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Many of the photos in the galleries can now be seen on Flickr! There, you will be able to get a closer look at the artwork at better resolutions.

If you have access to a laser printer or a Xerox machine, here’s how you can transfer images onto paper, fabric, and other objects.

Start by printing your design onto regular paper. Be sure that your image is reversed or the transferred image will be backward. Remember that you have to use either a home/business laser printer or a Xerox machine. Anything that prints with toner (a fine powder that is fused to the paper with intense heat) will work. Inkjet printers will not work for this!

Place the printed image face-down onto the surface that you are transferring the image to. I recommend taping it in place to prevent shifting, but leaving areas free so that they can be lifted for visual inspection.

You will need a bottle of acetone and either a q-tip or a cotton ball. Be sure to use 100% acetone without any colorants or perfumes. These added chemicals can discolor or stain the transfer surface.

Acetone is strong, and it can eat certain surfaces like plastic. Test a small area before continuing.

Acetone evaporates quickly, so work in small sections at a time. When you apply the acetone, the paper will become transparent, making it much easier to see where you’re working. Use the back of a spoon or a bone folder to rub across the transfer image. Be careful not to shift the paper; you just need some pressure to transfer the toner.

You can lift up sections to see where you need to re-apply acetone and rub some more. It’s generally very easy. If the papers are sticking together, don’t pull! Simply apply a little bit of acetone to the back of the transfer image to release them.

When you’re done, remove the transfer image. It will not be a perfect copy, but it’s great for painting/drawing guides.

Let’s take a quick look at a personal project that I just recently finished. One morning, I woke up with an insatiable urge to design a miniature scene inside of a pocket watch. There’s nothing like being slapped upside the head by a Muse.

I scoured eBay for a cheap pocket watch, and suddenly, there it was! I was pretty simple, with zodiac symbols circling the face. It immediately reminded me of the zodiac that surrounds the Magic Mirror in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Guess what scene I created.

The materials used were acrylic paint, Mod Podge, watercolor paper, plastic, and an epoxy glue.

Oh, eBay pirates are fun. I’ve been fighting them for years. They like to sell my paper models, and the photos that they use to promote their auctions are my own. They don’t take them from this website but from my Flickr photo album.

Most pirates leave the Disney Experience logo and copyright notice intact, but place their own logo or trademark on top. They’re typically unwilling to Photoshop anything out or, better yet, build the models themselves and take their own photos. But, today, I finally found one who not only Photoshopped my logo out, but placed their own logo, in a similar design, on top of the area to help mask any imperfections. It’s a nice try, but that doesn’t stop me from reporting the violation.

While I design a better watermark for all 174 of my Flickr photos, I’ve made them private, and I have temporarily closed the 3-D art gallery.

I never thought I’d ever consider using two mice at the same time. Yes, two mice! The SpaceNavigator is used for navigating through within 3-D programs like Google Earth and Blender. It’s basically a camera control.

One of the things that I find annoying as a paper engineer is moving the camera around in Blender to see different angles of the model that I’m working on. It’s slow and cumbersome to do it by hand. The SpaceNavigator is supposed to be more fluid and intuitive, so I’m strongly considering investing in one. Although, I haven’t made up my mind just yet.

It’s compatible with over 100 3-D applications, allowing control over panning, zooming, and rotation. There are other versions (they kinda look like tricorders) that are high-priced, but would help eliminate having to use the keyboard as well. The SpaceExplorer and SpacePilot are both good contenders because of their programmable keys that are within reach of the fingers, hence lowering dependability of the keyboard. That’s a big plus!

Right now, the SpacePilot is the same price as the SpaceExplorer ($299), but it has as many as 21 programmable keys (versus the Explorer’s 15) that automatically change functions to match the open application. Neat! It has an LCD screen, too, but I’m not sure what it’s for. Product details on the website are sketchy at best, and they leave many questions unanswered, so I’d better do my homework first.

YouTube is a great resource. I can typically find several product reviews on just about anything. It’s great to get pros & cons, see products in action, and discover the little things that the manufacturers’ websites never tell you.

The Halloween papercrafts that I’ve been working on are now available for sale through the first week of November. Grab ’em while you can!

There are also two new videos of the piranha and vampire bat in action.

Photos are now online of the first three Halloween papercrafts. I’ve decided to really run with this new trick-or-treat idea. Each toy is printed on 4×6 sheets, and is both pre-punched & pre-scored. The only tool needed to assemble them is a very small amount of glue.

These treats are packed in resealable polypropylene bags and stiffened with some cardstock. They are free to trick-or-treaters (one per person), and I may offer them as an online purchase in the future (maybe around October).