Paintings from March 2012

This is Acrylic paint on top of layered masking tape, on top of cut out pizza boxes, matted, sealed and framed!

mint box card trick

Mint Box Card Trick is built inside of an Altoids tin. There is a wooden frame inside. The handle is made of wire from an old hanger and an eraser. A carved wine cork keeps the hole sealed on top. A few other sneaky things make the selected card rise. Everything needed for this trick is inside the tin. Everything, including the cards, fit to make this effect all self-contained.

Ball Box

"Ball Box" is made from repurposed cigar boxes, bottle caps, and wine cork. The foundation of the box is made from pine. The box's interior uses traditional magic principles for vanishing an object. The hinges for the doors on either side are made from a clothing hanger. The wire was cut and pressed in to fit from the top and bottom, so the doors can swing freely.

Digital Scratch Pad

"Digital Scratch Pad" was made using a 555 timer IC . The sound is controlled through a photo-cell which is sensitive to light. As you cover the photo-cell, the the sound gets deeper, and as the cell is exposed to more light, the pitch gets higher. Underneath the felt is a flex sensor. The more pressure you place on the felt, the more it distorts the sound. There is a 1/4 inch jack, so you can plug it into an external speaker to make it louder. I've used this plugged into a Marshall stack, and it sounds awesome. 

Recycled Etcha-Sketcha

The "Recycled Etcha-Sketcha" is mostly made from found or broken electronics. The motors, potentiometers, knobs, and switches came from a broken vintage radio. The wire is from wire hangers, and the light bulb also comes from the radio. The circuits were built using a 555 timer. My favorite part of this project is the last switch on the board. I call it the "crazy switch". When it's turned on, all the electricity flows into the light and the motor, which controls the paper, causing the paper to retract really fast and the light to flash. There is a solenoid motor that also pushes the pen which came from a thrown out printer. 

The Lie Detector

The Lie Detector is made with two recycled DC motors from old printers. The circuit is made up of a triple 5 timer and two transistors for the hand sensor. The buzzer goes off when it gets a strong enough signal coming from the sensor. The more your hand sweats, the stronger the pen moves and buzzer sounds. I love this project because I'm finally branching away from microcontrollers.

Introducing Oscar with an A

This is a drawing machine made from recycled objects. The heart of "Oscar with an A" is an Arduino microcontroller. The machine senses sound and translates it into drawing.