Shrinky-Dink Yourself

Recently at my day-job we made shriky dinks out of ubiquitous/cheap materials and it was a lot of fun.



All you need is some number 6 plastic (look for the recycling symbol with the 6 in the middle), an oven and non-watercolor color pencils. The ideal choice is prismacolor brand because of how nice and lush the leads are. First sand down the plastic so your pencil can get some purchase. It should be sanded opaque like a plastic cutting board. Draw as intricately as you like keeping in mind the idea that it will shrink to about a 1/3rd its original size. Set your oven to 325-put the finished plastic drawing in the oven and monitor it for 3 minutes. It will shrink up into a ball but it will unfold and when it does count to ten slowly and remove from the oven let it cool and you'll have a sweet little art object that you can make into a pin, a game piece, jewelry, pet tag, label, fridge magnet... you name it.



I am going to employ this technique in making game parts and nifty little miniatures to sell at the next stumptown comics fest!

I'm going to head into the studio now and next post will be about what I learned from this years' STCF but for now enjoy the caddillac of nerd accessories-as seen at Emerald City Comic Con. I give you "The Sultan"





If you are the world's biggest dork/your parent's best friend/roomate at age 30-plus despite a surplus fortune you made through webdesign and your skills with pearl script; this is the must have accessory for that one night a month you and your battlestar gallactica chatroom buddies get together and slay the horrifying creations of the necromancer.

My POTP (pick of the post as it will henceforth be called) is not comics related, though I have plenty of that to share in the future, it is the greatness of space! Check out the mind blowing images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope: Hooray for Science! People who know me well know that I love science. Everything from particle physics to theoretical mathematics and astronomy. I don't understand most it but I have a crush on science as a discipline though I am married to art. Check out the pictures and you'll want to come up with all sorts of science fiction plots for comics-if you are anything like me

Also here is a youtube video of a song by one of my favorite guitarists that features a digital wacky waving tube man as its' only visual: Jimmy Herring-Scapegoat Blues

Till next time. Now go get yourself some number 6 plastic and make something cool.