Let's Share: The Berkley Blog: Our World of Geekcraft

Ryan and I really make no secret that we enjoy many of the geekier things in life. So, of course, when our friend Susan Beal asked us to contribute to her new book of geeky crafts, we were most happy to jump on [mother] board. Now the book is living in a bookstore near you, like magic [the gathering]! [I'm sorry.]

World of Geekcraft is a pretty fantastic journey through crafty projects relating to some of your favorite convention-worthy subjects. As with most crafty books, I like a ton of the projects themselves but I also really love the inspiration they give me to branch off and try new ideas and techniques. It also serves as a helpful reminder that I need to rewatch Battlestar Galactica...maybe I can watch it while working on the Handmade Tribbles, Solar System Decorative Plates, and the Oregon Trail cross-stitch.

Our contribution was based on our old friend and TV's favorite puzzling island castaway adventure, Lost.

Once we had decided on a Lost based project, I became predictably obsessed with the concept. I wanted the project to be something a reader could do but it was also ridiculously important to me that it to be something that could have actually been crafted by the castaways using only island supplies and, even better, they would have found useful. Does that qualify me for a geek merit badge? We settled on tin cans "using supplies" from the Swan Station hatch. As we mentioned in the book's explanation, after making these I starting wondering why the castaways never did make them for themselves. I think they really would have come in handy for some serious "Others" spy work.

Ryan did craft his own spin on the Swan Station logo but other than that, we tried to be as true as possible to a real product from the island. To compliment the cans, and to prove that we're definitely geeks for details, we made a little paper journal covered with a "hot chocolate box" and filled with pages from the nerd-specific Swan Station system failure log printouts (a tedious detail that I probably made way too hard on myself to translate.)

I would be a total geek if I didn't mention the beautiful design, photography, and illustration throughout the book courtesy of the creative crew at Public School in Austin. We actually stopped by their studio in Austin last year when they were still working on the book and we were really excited to see how they'd staged our project to perfection. I would also hereby recommend that you check out their website/blog because they definitely find some of the most inspiring corners of the internet.

Susan is going to be at Powells in Portland this Sunday at 4pm in the Pearl Room doing some reading and a little take-home geeky craft project. If you are in town, please stop by! We'll be there too along with other geeky contributors.

*EXTRA GEEKINESS SECTION*

This blog post would be remiss if I didn't share a few choice moments from Ryan and I's geeky history:

TOP: Ryan's alien costume Spiderman and my "Lady" Punisher, ca. 1999. Apparently back then I was two feet taller than Ryan.

MIDDLE: The Simpsons go to the Blazers home openers, Halloween, ca. 2001 [not pictured is our basketball date, Dr. Doom, who was taking the photo.]

BOTTOM: The second of our two trips to the Star Wars Celebrations in Indianapolis. Yeah, that's right. We've twice traveled halfway across the country for the priviledge of seeing Warwick Davis and Anthony Daniels live onstage. This particular photo is from Celebration Three and features us and our friends Ken and Mike in our vintage Chewbacca masks along with four young lads dressed as George Lucas-es (Lucai?), plus one bonus X-Wing pilot, ca. 2005.

Thank you. Or I'm sorry again.