Rendering of Crytomeria for Burning Man (courtesy of Alexander Rose)

Designing the Man for Burning Man

Alexander (Zander) Rose’s concept design for the Man, Cryptomeria, was selected for this year’s Burning Man. I talked to Rose this week about his process, which involved hand sketches as well as AI renderings. The interview is up on Make:’s Substack.

Hand-drawn sketch by Alexander Rose, courtesy of Rose

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Honestly, part of the appeal was that I wouldn’t have to build it myself. It’s my design, but someone else constructs it. That’s both terrifying and freeing. It’s attributed to me, but not built by me, which is weird.

—Alexander Rose

It might also be weird to design something that will be burned, but Rose has thought a lot about how it will burn:

Designing the Man for Burning Man

Alexander Rose's inspiration for his design was one of the oldest trees in the world

makezine.substack.com/p/designing-the-man-for-burning-man?r=bil7r

FIRST and LEGO Education split

FIRST and LEGO Education will no longer partner to support the FIRST LEGO League and they will go their separate ways. FIRST said that LEGO Education will not renew its partnership with FIRST, which had been in place since 1998. “The 2026–2027 season will be our final season, after which FIRST LEGO League will conclude,” said Chris Rake of FIRST in a press release. Rake said that “FIRST is actively developing our own next generation of K–8 program experiences.” LEGO Education also said in its press release that it will launch a 2027–2028 season of its own.

Make your own stickers

Editor Sam Freeman reviews the Liene PixCut S1, a portable sticker maker that prints and cuts out stickers on 4″×7″ sheets or 4”x6” photo stock.

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“The stickers print one color at a time, and they look great. The S1 uses thermal dye sublimation, and you can see the depth of color on the page. Liene also included non-adhesive photo stock. While there was some banding, colors were clear and vibrant.”

The app includes ducky clipart for the Sports Racers. Slight bump on bottom right.

This could be fun to have in a school makerspace or at a community Maker Faire.

School Maker Faire at Coyote Grange Hall

Making glove octopi was one of the activities at the School Maker Faire, held at the Coyote Grange Hall in San Jose, CA. Elise Englehardt, the organizer, sent us photos and wrote about it for the MakerEd newsletter. I love how it connects students and families to the different kinds of making in the community.