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!!

Glycine, The Amino Acid

This is totally unrelated, but I watched Zombieland yesterday, for the second time, and it's still as awesome as ever. I just had to say that...I also watched Twilight and New Moon again and still want to watch them again. Even though I hate the casting job as Robert Pattinson as Edward, it still amuses me. I still have this desire to create vampire methanes or some crazy stuff like that. Perhaps zombie methanes at some point.

But anyway, on to today's picture takings. We have Glycine, two ways:

Mr. Glycine



Baby Glycine



That's right, two ways. I had first made Mr. Glycine (a couple months ago), and thought he looked a little weird with his amino antennae balancing on his head, so I created a smaller version, Baby Glycine to play with the conformation and face placing. I did, however, just realized my mistake in creating the amino group for Baby Glycine, and that the atoms are placed in a planar fashion, as opposed to its actual bent fashion. My Orgo teacher would be reprimanding me right now. But as it is, I think it still looks cute and is optimal for helping the molecule stand upright. So you get the idea. Of course an Etsy convo will make me fix this up real quick, but for now, I think I'll keep it.

I am starting to fear that adding more atoms to a molecule makes it less cute and less susceptible to appropriate face placing. We might have to forgo the face placing with larger stuff.

Any opinions on which form of Glycine you prefer? Or do you think a zwitterion is more appropriate?

I also have better pics of Cyclohexane, one of which contains a bunny ear photo. My husband has a thing for bunny ears and would refuse to put down his hand until i took the picture. I felt like it belonged in the Etsy shop as well and at least it gives an idea of proportions!





The colors come out much nicer when theres actual sunlight to take pictures. Sorry for the shoddy first-attempt photography. I still haven't gotten any better, and I'm just bad at taking pictures...its a skill i never acquired.

It's a Chair!

I've been busy:





I do think it's awesome. Unfortunately I'm back to really bad picture taking...at least until spring and daylight savings kicks in and I can get make it back home for some real sunlight. Last weekend was too cloudy! The yarn is actually brighter than it seems. Hopefully we'll have a good amount of sunlight this weekend to retake some pictures! He comes at a pretty high price, however, I don't think I'll be making too many, AND it did take me forever to put together.

I'm looking forward to setting up a craft fair. More info later, but I'll be sharing a booth with The Leaf Studio who does awesome papercrafts!! Check out her Etsy store and buy some one-of-a-kind cards!

The Water Set is Complete!

and here's the final addition to the water set, a jumbo steam molecule:

It was difficult to think of a way to incorporate steam, but I had an epiphany one day and figured to slap some wings on the water molecule! And now he's ready to fly up in the air! I'll be getting it ready to add to a set of water molecules that include one of each phase to Etsy. But for now, he's ready to ship out by himself!

On a side note, Prim and Plush is getting a new Logo! We're almost ready to do some redecorating. woot!

Carbon Dioxide

I think my computer blew up. The one that I use for all my blogging and store upkeep. I'm slowly trying to transfer everything on my more dependable MacBook.

In an attempt to be more diverse and not totally focus on methanes, I tried to make carbon dioxde. Which I think is super cute:

On another note, I've been loading up on the yarn and will be trying to make more inventory! Hopefully we'll be prepared to do some craft fairs in the future!

Weekend Project: Ice...because it's cold out there

So this wasn't really my idea. It was my Dad's...who also happens to be a chemist at heart. I guess that's where I get it from. So thanks Dad! Here's the ice molecule:



He's braving the cold weather in a cute removable scarf! I seriously love the idea and thought it would be a really cute addition to the molecule family.

Check it out on Etsy!

Happy Valentine's Day! (Already?)

Maybe I'm jumping the gun a little bit, but we there really aren't too many holidays that are methane friendly, so Valentine's day it is!

I'm back from vacation and got to do some crocheting after 10 days of relaxation in sunny and WARM california/vegas! woot! Coming back to frigid temperatures and 8 inches of snow really doesn't make the return so pleasant, but it does make sitting indoors much easier to do.

So here's the female version:



And the male version:


I do think they look cute holding hearts, but I do love crocheting some hearts. I never really liked using heart patterns and prefer to do them freehand, so each heart usually comes out different. They're suitable for more than just Valentine's Day and hopefully will grow into charity work.

More cuteness to come!

Weekend Project: I Just Love Christmas

I love it like crazy! It's mostly likely because it's also my birthday on the 26, but I can't get enough of all the christmas lights and decorations. I love being able to work on Michigan Ave in Chicago during the holidays and seeing all the stores lit up on my way home. And even though all those christmas songs are playing all the time on the radio now, I still love it!

Unfortunately the puny, little tree at Daley Plaza was disappointing, but we got to sample all the yummy food at Chriskindlmart this year. Although I probably should have waited to go till later and the crowds die down, it was still as tasty as ever!

Here's some more Christmas inspiration:


A cup of Christmas water up on my Etsy! All this crocheting and filling orders is definitely keeping me busy! I stuck my hand in these pictures as a homage to my old dreams of becoming a hand model. Unfortunately that never panned out, mostly because doing research is much more fulfilling, and I dont think I can get away with not cleaning or doing my dishes.

Only a few weeks left! Watch out for Valentine's Methanes!