Craft.

We spent the last 2 weeks working in the fab lab at Haystack Mountain School of Craft. Peaceing out of BK after the ruckus that is the last day of school, the drive got off to a rocky start. We accidentally forgot some important stuff at home (Tiri + Seb came to the rescue) and Pau had a bout of food poisoning. But after the dust settled, we quickly eased into our chilly Maine digs.

This was our 3rd time working at Haystack's fab lab. The first was with an 8 month baby in belly, the second was a year later. Pau took his first steps on the fab lab porch. It felt wonderful to be back after 8 years, spend time with the fab lab's new staff, meet artists + makers from all over the place and eat Zola + kitchen crew's amazing food. I cannot over emphasize the relief of not having to cook for 2 weeks. It was fun hearing about other people's creative practices, especially witnessing and helping hone people's hacked together workflows, jumping from some janky ipad software that did one thing to another and then to illustrator, a laser, and then back to hands-on work.

Aside from helping others with their projects, we spent a some time experimenting and exploring the other workshops like fibers, printmaking, and the hotshop. We witnessed the choreographed teamwork of a Raku fire. I stole quiet moments sitting alone widdling on a piece of soap stone. On the last night I made a monotype print. Che-Wei made a funky stool and also a 3D printed lamp that sold in the auction. It felt nice to not be precious for a change. To play around and be bad at stuff.

On a rainy Saturday, we visited Doug Wilson, a renowned blacksmith who lives in Maine. He was incredibly generous showing us his shop, telling us stories and demonstrating forge welding. He also made a leaf out of bar stock. We were so inspired by his generosity, genuine love of teaching and appreciation of life. Thanks to Leslie + Lisa for arranging this outing.

The Haystack library is filled with treasures, including this book titled Surface Design for Fabric, by Richard M. Proctor and Jennifer F. Lew. I randomly pulled it off the shelf and found the image above of sgraffito fabric dyeing. Lowell and Maia down at fibers helped me get set up to experiment with this.

Hot wax painted onto fabric, etched away and dyed using a cup of Maia's indigo.

Above is SAM stool. CW made this out of scrap wood he sourced from the wood shop leftover from the previous session residency artist Osamu Sassa. The legs and seat are left untouched, treated as found material. They are joined together by a generatively designed, hollow 3D print filled with boat resin.

Meet Pineconehead, a character slash species co-created by Pau and his new buddy Alex Kalil. These two had an epic collaboration going, Pau spent a bunch of time assisting Alex with his work in the print shop. Alex showed Pau how to make his first zine (shown above). Pineconeheads eat berries, canned goods, sand and rain water. They also send wifi through water and are protected by cloaking devices.

We're happy to be home. Today we made pancakes using Lisa's set of mini iron cookware she forged in the hotshop. Inspired by a legendary spatula from our last time at Haystack. If you've eaten at our house you know our spatula. And have likely eaten some version of these pancakes, probably with opinions. Today they weren't green and had a splash of pumpkin.

Back in Brooklyn...

Right before heading to Maine we wrapped up our most recent Kickstarter campaign for 55 66 88. Thank you to all who supported the campaign. The die is done. Extrusion happening within the next few weeks. Packaging is in the works.

Something we're happy to finally share is about a little IP snafu that happened partway through our campaign.

A few weeks after launching 55 66 88, we got a note from the owner of Happy Products to let us know we might be infringing on a patent they hold for a 3-sided pillow support for media devices called Flippy. They reached out, knowing we didn't blatantly rip off their idea, or even know about them, but as a way to say "hey, we put a lot of effort into creating and protecting our IP, can you please honor it?"

We know how important IP can be as an instrument for innovation and collaboration, and totally respect those who hold it.

So after some lovely chats with the founder of Happy Products, and very minimal lawyer involvement, we figured out a way to both honor their work, and keep doing ours.

We're excited to let you know we are making 55 66 88 with permission from Happy Products under Patent No.USRE48479E1. If you like 55 66 88, you might like their product Flippy, so check it out!

We learned a few things going through this. One thing to note is Juliette Fassett, the owner of Happy Products is also on the board of the organization fairinventing.org. Their work is to increase diversity + inclusion within the patent ecosystem, while protecting marginalized inventors. As a small business, we know very well how costly it is to file and protect patents. So we're happy to get to work with Juliette in a way that is constructive for everyone.

If you're curious about this or have any more questions, happy to discuss. I think the best channel is on our discord.

We purposefully put a bunch of links in this newsletter to people's work. We hope you follow them out and enjoy.