Ada Lovelace Day 2013 (by sarah)

Ada Lovelace Day is a celebration of women in technology and science - it was started a few years ago by the lovely Suw, and me and Al have taken part in it every year so far! One day we might even make it to London for some of the talks and things that happen (this year they even had Neil Gaiman though we saw him at the weekend anyway but still!) - sadly (or happily) I have college this week so that was another year of no Ada events boo hiss.

This year we have chosen the designer of... Sugru!

Jane Ní Dhulchaointigh - she is an extra special inspiration to me, as not only has she had the idea for and then developed and sold sugru, a funky silicon rubber you can fix things or improve things with, but she shows that art and science together can drive innovation to make the world better! (I've already blogged about that here).

The story goes that she had the idea whilst doing her MA in design production in London, the first attempts were smelly and ugly and then they weren't but they didn't stick to enough things. She knew what she wanted it to do and she teamed up with scientists but didn't just hand the job over.

Alaric told me about the sugru before you could actually buy the stuff - I was sad as I was being told that I was never going to achieve anything being a scientific artist or artistic scientist, his words were something like, 'but there's this new stuff that's amazing sort of like air dry putty but is still flexible and strong and stuff and it was invented by an artist who knew wanted a substance that didn't exist for her designs so she went and learnt about the chemistry of rubber and silicon!'

The story of sugru and the company built up around it is fascinating and can be found here.

It is not just about the sugru or the science behind it - it is about determination and following your dream, of keeping going even when it looks like you are set to fail. They have run out of money and risen from the ashes. Their mottos are 'The Future Needs Fixing' and 'Hack Things Better' which goes straight back to Jane's core idea - she didn't want to keep buying new things all the time - she wanted to fix the broken things or upgrade what she already had. This is perfect for upcyclers and reusing recyclers like me and Alaric and as it turns out many many other people.

She has given the world a new way to make things, to fix things! It is technology and engineering, it is art and science and it is wonderful.

The word sugru means to play - it is a corruption of an irish word and we have taken it at its base meaning - so far we have made/fixed:

Purely arty objects:

My first sugru project of a flower and metal bracelet

Little creatures for the visually impaired and blind to touch and explore

Fixed things:

knives with manky split handles

Broken mugs that have sentimental value as our little ones have decorated them

The sink - in several ways!

Made things better:

My crutches needed a bit of handle alteration to stop my little finger going numb when I used them

Little feet on phones and lap tops to stop them over heating

Decorations for boring welly slippers (this came out of a failed project to fix shoes with the stuff)

Improved the hooks in the kitchen so things don't fall off anymore

Embedded electronics into head dresses

Embedded magnets onto things like our phones so they are easily mountable in the car

And these are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head!

It has been to the poles, to the desert, under the sea and even in space!

So thankyou Jane for being an inspiration and our Ada Lovelace Day hero of 2013 🙂

Badges and Books and Yay! (by sarah)

Yesterday I received through the post the little button badges of one of my illustrations - it is the Mummy Eating Cherry Pie. I am so pleased with them! I gave the girls their badges as soon as they came home from school.

There are a hundred of these and they are for the launch of The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry 🙂 And to just add the icing to the cake yesterday - they themselves arrived! I thought I need to go and pick them up so was really chuffed to get them delivered to my door 🙂

I'll be sending out the pre-orders at the weekend and shall be finishing off the book marks today!

To say I am excited is an understatement, the girls already have a copy in their room and insisted I read it too them last night 🙂 Mary is actually responding to the poems now which is lovely 🙂

Stickers and Proofs and Zines and Stuff (by sarah)

This week has been hard work but amazing! Really amazing.

Firstly I performed at Well Versed in Cheltenham on Wednesday - then Thursday I headed off to college to learn science writing and discovered there are things I am good at (though that whole spelling thing still evades me!).

Then there was the Bristol Comic and Zine faire with pre parties and after parties and some amazing work - I was at college for most of it so only caught the very end of the actual faire but then stole my friends comics to read whilst at dinner with some of the illustrators and co. I really enjoyed the pre-party where people did power points of their books - including a rousing song about S&M and cystic fibrosis which they made the audience take part in. I also doodled badly on the sketch pad put in front of me.

Whilst I was in Bristol the proofs of The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry arrive and so will hopefully be going to full print/press soonly 🙂

Incase you've missed what's going on - I am having a book launch at the end of the month! With goody bags - one offs for the first 100 books. The stickers arrived this week too!

I am now only awaiting the badges and material for the bags. I am making the bookmarks myself 🙂

Anyway my mind feels suitably stretched and I survived college and really hope I can actually take part in the zine fest next year though am sort of glad I didn't get a stall this year as Alaric would have had to man it whilst I was at college - also I now have more of an idea of which of my work would fit in there!

Goodbye Tom Long our Long Ginger Tom :( (by sarah)

He seemed out of sorts and actually scratched Mary - the first time he's ever done that - I turffed him and he went missing for two days - my mum was concerned but then I say him apparently sunbathing on the decking. I thought it was odd he didn't come in and eat but not enough to go and investigate. The next day Alaric was cleaning out the chickens with the jet washer and spotted Tom in a little hidden away bit of the garden - not running away from the jet washer.

He knew something was wrong - this was very un Tom like behaviour and he picked him up and dumped him into the kitchen stating - I think he must be ill and went back to jet washing. Then Tom just sat there whilst I decorated cakes - I don't like the cats in the kitchen whilst I'm preparing food especially Tom as he would always jump up on the sides when I wasn't looking or fish food of the worktop etc... So I tried to usher him through to the library and that's when I saw that he couldn't use his back legs 🙁

I called Al who phoned the vet and got changed into not wet chicken poo covered cloths and I got the girls to stroke Tom and say they loved him and explained he was ill, sick, hurt. I didn't think there could be a good outcome and I wanted him to know we all loved him.

Tom was placed in the vet basket and whilst I waited for Alaric, Lithium came and started nosing the basket and Tom her - he has/had been the one that bonded with her, cleaning her and snuggling with her and teaching her to eat etc... So I lifted Lithium into the basket expecting her to hope straight out again but she didn't she snugged down and licked him until Mary came back again.

Then Al left with our ginger menace, he came back with an empty basket and we had to decide what to say to the girls - did we do it before or after the party etc... We decided to tell them before so they would have the party to look forward to rather than a party ruined by the news afterwards, I was crying anyway so I doubt I could have hidden it.

He'd had a blood clot and though they can opperate, it is painful and comes back again really quickly, and he had basically already had three days of restricted circulation to his legs. He didn't purr when we stroked him and look so fed up and forlorn - when we chose for Hydrogen to have the op she had even though there was little chance of survival it was be she was still so purry and glad to see us - she hadn't given up. Tom on the other hand had come home to die.

Alaric stroked him at the vets and it was always Al's clothing he would curl up on. He was a beautiful cat and we shall miss him very much.

Mary keeps asking if Tom's hurt and if he is at school or work, she doesn't understand but she knows we are sad. We are getting the ashes back so maybe she will understand more then.

College Induction (by sarah)

So yeah I went to college yesterday 🙂 (without my Drs note as they receptionists didn't know where he'd put it as it isn't a sick note as such and he wasn't in - who would have thought that it could be so difficult :/ ). Anyway - I got there with the minimal of shouting to get myself out of the door - I thought I was going to be late and then got there like an hour before it started so orientated myself and picked up a tea.

I really enjoyed meeting the other students and discovered I know lots of stuff that is relevant to others like the different ways to run planitariums (planitaria?) and a slight astrophotography knowledge, theatre and science and so on... Of course I still can not spell for toffee and babble at people or stammer and my legs hurt from sitting down too much and so on but I am really looking forward to my first lecture now 🙂

Also the insight I gleaned from how others work was interesting and I feel valuable already even though we've not yet done any of the course as such! The library is amazing with all the electronic stuff etc...

My first course is...

Science writing 🙂

I ended up with two free sessions at the end of the day which I used to go and sort out the fact I wasn't appearing on the system but had been sent the welcome stuff etc... as expected it was the issue with my English GCSE cert :/ I lost it in the 2007 floods and didn't know what exam board I'd taken it with - I didn't even know you could get replacements until a despairing update on Facebook got the teachers and ex-teachers amongst my friends telling me how to sort it 🙂 I emailed my old school Gaynes and got no reply 🙁 I phoned them to no avail and got quiet frustrated then I did abit of internet stalking and tracked down one of my old teachers and messaged her - she responded the next day and I sent the form and the cheque off to the likeliest place. They had to go and check weather it had turned up at the college and clear me as qualifications varified - so I should be able to complete registration this afternoon from home and then set things in motion to get my swipe card etc...

This is feeling a lot more organised on the university part than my experiences with either IC or Birkbeck.

After the admin faff I had some lunch and read the print out of the stuff I couldn't yet get too online and did most of my 'homework' whilst awaiting a friend for an afternoon tea. I was in quiet a lot of pain at this point and had to take the pain killers which did not help my tiredness levels but I was still feeling engaged and happy - I was finished with the work I could do there and knitting a teddy bear when my friend turned up 🙂

He helped sort out the bus navigation and things and I headed off to the Bristol Hack space where Alaric goes on a thursday - I was really hoping he could do a 3D printer induction as I found creepers I wanted to print for Jeany's very late birthday party but alas it didn't happen - instead I knitted more bear and he helped someone with an electronics project - I met someone into computing projects for the visually impaired and wibbled on about stuff to do with that (I've done the In Braille exhibition etc... ). Then I went and slavard over the lathe and talking wood work with the guy using it - I also found a design for my monster boxes for the writing game I've made - the hack space now has a little library going on 🙂

Alaric had bought me a packet of sticky tabs and a kitten note book and sparkly gel pen for college 😀