Adventure Time Sword

My son was invited to the birthday party of one of his friend.  His friend mentioned to him that he liked   the Adventure Time cartoon and would like to have the sword.  My son then told him that we could probably make it because we are always building stuff.

We looked it up on the web and since it's a simple shape I decided to give it a shot.  Using the hard wood from an old shelf we took down, I drew the rough dimensions on it

I then cut the rough shape using a skill saw and a jig saw

The guard was build with 2 pieces with grooves screwed and glued on both sides

This was the fun part where I sculpted all the notches and scratches followed by some sanding

It was then time for primer and painting.  The handle was done by hand using acrylic paint

This the final product after gold metallic paint and a clear acrylic coat.  The jewel was made with Super Sculpey and also painted using acrylic paint.

Action shot with my son

Creative Programming

Some time ago, I was asked to give a presentation about Creativity At Work. This was part of a series of presentations where people from different fields were asked to give there view on creativity. I wasn't very shocked (but a bit sad) to find out that most of the speakers were visual artists or designers and I was the only programmer. So, holding the fort, I started working on my presentation which mostly revolved around my personal view of creativity and my creation process. All the time, I was expecting some weird comments coming from non-programmers regarding the fact that a 'computer-guy' would have something to say about creativity but, to my surprise, most of the sarcasms came from other programmers. That'll teach me not to watch my back. Apparently, for some coders, no creativity was involved or needed when programming...

I was baffled, because I see coding as a medium. I use it to create, the same way I use paint or clay. I then decided to spend a good part of that presentation demystifying coding and showing it for what it really is: just another tool. Now, it's one of my favorite presentation to give. I love the reactions I get out of it.


Why would a person sitting at a piano be closer to creativity than a programmer at is keyboard? Playing the piano is pretty hard an not that many people can master it. But if they do, it can be used to invent and break new barriers. For me coding can be used that way too, whether the output is music, image, video, robotics or anything else that can be experienced by other people.

#define JAZZ printf(“Do de do, de do wha!\n”);

A7LB

I sculpted this during an on-off period between 2000 and 2003. Most of it is made of Milliput, a really hard epoxy-base compound I will never work with again. The painting was done using acrylic.



The figure is about 1:10 scale and depicts Cdr Eugene Cernan during Apollo 17th and last moon landing mission.