Winter Is Coming

Winter is coming .. Sorry I had to. It was right there, waiting to be abused. But jokes apart, the weather’s changing - winter is just around the corner. With that comes the festive season, and we can’t wait for it here at the Asylum. Builds & Experiments Needless to say, Diwali’s almost upon us. Now if you’re in Delhi, it’s kind of hard to miss the festive vibe. Between the houses being repainted and the pop-up shops selling all things festive (and the traffic snarls that go with it .. ahem), it’s safe to say Diwali is a big deal. Ofcourse being curators of all things cool, we took it upon ourselves to do our own brand of Diwali decor. Co-incidentally, it also happens to be the International Year of the Light. Put those together, it’s a perfect setting to make some lamps. Tanya’s been racing against the clock to build a whole set of them for a while now. Between designing, laser cutting and polishing the cuts, she’s had her hands full.   But the results make it all worthwhile I think. Meanwhile, Antriksh, given the fervour at the Asylum, plus the onset of Diwali, decided to build some lamps for himself.   Ofcourse, we had to do up the Asylum itself. So we did. No big deal. ‘Have laser cutter, will cut’ is a saying we’ve implemented here, and it’s been surprisingly well received. However, lamps alone do not an Asylum make. We’ve also been working on making an arcade emulator. There’s just something about 8 bit chip tunes, that a Halo or Call of Duty just can’t match. You can play your Xbox or PlayStation all you want, but Pac Man & Donkey Kong is where the party’s at. We’re almost done with it too, stay tuned for the unveiling, and play tests. Events & Workshops Ashish took us on a trip through interactive visualisation and generative artwork using code in his ‘Creative Coding with Processing’ class. We also hosted a talk by the Autodesk Sales & Marketing team on the future of making things. We learned about some cutting edge technologies and how Autodesk is pushing individual makers to contribute in a bigger way, by enabling them with free but extremely powerful software. Barbecue Party at the Asylum The most fun we’ve had recently though, started off with a simple desire - to make a simple, charcoal grill and document the process so others can learn from it. We even attached a brushless motor to it, because, Maker’s Asylum, we put motors in most things. While I talk to the team about implementing that as a tagline, here’s what it ended up looking like. With the build complete, we couldn’t just let it sit there looking pretty. Off we went and got some charcoal & grillables, and cha-ching, impromptu barbecue party. That’s Abhinav looking mighty pleased as he hops and jumps between the grill and the makeshift kitchen. Ofcourse it would be rather pointless to not show off the fruits of our labour, delicious as they were. Remember how the idea was to teach others, so they can build a DIY grill themselves? Well here you go: Turtle Barbecue: The Cleaner, Healthier Barbecue This week, we've got two fun events coming up. The first is a workshop on DIY Diwali decor using the laser cutter and other tools at the Asylum. You can register for that at: Laser Cut Diwali Decor The second is a showcase event we're putting together to celebrate Maker's Asylum turning 2, as well as to show off what our members have been upto here in Delhi the last couple of months. You can register for that at: Showcase & Anniversary Well, that's it for now. As always, keep making!