Don’t let the advertising-quality photography fool you: This is the work of an individual maker (specifically Matt of Wood&Faulk) who wants to share it with you just for the pleasure of sharing. Well, that and the traffic, probably. We all <3 the traffic. [via NOTCOT]

Yuma Fujimaki is certainly not the first person to make jewelry from scrap electronics components, but IMHO she has done a better job of it than most. [via adafruit]

More:
Nut And Bolt Wedding Rings And Uber Ring Round Up

For some time now, I’ve been playing around with Fluorescein, which is a dark red powder soluble in water and alcohol. It is commonly used as a fluorescent tracer. Though it is used e.g. in eye drops and biochemical research, it can cause adverse reactions (like nausea or vomiting). Because of this, even though only very small amount are needed I don’t think it is safe enough for candy (and it is not easy to get).

Sadly most phosphorescent substances aren’t classified as “food grade” (even though they are not toxic). In most “glow under a black light” food Quinine is being used, which is in Tonic Water (in very small quantities). In my opinion for candy it is not suitable thought, because of two major reasons: 1. the bitter taste and more importantly 2. it’s melting point is very close to the temperature you will need to make the candy.

So I had to find an other easy to get food grade chemical with a high melting point. My solution: Riboflavin, better known as vitamin B2 or additive E101. It can be found in most vitamin pills, is not toxic and fluorescents yellow under UV light (and even under direct light). The only set back is, that it is destroyed by exposure to light, but in our case it should matter because the process is pretty slow. Tthat is the reason why you should buy your milk rather in opaque containers and not in glass bottles.

Shown above is only the most recent work, using this technique, of Photobucket user ionustron, for whom it has been a lifelong hobby. Here’s another:

You can see the rest of his portfolio at his Photobucket account, and read the (surprisingly moving) memoir of his creations over at selectbutton. [via Boing Boing]

#10

How-To: Turn Shelf Fungi Into Actual Shelves

#9

Bookshelf From Old Books

#8

How-To: Make Tetris Shelves

#7

How-To: Make an Invisible Bookshelf

#6

How-To: Build Your Own Secret Bookshelf Door

#5

Shelf Made From Back Issues of National Geographic

#4

Circular Bookshelf Perfect for Storing Philosophy Texts

#3

Ikea Hack Bookshelf Bench

#2

Sad Bookshelf is Sad…

#1

Shelf Pod is Both Bibliophile’s and Cat’s Dream House

Did I miss a good one? Let me know, below!

Clever idea from Instructables user mizliz, who outfitted her LilyPad Arduino with a set of snap-on contacts so it can be quickly transferred from one soft-circuit prototype to another.

More:

• LilyPad Arduino
• LilyPad Arduino Workshop Projects
• CRAFT Video: LilyPad Arduino Bike Patch

One of our readers, Jimy Soprano, sent us the links to this incredibly inspiring short documentary of classical Japanese metal artist Ford Hallam recreating a lost masterpiece by the 19th century Mito tsuba artist Hagia Katsuhira. Years ago, I went off on a Samurai sword/Iaid? kick and obsessed over every detail of Japanese sword construction, maintenance, and the “moving Zen” of the Iaid? form. This video touched that obsession again.

The “tsuba” is the decorative sword guard, and like every other piece of a samurai sword, it’s work of art in and of itself. This video documents Ford Hallam being commissioned to create a tsuba for a Katana (long) sword to match an existing tsuba created by Hagia Katsuhira for a wakazashi (short sword). The painstaking, precise nature of the work is rather dizzying. [Thanks, Jimy!]

More about Ford Hallam can be found on his blog Postcards from the Path