Halloween is a really busy time for mad scientists, reanimating the dead and creating monsters is in high demand so remember to be kind to any mad scientists you might know! Offer limbs you don’t need for their projects (I mean really? Do you need that fingers?), or perhaps suggest a fun night out grave robbing!
Well I’m sitting in hospital unexpectedly - nothing too serious. I was going to post this last night but I was in too much pain.
So this is a proof of concept. The word “magical” is used far too much but that was my ambition. Something of unknown use and unknown provenance.
Proof of concept is the build I make all the mistakes on - motor too fast, planets too large and high, LEDs wiring wrong and ugly battery packs. Internally this might not be saleable quality.
The video isn’t great, sorry. When I get home I will take some still photos of all the decorations and detail. It was inspired by those magnetic ballerina jewellery boxes from the 1960s. She would dance around a mirror when the box was opened.
I initially covered the neodymium magnets and attached the planet on a post. Wrong. They fell down, stuck to each other with such force they ended up broken. So I’ve gone for simple using the magnetic force to hold the metal spheres. I will include several spare magnets and planets.
I have been busy! These are two new Tritium designs. Unlike normal glow in the dark Tritium doesn’t need to by charged by an existing light source. It’s a gas, slightly radioactive (not dangerously so) and glows continuously for 12 to 15 years. It’s used in high end watches, gun sights - anything that requires constant illumination. But it’s very, very expensive and is sold in a range of small glass tubes. For the safety of the tube I install them in a second glass or crystal vial.
The green stick is small 12mm x 2mm. It’s sealed in the square crystal vial hung on semicircle silver tone connector with pointed terminals. Two flat struts are used to attach the chain.
The orange/pink stick is larger 24mm x 2mm sealed within a second glass vial test tube. I created a hanging bracket for the vial. The vial is topped with a 5 finned post. There is a brass ring on the test tube that holds the vial at a midpoint and can be removed. The vial itself can be worn without the bracket by clipping two clasps to the holes on the top cap that will be included.
This is made from a gold plated fuse, used in high end stereo for superior sound quality. They have such a great look - atompunk/mid century - I didn’t want to really alter the look. The internal gold plate “S” connection has such great form I couldn’t improve on it. I’ve sold several attached horizontally on a cord for men’s jewellery. Audiophiles love them.
But I wanted to highlight it with light. On the bottom of the fuse I’ve installed an LED with a connection post running through the base cap. The light is turned on by plugging that pin into a small silver tone battery pack. It holds tight to the pin. The battery pack unscrews at the top so batteries can be replaced. The bracket holding the fuse is not fixed so you could turn it up the other way and have the battery pack on the top of the fuse. To balance the piece without the battery I created a similar post on the other end.
Why should fun jewellery, brave jewellery design using light be the domain of gaudy kitsch - plastic flashing Christmas earrings, disposable dance/rave accessories and cheap novelty toys for kids? Why can’t it be used in high quality unique design? Yes, it’s a bit mad scientist and will certainly attract attention whether the light is on or off.
So since it’s October, I think I’ll post about Biomancer who’s one of my favorite villains in Sentinels of the Multiverse, since he’s also by far one of the creepiest villains in the game.
Biomancer is a mad scientist and arcanist who was born in Greece… and by that I mean a bit closer to Ancient Greece than modern Greece, since he’s been alive for at least three centuries and probably much much longer.
His main thing is having some sort of magical control over biological matter, which he can use to create strange beings called “fleshchildren” either as foot soldiers or to impersonate people and infiltrate places for nefarious purposes, as well as healing his own body to grant him effective immortality.
And meddle he has, whether it’s stealing the powerful instruments of the Virtuosos, making strange duplicates of the heroes to set them against each other, muckling with dormant malevolent AIs, and hijacking other AIs trying to fix the timeline to bend things to his own purposes. And what are those purposes? Only he knows for sure, and all signs point to them not being good for anyone but him.
He’s also dabbled in a lot of other “dark sciences” over the centuries, with his strange eldritch inventions sometimes being strewn about the world whenever he gets tired of or annoyed with them, where they likewise tend to meddle in and mess up people’s lives.
So if there’s some creepy plan going on, if your friends aren’t acting quite like they should, if you encountered some bizarre freaky magical object in the middle of nowhere, there’s a pretty good chance it’s Biomancer’s doing, and there’s an equally pretty good chance that you’re screwed. Sleep tight.
While waiting for work on the study to begin, the librarian has been busy setting up the attic for our newest resident. While we adore all the art the librarian selected, Tanya Shatseva’s “Blue Valentine” is a life-size favourite we particularly adore.
Our newest resident, the doctor, is expected any day now…which means will will have to fetch the coils and other equipment from the ghosts soon. Last we saw them, they were wrapped in the stolen wires, giggling at the high voltage shocks while guzzling unlabelled elixirs.
