Weekend Project: Bernie, the Bunsen burner

I had this one in my idea book for quite awhile and finally had some time to work on something this weekend.

It took a little while to think of a name but here's Bernie:

Weekend Project: Holiday String Lights

So I haven't crocheted in awhile, ever since the craft fair. I've kind of been burnt out a bit and was taking a break since I have tons of inventory at the moment.  I took out my crochet hook on Friday and was thinking of just making a holiday hat for a water molecule:

So as i was working the hat, it kind of reminded me of those old style Christmas lights. So I just went with it:

These guys aren't for sale right now but I'm kind of happy about how they turned out. I think I'll use them as Christmas decorations in my lab.

Weekend Project: Custom Murloc

Here's a custom murloc I made for a good friend of mine, from WoW:

He's holding a mage staff. Yay for Murlocs! mrrglgrrglgrrgl

2011 Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago, Sept 10-11

We had the wonderful opportunity to show at the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago this past weekend. There were over 300 vendors and it seemed like there were more booths and people than all the previous years!

It took a lot of planning and crocheting, but we finally made it to the Fair.  There's almost no end to the booths:

We were at booth #187, geeking it up with some crocheted molecules and science art:

We had lots of new items, like postcards, T-shirts and keychains. The fair favorites were the T-shirts and postcards of our Science Kitty:

 Ideal Gas Law dog T-shirt, PV = nRT:

Our most popular molecule sale was, of course, Ice:

No Prim and Plush craft fair would be complete without Caffeine being the centerpiece:

And finally, he sun setting over Wicker Park in Chicago:

We had a blast selling our crafts in our home town of Chicago.   We'll have more follow-ups on the interesting things we bought and saw at the Fair!  Thank You Chicago!

I'm Busy

The P-Orbital

I have to be honest that I might not know what I'm talking about.

Physical Chemistry was probably my weakest subject, which is why I focused more on Organic Chem and Chemical Biology.

I do, however, know what a p-orbital should look like and it vaguely brings up memories of HOMO and LUMO, and energy diagrams and what not.

So here's my interpretation of a p-orbital:

He's a little smirky, kind of like he knows I have no idea what I'm talking about. But here's to P Chem and the 2 semesters of I have no idea what I'm studying, but I passed with flying colors anyway and 7 years later, remembering nothing...there was a cat in a box at some point. =P

He's available on Etsy!

New Smaller Caffeine Molecule

Ever since my caffeine molecule got sold, I've kinda been pining away for it. So I decided it was time to create another one, but smaller. The smaller version measures 11x10 inches:


While the original measures 15x13:

I think I prefer the smaller one. It's more portable and much easier to put together. It will be our centerpieces at craft fairs this year!

Weekend Project: Benzene

It's been awhile since I've made something new. So I decided to tackle benzene, using light blue and gray yarn:



It's listed on Etsy.

Amigurumi Pipetman

Oh the trusty pipetman! No researcher can live without it. I've wanted to try this for awhile, to crochet a pipetman. Here's the one I use every day:

Source

And here's what I came up with last night:

My P20 and P200 pipets have a small yellow circle on top:

It's fun to play with at least!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I like making holiday molecules and it's only fitting to make a green ethanol for St. Paddys Day. They dye the Chicago river green and sell lots of green beer, so here's a tribute to all those who celebrate this holiday by indulging in green alcohol:

I happened to be sitting at home the past few days recovering from a slip and fall that resulted in damaging my tailbone. So I managed to crochet while lying on my side and am writing this blog while in bed.

Find the Etsy listing here.

Please drink responsibly!

Another Fun Custom Order

Uranium Dioxide:

A small part of me didn't want to see it go. I think I'll make one for myself.

Methanol

I've been running a lot of western blots and have been using a lot of Methanol. I may or may not have once or twice forgotton to activate my PVDF membranes by forgetting to add this guy. So here's a tribute to methanol and hoping that it will help my westerns come out as well as I want them to:

I think I really like these colors too

Love Potion (No. 9?)

I grew up watching Sandra Bullock and Tate Donovan as super nerdy biochemists creating a love potion and falling in love.

Here's my version, in time for Valentine's Day:



I though love potion would look more suitable with an apothecary jar, complete with cork, like something you would find out of a creepy spells and magic shop. Hopefully the love potion molecule, however, is not that creepy.

You can find love potion at two different locations:

For the Maroon potion: Plushteam Store

100% of proceeds from this sale, through the plushteam store, will go to benefit the International Children's Heart Foundation, an organization that works to bring aid to children in developing countries with congenital heart conditions.

And for the Blue version:Primandplush Store

For Chinese New Year

A cup of Oolong Tea. A redo of one of my weekend projects. I wanted to try and represent a chinese porcelain teacup. So I added tiny blue flowers.

For sale on Etsy!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Perhaps bunny eared waters are appropriate?

My Favorite Custom Order, Delta Amino Levulinic Acid

Wow, it's been awhile.

It's been a crazy few months, but hopefully I can get back into the blogging spirit. I'm grateful for all the holiday craze, but also grateful for it to be slowing down a bit again.

Here's something I did a few months ago, for a sweet man who wanted to give his wife something special on their wedding anniversary.



Delta Amino Levulinic Acid

Yeah, I had no idea what it was either, until a friendly trip to Wikipedia helped me out a bit.

"δ-Aminolevulinic acid (dALA or δ-ALA or 5ala or 5-aminolevulinic acid ) is the first compound in the porphyrin synthesis pathway, the pathway that leads to heme in mammals and chlorophyll in plants."

Source

The coolest part was that this man's wife had discovered the use of d-ALA in the porphyrin synthesis back in the 50's. I have to say it was a little nerve wracking to make this molecule for such an important person and I spent a long time making sure all the bond angles were perfect! I don't think I've ever enjoyed making a custom molecule so much.

Breast Cancer Awareness Water

Happy October!

In Chicago, the skyline is pink all month long to acknowledge Breast Cancer Awareness Month.



(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40142450@N00/3985640601/)

I happen to love how pink the city is and I get to see the pink Willis Tower and 311 South Wacker Building from the comfort of my living room window.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month has held a special meaning for me since it has been 6 years, this month, that my mom had first been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. This month, she is also 6 years in remission and cancer free!

This one's for my mom:





The special Pink Ribbon rack at Michaels had some nice pink yarn from Bernat, dedicated to donating $10,000 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure through proceeds.

With every purchase of a special Breast Cancer Awareness Water molecule, $7 will be donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure!

More Molecules and an Attempt to Tablescape

In two more weeks, I will be sitting at a table and selling my molecules at a craft fair. It really feels like this is coming up so fast! I'm excited, scared and nervous all at the same time.

I figured I needed a centerpiece, or several centerpieces, to make the table pretty and eye-catching (as if molecules staring at you are not very eye-catching). So, by popular demand, the #1 most requested molecule is Caffeine, made from chocolate/coffee colors, which I thought would seem appropriate:



So I had a very hard time thinking of how to display my very flat molecules, since they are quite difficult to stand up. I searched and scoured the internet and it finally came to me....Banana Hanger.

Off I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond with my trusty 20% off coupon (which happens to be expired, because the internet coupons expire, even when the mailed ones don't, fyi) in search for the perfect molecule display:



$9.99 - a great price for a molecule display!

I also had to finish some extra craft fair shopping at Ikea, because I saw these kitchen cabinet shelves that are perfect for a craft table:



I also found a nice rack to use as a vertical display that can hang off of my pavillion:



Looks nice to hang some water and methane molecules!

And after installing all the shelves, we played with a tablescape:



Still lots of work to do, but I like the look!

Going a Little Crazy

Craft Fair stuff has been finalized.

We are attending the Alley Walk Craft Fair in Rockford, IL:

September 11, 2010
2100 block East State Street, Rockford, IL
8:30am - 4:00pm

An outdoor craft fair sponsored by a nice church. See website for more details: http://www.bethesdacovenant.com/Alley_Walk.html

Prim and Plush will be @ booth #4 and we're sharing with The Leaf Studio. It's getting very busy at the house!! I can tell you that we made a coffee/chocolate colored caffeine molecule! I really like how it turned out and it will be displayed at the fair!

Here are some special stuff we will also be selling:

Super large Methane:



and a super large Water:



I hope we have some fans out in Rockford! Come out and see us!

Patriotic Methane

I really can't believe it's the end of May already!! It's really starting to feel like summer here in Chicago, which means we jumped from 40 degrees to 90 in like one day...but it's great to be outside again.

Memorial Day is just around the corner so here's a patriotic methane:



Can't wait for barbecue and fireworks!

I'm terribly bad at the updating...so here's cytosine

I had a goal in mind at the start of the month that I'm going to post something once a week. And unfortunately that did not pan out. Doing research has its perks, but having the time to manage a blog doesn't seem to fit into that schedule. So here's to a new month and new goals of posting once a week!

In my graduate school days at good old Urbana-Champaign I had worked on tRNA hypermodifications and so I knew I had to put some nucleobases into crochet. Here's a start with cytosine:



I hung this on my wall using one of those super handy 3M hooks! No messy nails and holes in the wall...if only the previous owners of my house had used those...



Cytidine has been in shop for a bit now. Take a look at my Etsy page!



I'm pretty sure the craft fair is on for September in Rockford, IL, but more details later once I get that finalized. There's so much work to be done!!