ChrysN made a nice (and educational) tutorial on how to sew a plush cell including the organelles. I think this would be a great project to make with kids or a good way to remember all your cell parts for a biology test.
Happy New Year!
I got a hit on this blog from someone searching for science knitting patterns (which I've posted about here and here). So, I'll indulge the lookers by posting 2 more patterns featuring DNA that I found via Everybody wants a rock.
First is a DNA cabled scarf designed by June Oshiro. The pattern is free on her website.
And for your favorite little one, Kimberly Chapman designed a Baby's First DNA model stuffed with cotton balls.
Perhaps a new year's resolution should be to learn how to knit.
More gift ideas coming at you all week!
Allenbrite sells a variety of felt home wares, but their felt pillows really caught my attention. They are bright and cheerful, yet true to the animal featured.
I like the furry belly on the brown bat.
Here are two cute and biological things I saw on the Craft blog in the past two week.
First, is this star-nosed mole knitting pattern by f. pea. The star-nosed mole, Condylura cristata, spends time in and out of the water and can forage along the bottoms of streams and ponds. It uses its 22 pink nose tentacles to detect small prey, as they are functionally blind, and they can even smell underwater.
Second is a beautiful piece of embroidery of the anatomy of an ear by Crafster user weird_lover_wilde.
Halloween is almost here! And if you're planning on going to a costume party this year its not too late to start crafting a costume.
I decided to look for cute science and biological costume ideas, but I can't seem to find many pictures. Black cats and and bats are animals its true, but it's much harder to find things not generally associated with Halloween decor.
By happy accident, I just finished grading a huge stack of lab reports on transpiration (the loss of water by plants). Then I found this photo on Flickr of someone dressed up as a plant stomate! Stomata are pores on the surface of leaves on plants, and they open and close to regulate the intake of carbon dioxide into the plant and the release water and oxygen into the atmosphere. Actually, this costume is part of a whole set of photos of students dressed up as their favorite adaptation. What a great costume party theme for nerdy graduate students or any group of science enthusiasts.
If you have pictures of people dressed up in biological or science finery, post links in the comments below!
Hansigurumi has a large collection of sea creature knitting patterns for sale on her Etsy shop.
I'm partial to the anglerfish. These fish belong to the order Lophiiformes and live in the deep sea where very little light penetrates. They're named after the glowing lure they use to entice unsuspecting prey into their mouth, like an angler (fisherman) catches fish.
Also the nudibranch pattern looks a lot like their colorful real life sea slug counterparts. Nudibranch means 'naked gills' and refers to the feathery gills you see coming out of their backs.
p.s. The 100th post on this blog!
I had an entry a while back about a plant cell pattern I designed, cross stitched, and turned into a pin. Looks like I wasn't the only person to think of recreating plant cell diagrams using cross stitch. Double X Geek has a more detailed design, complete with labels for the organelles! (via Craft)
I'm a Netflix subscriber, and I have lots of front flaps from the DVD mailers lying around my house. Usually, they turn into grocery lists and notes to myself, but now I can fold them into fun shapes thanks to Netflixorigami.com.
I just saw these cute plush squid hats on ObeyMyBrain's Etsy shop. If I wasn't a poor graduate student, I'd buy one and go as a giant squid for Halloween. Or maybe a ship being attacked by a kraken.
I think PZ would like these.
I'm going to steal this one before Jessica at Moss Plants and More blogs about it. AdornJewelry on Etsy is selling rings that you can grow moss in and wear. This shop also features rings with faux moss and bird collage pendants. The rings do not come with growing tips or moss, but that way you can select your favorite local species.
(Via Craft)
Sublime Stitching has a new pattern set called Vital Organs. You can stitch up intestines, brains, even a uterus.
(Now to work on my embroidery skills...)
The Flying Spaghetti Monster was the creation of Bobby Henderson back when the Kansas school board was first considering introducing Intelligent Design along with evolution in the classroom. You can read his original letter here. Since then the FSM has become a cultural icon to bring attention to the ridiculousness of presenting non-scientific alternatives to evolution.
So I created a Flying Spaghetti Monster brooch in His likeness, complete with noodly appendage and two tasty meatballs. He is made with oven bake clay, two button eyes, felt backing, and a 1 in. bar pin.
Here are two things to check out on this gloomy Sunday courtesy of the Craft Magazine Blog.
Fold away your troubles and make a origami lily, the step by step directions can be found here.
Also take a look at these neat robot animals made from recycled electronic parts. The artist, Ann Smith, has a whole gallery of animals over on her website.
I just stumbled upon Fur Will Fly's shop on Etsy which has lots of cute science-y plush dolls, and "On the origin of plush..." caught my eye right away. As their creator says, "This is an evolving family of 4 plushies, each one slightly more developed than the last. (But please treat them all equally)."
I've been browsing Etsy a lot lately, and it inspired me to craft a few projects myself. My first project was making a cross stitch brooch of a stylized plant cell (of my own design). Here are the labeled parts and organelles, with links to descriptions from Cells Alive:
A. Vacuole
B. Chloroplast
C. Nucleus
D. Endoplasmic reticulum
E. Mitochondria
F. Lysosome and Peroxisome
G. Golgi apparatus
H. Cell wall (tan) and plasma membrane (green)
I wish I could knit. If I could, I'd knit this dissected frog pattern by The Crafty Hedgehog on Etsy.
I discovered Etsy last year (it's a site where crafts, art, and all things handmade are sold by the people who create them). The products you can find there are only limited by the imagination of artisans.
So, now that the holiday season is (almost) upon us, I was curious if people were creating biologically inclined crafts. See them below the fold.
Darwin and finch pillow.
Rodent Evolution Journal (the seller has other biological journals).
DNA beaded bracelet.
Clocks with plant cell types. The clock above features stomata.
Forget origami where you can make animals that only sort-of look like the creature. Instead, why not fold and glue up a rare animal over at Yamaha's website (of all places). They give you an overview of the animals and their habitats and even include a stand with its scientific name for your finished creation. So go fold a Coelacanth today.
They even have a stag beetle for the entomologists on a different page.
Well, I carved this year's Halloween pumpkin, trying to bridge the gap between spooky and biological. So this year, I carved an owl.
I didn't make this pattern, but it looks like a Great Horned Owl to me.
The weekend before Halloween is here, and it got me to thinking about scientists out there carving dorky yet awesome pumpkins. However, after scouring the internet it seems that there are few scientists, or science lovers, who also share my love of pumpkin carving (or at least, they aren't making science designs).
I myself am guilty of only carving one science related pumpkin in the past few years, featuring a DNA strand, leaves, and an insect to represent various interests in my department:
The few jack-o-lanterns I did find I'll post below the fold...
An awesome brain pumpkin carved by a brain surgeon.
Flasks of a science nature.
Some really cool jelly fish.
So come on biologists, by next Halloween I want to see lots of science pumpkin carvings.
