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The Planetary Society Blog

By Emily Lakdawalla

Geek craft: GRAIL twins Ebb and Flow in plastic canvas

Jan. 25, 2012 | 11:10 PST | 19:10 UTC

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Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that after beginning with Dawn last week, I've kept my fingers busy, stitching more spacecraft from plastic canvas. I now have prototypes for GRAIL, New Horizons, and MESSENGER (though I'm not completely happy with how the last one turned out, and am starting over with a modified design).

Click to enlarge >

SpaceCraft
Ebb, Flow, New Horizons, MESSENGER, and Dawn, all to the same scale (about 1:50).

Enough people expressed interest in patterns and kits that I have gone ahead and opened a storefront on Etsy (called -- what else? -- SpaceCraft). But since this is my first foray into pattern-writing, I thought I'd begin by making the GRAIL pattern available for download for free (PDF, 1.2 MB). I hope some space geek Makers out there will download and try to follow it, and give me some constructive criticism on how I wrote it!

Click to enlarge >

Ebb and Flow in plastic canvas
Credit: Emily Lakdawalla

The only thing currently available at my Etsy store is a GRAIL kit. I'm still working on tweaks to the designs of the others, and will make those patterns and kits available as soon as I'm satisfied with them. And I'm taking requests for future SpaceCraft! I've developed and sewn these spacecraft on my own time -- I'm not charging the Society for the hours and hours it's taken me to work these designs out -- so this is not a Planetary Society product, it's just me. As such I will be restrained in advertising them here, but I'll mention on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ when I've uploaded new designs or kits.

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Comments

Brilliant!

I adore what you're doing here. Plastic canvas is the Rodney Dangerfield of craft supplies, and yet it's tailor-made for constructing awesome models like these. Bravo, and all the best with your patterns!

#1 - Sister Diane - 01/30/2012 - 08:51

Thanks, Diane!

"Rodney Dangerfield of craft supplies" -- I'm in total agreement. But it's not without cause. Over the years I've looked and looked for decent plastic canvas patterns but they are, by and large, reeeeeallly tacky.

#2 - Emily - 01/30/2012 - 15:46


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