Just finished this little guy and I'm so happy with how he turned out. Started out as random whittling at a craft brunch and he just emerged from the wood as I followed my fun. Then I drilled holes in the feet up to the eyes for the LEDs and put him on a little base made of a drink lid, a cardboard coffee cup, some cardboard from a box, some masking tape, and hot glue, and got all the wiring hooked up. I made all the little decorations out of polymer clay including his buckle and buttons and attached those with hot glue, painted everything with acrylic paint and then gave him a couple of coats of spray on lacquer to seal everything.

I've been doing a bunch of stuff with 3d printing recently but that doesn't feel like crafting in the same way so I feel like I need to have another second thing I'm working on while I'm doing the 3d printing projects that is entirely made by my hands. Whittled, soldered, crafted, painted, a power tool here and there, but all of it crafted by my clumsy fingers. And this guy is such an emblem of that. #punkcrafts

During the Spring of 2026 a movement appeared online of young women building cyberdecks, hand built personal computing devices, and especially constructing them in playful feminine ways from makeup cases, toys, bags etc. It was connected to the ongoing movement to reclaim tech and media from giant cloud corporations. Watching these videos was incredible and inspiring and the fact that it was other women at the center of this movement was enough to get me to finally go ahead and build a cyberdeck of my own.

The build is an Orange Pi 4 Pro with an 5 inch hdmi screen, and a wireless USB keyboard/touchpad combo, and an off the shelf powerbank. It has a USB-C charging port, a USB-A port for accessories, a simple power switch at the top, hexagonal grids and a mini fan for ventilation, and leaves the header pins on the OrangePi exposed so I can use it for prototyping and hardware development projects. The case is printed in three parts and held together with M5 machine screws.

The biggest challenge and one of the unexpected costs was cable management within the extremely tight confines of making it handheld. Shoutout to Ubeboobey for the tip to grab a ribbon cable for the HDMI connection. I have easily spent over 100 euros across the whole project on different tiny usb and other cables and bits as I experimented with getting the best possible fit.

I initially wanted to follow the examples of the other women inspiring me and make the case out of something I already had or found in a thrift store but when a few weeks went by without finding anything perfect enough, I decided to just roll with 3d printing something and making sure I designed it to be aesthetically pleasing enough for me to be happy with it.

This build took months of over a dozen test prints with different mistakes in measurements, configuration, and just working out the physical practicalities. The result is just under 178x170x40 mm, which only just fits within the bed of my A1 mini. The print is in a galaxy or nebula glitter purple filament and a metallic copper filament, both PLA, with the embellishments and back feet being done in the same copper as the middle and then glued in place.

The OrangePi 4 Pro was a choice based on budget and availability and it is capable of handling basic computing tasks I throw at it fairly easily, but doesn't seem to have the power to run a PSX emulator which would probably be the toughest task I would want to throw at it, which surprised me but it's not the end of the world. I think it's also a little silly that I'm using the oPi 4 Pro which has it's dedicated NPU which I am completely failing to utilize at all.

All in all I'm very proud of this build just for the sense of making something that works and looks nice. It's not more useful than my phone or laptop but the point is making the thing for its own sake and the making was a lot of fun and now I have a cool thing that I can use as a spare portable low-power computing option.

#PunkCrafts

A friend recently had their seventh birthday and they've recently been getting into Pokemon for the first time with Let's Go Eevee. I'm not sure they've seen enough different pokemon yet to have settled on a long term favorite so for their birthday I decided to make them a pokeball, plush so they can throw it around and with a sound mechanism for the appropriate audio effects. #ashplushie #punkcrafts #punkplushies

Another craft project from last christmas is this #AshPlushie backpack that I made for a loved one. I'd been trying to make it for several years with several false starts of getting most of the project done before realizing major flaws in my design, approach, or materials.

The final product is completely made from scratch, internal construction and all and has an internal laptop sleeve and pairs of D-rings for adjustable straps with arms and legs on the straps and claws and teeth, two sets of three eyes, floppy ears, a ridge down it's back, and, completely unintentionally, some caked up ass cheeks.

As far as #punkcrafts projects go I'm glad I took the time to get this one right. It's one of the best #punkplushies I've made, though I'm glad to have it finished so I can go back to working on smaller ones.

After learning that some indoor plants benfit from being shaken to simulate wind, I decided to automate the process and built this plant shaking machine aka "WobbleBot" as a Christmas gift for a dear friend with a green thumb.

The motor is from an impact drill from a thrift store, the wire basket was from a homewares store as was the mop handle that I cut for the axle and the plastic storage container that protects the motor. The rest was spare bits of wood, a few screws, a bunch of zip ties and a coat of paint.

#punkcrafts

Finally finished rolling the last of the stones for this project. I actually started this while I was sick with food poisoning and then Covid this summer. The burning of the lines on the board was very meditative while I couldn't think straight. Once I had it together I coated it in beeswax, cut a little leather strap clasp from an old belt, and rolled stones from polymer clay. I find that the size of these stones and the grid are a bit awkward to play with, small to pick up with clumsy fingers. Now I understand why standard boards have grids and pieces of a certain size, but I'm still very proud of this board as a thing I made for myself.

#punkcrafts

Finally built myself a new eurorack case after the powersupply on my old one died and I decided I wanted a second row of space to work with. It's very wobbly and imperfect as is my way, but the Doepfer A-100 PSU seems to be extremely stable so far and it's nice to have something I build myself and the ability to set up my little ambient generative patches for background noise again. #eurorack #modular #punkcrafts

Knocked out a quick lil #AshPlushie horse dude last night to break in the new sewing machine. I'm actually astounded at how nice this one turned out as a quick test over a couple of hours? I think I might be getting better at this plushie making skill? #punkcrafts #punkplushies

Got myself a new sewing machine! A Singer 4432 Heavy Duty Black Edition. It's so smooth and powerful I am in love with it. #punkcrafts

Another #AshPlushie from last year, this time a bat! Maybe too many wings, but still a bat. #punkcrafts #punkplushies

Wanted this bathroom storage rack to be taller so I don't need to reach down for things, so I carved some little leg extensions. For a one day project I'm pretty proud of this one, with the little toes and all. #punkcrafts

Continuing documenting my #punkcrafts, another #AshPlushie , this one was another Christmas gift for a young friend, a dragon unicorn, or a unicorn dragon, depending on one's disposition. #punkplushies

Another #AshPlushie from last year, this one is a Biblically Accurate Great Tit for a ridiculous and beloved bird nerd. #punkplushies #punkcrafts

This was the second #AshPlushie I made, vaguely inspired by a white bunny plushie I had as a kid that my mum sent to me in Sweden to comfort me in a period where I was feeling really lonely. Also a good opportunity to try out making ears and legs. #punkplushies #punkcrafts

This was actually my first #AshPlushie I made, sewing together parts from several different victims including an ikea 8-ball plushie that became the basis for this penguin orb friend that went to Emily #punkcrafts #punkplushies

Gonna try and share more of the things I make on here, so here's another #AshPlushie. This time a frog for my nephew. #punkplushies #punkcrafts