Kestrell

Hear more about this new device being developed from the Blind Abilities podcast:
Braille Doodle: Creating touchable drawings. and the Perfect Solution for Teaching and Learning Braille While Remote Learning
by Blind Abilities Team
http://blindabilities.com/?p=6483#genesis-content

Show Summary:
BlindAbilities presents the team from touch pad pro assistive technology, who is in the process of developing three new and totally innovative products for the blind and visually impaired. Jeff Thompson chats with Kristin Smedley, Chief Communications Officer, Brian Edwards, chief operating Officer, and founder and Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Lubiner
With long term plans to develop the highly technical touch pad pro, the team is first focusing on the loess technical, but equally as important Braille Doodle.
As Daniel comments, "it would be great to offer a device at or around $65.. which we could not only buy for one student, but for all students.”
The Braille Doodle should be about the size of a laptop computer, with hundreds of holes, housing magnetic dots that can be raised using a magnetic stylus to draw pictures, shapes, or other tactile images, or which can be covered with a plastic sleeve to reveal only braille cells which will facilitate teaching young students or others who might not be able to enjoy Face-to-face braille instruction from a TVI, or parent.
Witnessing a unique interest among the blindness community and with a building passion for what they are creating, the team is targeting release of the Braille Doodle in September of 2021. At this point, they are trying to raise awareness of this innovative product and funding to produce it. So if you would be interested in helping the team out, while participating in the mission of a socially conscious start-up company, check out their web site at
https://tppat.com/the-brailledoodle/
.Contact Your State Services
If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361.

The Art of Darkness blog has a link to this tutorial for a Mexican Dia de Los Muertos tin nicho or altar
http://craftingforcheapskates.blogspot.com/2012/07/tin-altar.html#!/2012/07/tin-altar.html
using disposable aluminum baking pans. I've investigated kits for making similar tin panels, and they are extremely expensive, so this idea is economically as well as artistically accessible, although I would opt for something less dangerous than Xacto knives and hot glue guns. Also, if you use some sort of black wash over the tin, you can get a nice antiqued effect, which makes it a great medium for creating spooky Halloween effects (think gnarled old oak tree, serpentine monsters, haunted house, etc.).

From The Art of Darkness blog comes this post on using woven paper or fabric strips to make pixilated patterns
http://www.shadowmanor.com/blog/?p=15296
It occurred to me that this would also make a great tactile art project and one could use contrasting paper, ribbons, sfabrics to create more abstract patterns. By using a variety of textures, one might even be able to create some abstracted images such as a fuzzy animal, a moonlit sky with shining stars, a sunset, or ocean waves.

Cross-posted to the Arisia LJ

This year we will once again be having the tactile tour of the Arisia art show. While the precise day and time has not yet been scheduled, we already have our volunteer docent and we are arranging to provide cotton gloves for the participants.

If you are an artist who wishes her or his art to be experienced by those with vision or other sensory impairments during the tactile art show, there should be a checkbox on the Arisia art show entry form which allows you to communicate this to the organizers. Only art which has been expressly allowed to be touched will be included in the tactile art tour. Artists are also encouraged to be present during the tour, and may give a very short explanation of their work if they so desire (a couple of sentences works well with our time limitation).

This tour usually lasts an hour, sometimes a little over an hour. People without sensory impairments are very welcome to attend the tour but, since the size of the group has to be limited in order to move through the show, priority is given to people with disabilities.

Alexx and I went to Arisia on Saturday and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the new hotel really does solve a lot of the issues I had with way too many people in a too-small space. One of the events which I had come especially to hear was the concert by Sassafrass
http://adapalmer.com/sassafrass/index.html
a female a capella group which specializes in music featuring Norse myths and other geeky subjects. You can
listen to song samples
http://adapalmer.com/sassafrass/samples.html
and I absolutely recommend their Odin-Loki song, "My Brother, My Enemy," along with my personal favorite, "Toys for Big Kids."
I also had the chance to talk to lots of cool people, including Steve Berman (LJ user mroctober) writer and editor of Leithe Press www.lethepressbooks.com and
LJ user vvalkyri, who recently sent me a couple of
links about a fully articulated prosthetic hand
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/10/AR2011011006229.html
developed with a material called Living Skin at Touch Bionics
http://www.touchbionics.com/LIVINGSKIN .

The tactile tour of the art show was wonderful, thanks in large part to Fabrisse, who was our docent again this year, and who always makes a point of doing some research ahead of time so that she can tell us details about the works which we are touching, such as the medium and comments by the artists.
There were many wonderful pieces in the art show, but my favorite works were
the glass made to look like an actual meteorite, created by the artist guest of honor, Josh Simpson http://joshsimpson.com/site/
the book made with a glass eye in the front cover, the long dragon carved from a sinuous tree branch (I love carved objects that use the natural shape of the wood to influence the carved form), and the completely amazing coyote mask by Carol Hanson (who also took time to talk to me about wire). Also, an extra thanks to the artist who made a tactile drawing of the corset she had made--I am awed that she took eight hours to create the tactile drawing itself.

In the Dealers Room I bought a tactile t-shirt with an embossed Celtic design of the tree of life. This is an absolutely amazing t-shirt which uses some sort of mystery material that I am guessing must work similar to puff paint--the Celtic design of the tree, which appears to be made from one long continuous line, was laid down on a sort of stiff buckram-type material which was then laid beneath the t-shirt material, so that when the design material was activated (probably by a heat source such as a hair dryer), the design puffed up behind the t-shirt material on the front of the shirt.
You can find this and other tactile t-shirts and hoodies at the Earth Wisdom Web page, look for t-shirts labeled with the word "embossed"
http://www.earthwisdommusicandclothing.com/t-Shirts.html
and there are also some t-shirts which used embroidered designs.

Sadly, my attempt to find a copy of Diana Wynne Jones _The Merlin Conspiracy_ failed, so I will have to get it from Amazon.