Enter the world of SCI-FI-LOPHONE, where music, noise and science come together to produce fun and unusual sound textures for all ages. A: SCI-FI-LOPHONE is a unique MIDI-controlled percussion instrument consisting of solenoids combined with traditional and non-traditional sound making objects. It’s part art installation, interactive science project, and part ...

There’s no time like a pandemic to learn a new skill. Working with Touchdesigner has been a great way to pass the time. ...

By the end of May and early June, I still had some drift wood, lots of rocks, and substrate materials left over from my first round of builds. My springtail culture was also going strong, and the isopod culture I started in April was doing well too. During a flea ...

When I lived at home with my parents, I went through a phase of keeping some reptiles. I think it started with a chameleon, and later (after it died), I tried keeping snakes. At one point, I captured a mid-sized brown garter snake from our backyard. What I didn’t know ...

May 25, 2021

These are two smaller experiments. I’m placing both of these in a sunnier location than the rest of the closed terrariums to see how they do. The specimen jar is from Goodwill. The other jar is from Dollar Tree. The Dollar Tree jar contains left overs from the bastard terrarium ...

The bastard terrarium May 25, 2021

During my earlier terrarium builds, I had some left over bits and needed to get them into a container quickly. I grabbed a large canning jar from the basement, but it didn’t have a proper lid, so I had to improvise something with a canning lid band and some plastic ...

May 25, 2021

Next up is a container that I found at JoAnne’s Fabric on sale for $10 with a coupon. This is purpose-made for a terrarium and worked really well. This is probably the perfect container for anyone starting out. The centerpiece is an interesting orange quartz specimen from my collection of ...

HomeGoods has great, inexpensive, containers.

After making a number of closed terrariums, I wanted to try an open terrarium with no (intentional) inhabitants. HomeGoods continues to have great deals on glass containers, and I found this one for $11! It appeared to be a factory second, with a very minor flaw in the glass, but ...

Great jar, but get the plastic or glass lid – not the bamboo lid!

As my terrarium journey continued, I had a lot of left over materials, so it was time to branch out. We live quite close to an IKEA outlet, and they have a great selection of containers that are purpose-built for terrariums, or can be used as such. During the first ...

With a little success under my belt with two smaller terrariums, it was time to try something larger. I found this rather interesting Polish glass container from Home Goods, on sale for $8! Following the guidance of my terrarium gurus, I planned this one out a bit more, and waited ...

My second terrarium experiment was a rework of a terrarium that Audra made during an education retreat a number of years back. It had completely died off, even before our recent moves, and needed a major overhaul. This has done quite well, needing only minor maintenance. I will feature a ...

During the Spring of 2021 as COVID still raged, I wasn’t getting out much. Between significant computer screen time and evening Netflix couch time, I knew that I had to force myself off of the machines and back into something more natural. Many years ago, during a trip to Chicago, ...