Contributors

Bob Knetzger (Vacuum Forming project) has been making fun stuff all his life: first as a kid with his trusty Vac-U-Form, then fresh from design school on staff at Mattel Toys, and

for the last 25 years, as Neotoy with his business partner, Rick Gurolnick. Bob lives near

Seattle with his wife and two kids, and plays steel guitar with The Swains ( swainscountry.com)

when he’s not molding plastic. His heroes include creative Californians Ed “Big Daddy”

Roth, Leo Fender, Charles and Ray Eames, and Sneaky Pete Kleinow.

Limor Fried (DI Y Batteries) likes to design nifty electronics and release them as open

source projects, such as a monophonic synthesizer and a PLL-controlled cellphone jammer.

She has somehow managed to turn this hobby into a viable business by selling kits. Her biggest pet peeve is connecting power to ground. ladyada.net

Kirsten Anderson (Hammer Time) is “a cross between Morticia Addams and that weird

old neighbor lady who always wants to know everyone’s business.” Current interests: art

of any stripe, wildlife documentaries, mutant anomalies, cryptozoology, elephant culture,

funeral practices throughout history, deep sea creatures, lawn bowling, donut eating,

“sustainable living,” shopping for arcane trinkets on eBay, and horror magazines. She owns

and runs Roq la Rue Gallery in Seattle, where she lives with her “awesome husband and two

weirdo Siamese cats.” She “could eat pad Thai morning, noon, and night,” and often does.

Arseny Lebedev (MAKE web intern) grew up in Moscow, Russia, and now lives on the East

Coast, working at MAKE’s New York office and studying business and technology at a local

university. “I bring my own grocery bags to the store, and when I was younger I would make

UFOs out of cotton balls, wire, alcohol, and dry-cleaner bags. I’m a big geek, and I love to

mess with computers, video games, and food.”

Rebecca Stern (DI Y Plush Sirloin Night Light) describes herself as “a new media artist working at the intersections of diverse fields to make culturally significant projects.”

That doesn’t distract her from mechanically automating her analog thermostat with her

roommate to adjust the temperature using a microcontroller, a motor, and a rubber band.

She now lives in Tempe, Ariz., where she’s a Ph.D. student in ASU’s Arts, Media and

Engineering program. She loves “Michael Pollan’s books, cooking, knitting, traveling, riding

my bike, camping, tinkering with computers, and (of course) making things.”

Photography by Jacob Appelbaum (Fried) and Caren Alpert (Smith)

Caren Alpert (Maker profile photography) loves to cook, travel, and exercise so she can eat

chocolate and mac-and-cheese whenever possible. A photographer whose work has been

featured in numerous magazines and cookbooks, she’s currently working on a monograph

about architect Morris Lapidus. She lives in San Francisco with her pet rabbit, Moose, and

her favorite color is eggplant.

When Benjamin Tice Smith (Maker profile) isn’t working as a photo editor, he’s usually

making things out of wood, metal, and concrete, or rebuilding and keeping old audio

equipment, cars, and motorcycles running. He brewed a lot of beer and mead at one time,

and loves a good cocktail, but his favorite tipple is Scotch. He lives in Oakland, Calif., with

his wife, two children, and two dogs. Now that his children have discovered Star Wars

and have assigned the family characters for Halloween, he (Darth) is trying to figure out

costume designs for everyone.

Make: 9