end the mysticism around engineering and electronics, to counter the black box product ideology of consumer electronics, and to fuel an explosion of creativity and innovation in artists, designers, kids and hobbyists. The release of littleBits Version 1 on April 30, 2009, will be unique in that it is a growing library of circuit boards preassembled by tiny magnets—the first of its kind. littleBits requires absolutely no programming, no prior knowledge and no hardware or software set-up. Just snap and play!”

This video might explain it a little more clearly.

littleBits intro from ayah bdeir on Vimeo.

The stuff is great and I can’t wait to get my hands on some. I could’ve really used it on some of the props I’ve worked on in the past (here and here). The party was held at Eyebeam. “Eyebeam is an art and technology center that provides a fertile context and state-of-the-art tools for digital research and experimentation.” It’s in a very cool space in Chelsea.

Sorry for the bad pictures. In my defense, I’m a horrible photographer.

I’ve been working on some props for a puppet show my aunt and uncle are working on: an outboard motor and a game show button.

The button is magic and can take you back in time. It’s given to a little girl (puppet), who lives in a small African village, by a magical shaman. The paint job is a little Charlie Brown.

The outboard motor is exaggerated in size compared to the boat it will be attached to. A young girl (another puppet) rides around in the boat rescuing flood victims.

Had some major rain in the city this week and went through a lot of cheap umbrellas. You can actually scavenge a lot of useful parts from these things.

- 4 different types of springs
- telescoping tubes
- black nylon (it can be used in some interesting ways)
- 1 metal ring
- a very bizarre 8 legged armature (oh the possibilities)