DIANA ENG: Fashion Nerd

The Fairytale Fashion Collection was presented on February 24, 2010, at Eyebeam Atelier in Chelsea, New York City. Models hit the runway while a quartet of circuit bending DJ’s created music from a hacked sewing machine and conductive felt. Seated front row were celebrity scientists, designers, and school children.

I have just been asked to join the ARRL Public Relations Committee. I am very excited to join because I want to help connect the maker/hacker community to the ham community. It’s an exciting time because there is a huge growth in the maker/hacker community. It’s hip to tinker. Ham radio operators were the original makers and hackers. And I feel like makers and hackers could learn a lot from an organization where members are building their own portable devices that can send messages or remote control other devices around the world and through outer space.

I love maker kits from Makershed, Adafruit, and Ramsey. But I just got an Elecraft K2. And this is going to be the most challenging kit I have yet to build. When it is complete, I will have built something that can communicate around the world without using the internet, or cell phone networks. It will communicate using what I myself have built.

I also have plans to make something that can bounce signals off of the moon. A lot of other amateur radio operators have done this too. So I will follow documentation from the amateur radio community online. Ham radio has really taken my making to the next level. I hope it will do the same for the maker/hacker community.

Today on Makezine.com I show how to see radio waves with a light bulb. Also in the post are instructions for how to build the light bulb detector.

I am proposing FairytaleFashion.org for a grant from the MacArthur Foundation and Obama’s initiative to “Reimagine Learning”. I would like to create Fairytale Fashion Lab and expand FairytaleFashion.org into a program for classrooms. The grant applications are now open for public feedback before we revise them. I welcome your feedback! http://www.dmlcompetition.net/pligg/story.php?title=664

My first ham radio press interview on page 18 in World Radio Magazine. I always feel extra proud of my ham radio achievements because I work twice as hard to get them since I only have a fashion design background.

screenshot courtesy of makezine.com

88 de KC2UHB

All of the Fairytale Fashion videos are finished and now we are getting ready for Fairytale Fashion Runway Show on Feb. 24th. Things are busy, busy.

Yesterday morning I interviewed with The Business Insider. Then I met with Peter Kirn and am very excited that he will be putting together a circuit bending orchestra for the fashion show. A long time ago, live orchestras used to play while models walked the runway. The Fairytale Fashion Show will have DJ’s playing music from hacked electronics. Last, I went to Meet Up’s Fashion 2.0 to try and get together the last bit of funding for the fashion show. I met a lot of interesting people there.

Back from the Holidays, here are the last two Fairytale Fashion videos on Mathematics.

We’ve started working with classrooms which is quite exciting. And we are preparing for our big fashion show on Feb. 23. If you have a class that would like to participate, contact me!

Last week we were thinking about clothes that emote or display different information. So we looked at data mining with computer programmer Hillary Mason.