Free printable! Laboratory glove boxes

It is so much fun to gather graphics and put them together to make cool minis!

Today I am happy to be able to offer a printable with several glove boxes.  These are actual boxes that I have scanned from real ones we have in our lab (or used to have, because we change brands frequently).  I have cleaned them and scaled them down to 1:12 scale.

There is a piece of a real lab glove peeking out of the boxes

The blue ones we have now; the green one we used to have when we were at the University of Virginia (not included in the printable)

Notice that there are S and M size, and they are available open or closed.

There will be more printables coming as soon as I am finished with them.  There will be a bit a everything, from posters to signs  to packing labels, and of course, supplies boxes - like the brown ones in the shelf, that are of serological pippetes.

As always, please feel free to print as many times as you like, gift them to friends and pass the file along to anyone (links back are nice too!).  Just please do not sell the file or your creations.  Thank you and enjoy! ♥

A new project in the making: Modern Laboratory scene!

I am so, so excited about making this!

It was something that I wanted to do for a very long time; since the time we lived in the US and I started to spend time in my husband's lab there.  Evrything was magical, I wanted to take it with me in miniature.  I did not really start the project back then; I was happy to make a couple of kit boxes similar to the ones he used, and I scanned a couple of glove and tissue boxes.  But the lack of access to what would be the actual furniture stopped any desire to start making a lab.

Well, thankfully, that changed recently!  I found by chance a very talented artist on Etsy that has for sale STD files, and 3D printed furniture that looks just like they have been taken out of a lab and shrunk.  He is Jakku Salvage, and if you like modern scince you definitely need to check him out!

When I mentioned this shop to my husband and showed him the models, he was so onboard with the idea of a replica of his lab in mini that I ordered at once the furniture I needed and some really cool props for the scene.

While they were making their way to my home, I started to construct the shadow box.  Husband wanted it no larger than a folio (or letter size for our US friends), because he actually wants to take the scene to the lab once it is completed.  So I purchased 4 pieces of folio size foamboard and assembled them:

Foamboard ready to be assembled!

Before I started the assembly, I tried to find a linoleum floor - that's what we have in the lab - and I was very lucky to find one.  This one comes from Artsy Miniatures, and it looks very much like ours, except ours is not tiled.  But the pattern is almost identical!

A completely printed folio, ready to be glued

Already in place...

...and we glue the walls!  No need to calculate sizes, just trim the excess

And we have our room!  I was so excited when I could finally place the lab bench to see what it looked like:

Love at first sight!

Today I got the fridge, that believe it or not, is almost an exact replica of the one we have in the lab:

The wood shelf is just an ordinary one.  Needs to be painted though...

I am in the process of collecting photographs of actual stuff we use to replicate it in miniature size.  I already have a couple of things done, and I will be starting the printing and assembling.  It's going to be so much fun!

Natural history cabinet project

Do you know the curiosities table Kassandra has in the drawing room?  I wanted to do a natural history cabinet after seeing this magnificient piece of furniture from The Miniature Maker:

I fell in love!  But I wanted to make my own, so I searched for an empty, unfinished cabinet to use.  I finally got one from Beautifully Handmade on eBay:

As you can see, it is a very modern style, but the antique looking ones were out of my desired price range.  So, I started by staining it with a Scalecolor ink (I used the Inktense Chestnut shade), and let it dry.  I love how intense and soft the color of this shade is; and then I replaced the wood knobs by brass handles, to give it a more antique look:

Finished this, my favorite part started: assigning a theme to each drawer and designing them.  Originally I wanted to divide the drawers with wood slots as the original one has, but I finally decided that that would rest space for the collection, as the drawers are not that big, so I decided against it; and instead, I was content to line the drawers with textile-textured scrapbook paper:

Trying out the pattern

Lined drawers

Pattern for the big drawers

Final look

So awesome!  Now the real fun begins: the collections for the drawers!  I started with some minerals and gems.  Some I had around; some others were kindly donated by a co-worker.  I wanted to do just one drawer, but I ended up doing two because I liked so many of them I could not fit them all in just one.  I organized them, and then I started making little labels to identify each of them.  The labels come from Vectoria Designs, simply reduced to the minimum expression.  Even though once printed the lettering was not readable, I assure you each of them has the name of the specimen, a date, and whether or not they are donated and by whom.

Trying out the labels

Aren't they amazingly pretty?

Two done, four to go!  The next one had to be, of course, marine specimens!  I used real tiny shells, and I glued a faux pearl to one of them to simulate an oyster.

Spell under the sea!

The next one came as a surprise.  I was talking to another co-worker about this project, saying I wanted to try and find real fossils for one of the drawers, and she was so generous to offer to donate a real fossil she found in a trip when she was cursing her biology degree.  Naturally, I accepted immediately!  It was a little big for a 1:12 scale standard, but there are big size fossils too in real life:

It fitted just well enough!

See the label attached to the back of the drawer?

On to the next one.  This time, butterflies!  I found a very pretty butterfly classification chart, and searched for suitable pictures of each one that I liked.  Then I made the labels with the common name, the scientific name, and the distribution of each species.  It was a challenge to cut and glue each one!  I even added little antennae using the bristles of a toothbrush, which I painted black:

And, there is one drawer left!  This one is going to have a collection of bird eggs.  But, since I have to sculpt and paint each egg by hand, I still haven't started with them, since it is going to be time consuming.  But I wanted to share what I have thus far.  

More pictures when I finish the last drawer!

A new miniature challenge from my mom - and I made it!

My mother is starting yet another scene - she says it is the last one because she does not have any more room.  I am not so sure about that...

This time the place to recreate is a doctor's office and the petitions for stuff have already started.  I made for her some medical posters, which was easy enough.  But she asked too for x-rays.

It would have been very easy to just print some x-rays on regular paper, but I wondered if it would be possible to make them so they would be plastic-like, like the real deal.  At first I thought of taking a normal image of an x-ray, make a mirror copy, print them and glue them together, and somehow attach a plastic cover on them.  But then, it occurred to me that the result would probably be too thick, and not very real-looking.

Then, the bulb in my head went on, and I thought about using transparency film.  Even though they may be outdated with the tablet technology, we used them to make Power Point-like presentations.  You can print them at home with a regular printer.  I had a couple of pages that I bought when I made Kassandra's lantern, and I decided to give it a try.

I googled some random x-rays, and simply reduced the size and increased the DPI ratio with Photoshop.  And I made it!  Here is the result:

They look awesome!!

I hope my mom likes them!

A couple of printable freebies for you

I have been organizing my miniature files this week, and I found a couple of things that I used to sell in my shop, which I was asked several times if I could make accesible as download for a printable.  Since the shop is no more, here is a gift for you all.  The Apothecary boxes printable and the Apothecary labels collection printable:

Both the boxes and the labels were made using real, unmodified vintage pharmacy and apothecary labels.  Some of them have been restored a bit, but that is all.  No letters were changed and nothing extra was added.  They are all authentic as they are (were).

I hope you guys have fun playing with them.  I just love making dozens of tiny bottles and filling them up!  As always, feel free to share and pass them around (links are welcome too).  Just do not sell the files or any creations you make with them. 

A miniature Historia Naturalis collection

My boss' husband is an avid collector of rocks, shells and other natural specimens. He is a biologist, and teaches in a high school.  One day hubby and I were invited onto their house, and he showed us some specimens of his collection.  I told my boss that I wanted to make for him a miniature shell collection, but that thought was forgotten for a long time.

Now that we are about to relocate again (it is a long story, and for another post), I am making all the miniatures that I promised people I woud do.  And I made his yesterday evening:

The label says "Found at Virginia Beach. West Atlantic Ocean"

Actually, I bought the shells at a Michael's craft store when I was living in Virginia. In a way they come from Virginia, right?

I brought it today to work to give to my boss so she could give it to him.  She says he is going to be awed, but not as much as their little girl, who is only 6 but already loves dollhouses.  I can't wait for her to tell me about his reaction!

This afternoon I am making a chocolates box for Cris' sister (the same Cris that gifted me the fabulous miniature hat, hat stand and hat box).  Pictures of that tomorrow!

Dracula by NBC: a review of the four first episodes

 
I wanted to like this series so much.  So much.  Because I love Dracula.  The sanguinarian, murderer, selfish Dracula that Bram Stoker created.  I have read the book several times, and I will read it again many more.  But there is so much wrong with this series that I am still debating if I will keep watching it.

So I am going to list all the problems I have with the series.  Indulge me, because this is going to be long.  I am not going to do the review episode by episode, but I will point out the biggest C'MON MAN! moments that I had while watching.

First of all, disclaimer: I am fascinated by Victorian society: the clothes, the mannerisms, the literature, the customs, but I acknowledge that it was a shitty society for women.  I would not have liked to live then, because there was too much pressure put on women and they lacked a lot of rights that today we (most of us) take for granted, such as a right to have an education, to have properties, bodily autonomy and the right to vote.  So my critics are going to be made in the spirit of Victorian society.  By that I mean, I would point out what Victorian women would never do, or think, or act on.  That does not mean that I am not for modern women acting on their own choices, whatever those may be.

Let's begin: First, Mina on the university.  MINA ON THE UNIVERSITY!  The Mina on the book had a certain education, but not too much.  She was a typist, and she knew how to do short-hand.  But that was all.  And mind you, she said many times that she acquired those skills to help Jonathan with his work.  But she never intended on having a job or being self-suficient.  The Mina of the series wants her own practice, with her own patients, and expects Jonathan to be perfectly fine with that and to support her choices.  So naturally, when she hears Jonathan say to his colleagues that "Mina will forget about medicine and everything else when I put this ring on her finger" she gets mad and leaves with a harrumph and thinking "how dare he?".  There are so much problems with this I do not even know where to begin.  So bullet points:

- Women did not get accepted at universities in 1896.  There were some colleges for them, but most colleges and universities of high standing at that time were exclusively for men.

- IF Mina would be accepted in a prestigious university because her father was a physician, you can bet that neither her classmates or her teachers would have been kind to her.  Most probably she would have been bullied into solitary and the worst assignments would have been for her.

- She would NEVER had been chosen by a teacher as an assistant; but we have Van Helsing to help her there, just because; even though she said she could not handle well the practices with scalpels, and cut herself several times, and had to stitch her wounds herself, she is the one with THE HIGHEST GRADE IN THE EXAM!  Because people believing in themselves just do *magic* and pass exams they are not ready to pass.

- People (men and women alike) would not trust her as a physcian - because she is a woman.  Yes, it's sexist, but that sexism was very present in 1896.  She may have had her practice, but she would not have had patients.  Even if the rest of the society would follow her lead and trust her, she would have to be very, VERY careful with her reputation, or all her hard work would go to waste.  But she obviously did not think about it very thoroughly.  Keep reading and you'll see.

- Jonathan's peers would never treat him seriously if they discovered (or knew) that he did not "keep his wife under control".  That is, at home and taking care of their (future) children.  That also would be an stigma for Mina herself.  She may be all for renovation and women following their dreams, but the rest of the society would not, so that would rend them friendless.  No men or women would be found in their company, because their ideas would be simply thought of as "scandalous".  They would not be invited anywhere, and people never would accept their invitations.  You simply could not be without friends in polite society.  They would be social pariahs.  That would make Mina's being a physician even more useless.  And let's not kid ourselves: her friend Lucy would abandon her in the long run, or she would risk becoming a pariah herself (that meant her not marrying EVER!) *gasp!*

I guess the main problem is that they have written Mina's character as a modern woman and insterted her in Victorian society, and that simply does not work.  They may have made a few concessions to make her more independent (she talks about people asking her if she wanted to be a nurse, and that option would have been great), but the fact that she thinks of herself as an equal of Jonathan is just a far fetched thought for any Victorian woman (and man!).  A woman of that age would never have said to her boyfriend "You have something that Grayson will never have: me".  That is a very modern thought, and entirely incredible in 1896.

Having talk about Victorian society, it is worth mentioning all the social conventions the main characters are defying, such as:

- Mina and Jonathan embracing and *kissing* in public!  A lot!

- Mina wearing her hair down - only loose women would wear their hair down in public

- Mina showing her ankles

- Mina showing cleavage during mornings

 I am sure there are more things like these that I have not noticed (or that I don't remember).

Another C'MON MAN! moment that stuck with me happens in the 4th episode.  Van Helsing gives Mina a lot of work to do, and leaves her in his office.  So after a while (I guess she was bored or tired), she begins to explore the office and finds a door behind a curtain, locked with a padlock.  So she immediately JUST HAS TO ENTER THE FORBIDDEN ROOM, and begins a frantic search for the key; she opens drawers and boxes until she finds the key, and she opens the door.  Not happy with that, she begins to explore the secret laboratory, opening everything until she finds a box with (what we lab people call) slides with samples.  So NATURALLY she takes a microscope and examines them, discovering very interesting things.

The main problem I have with this scene is that a man that has been your mentor chooses you among all other students, against every odd, to be his assistant (even after she disappointed him arriving at the university at 2 PM one day after a night out "clubbing"), leaves you in his place of work with chores to do, and you violate his confidence and invade his privacy by searching for a key he does not want you to have, and entering a place you are not supposed to enter, and perusing things you are not supposed to peruse.  PERFECTLY FINE, YOU ALL.  We all do this when our bosses are out, don't we?  So imagine if her boss finds out, and tells someone "this woman is not to be trusted with someone's privacy".  She is supposed to be a physician.  How could her patients trust her if their confidence is violated, after what she did to Van Helsing? 

And then we have the other problem.  The problem when you try to mix science with folklore: IT DOES NOT WORK, unless you know perfectly well what you are doing, or have a science professor by your side correcting your notes .  The thing with the slides.  Let me explain what is the deal with slides and microscopes.  To see a slide with a sample on it, you have to kill the cells (or whatever it is you want to observe) and stain them, because otherwise they WON'T BE VISIBLE.  We have now very good microscopes with which you do not need to stain or dye the samples because they have modern technology to capture and reflect light, which helps with the visualization.  But those microscopes DID NOT EXIST on 1896.  Mina could be very well seeing cells under a microscope, but not living cells (even if they are supposed to be alive because they are Dracula's), and certainly not if they are not stained.

Another C'MON MAN! moment.  After Mina and Jonathan fall-out, Lucy comes by and takes her out because "her mother has left leaving her alone".  A mother in Victorian society would NEVER leave a non-wed daughter alone in London without a chaperone; it would be most likely she would have taken Lucy with her.  But hey, we needed the girls to be alone so they could go party like a rockstar!  They go clubbing!  Well, what it would have been clubbing in the 19 century: they go to a Bohemian bar!  And they drink absinthe!!!  Why, why, in the name of all that is holy, WHY???!!!!

The absinthe scene was upsetting as hell for me, for obvious reasons, since I like to drink absinthe.  I absolutely love the absinthe scene in the Coppola movie: so beautifully, accurately and perfectly made.  Take the one in the NBC Dracula:  We have the girls sitting while a man is preparing their drinks.  First mistake:

Take note of the prominent label, so we all know we are drinking absinthe

Absinthe is not neon green.  Absinthe is peridot green.  But I am ready to forgive this, since poorly made absinthe at the time was dyed with copper sulfate so it would be a green color.  But then it came this:

Someone bring a fire extinguisher!!!

They set it on fire. THEY SET IT ON FIRE!!!!!!! ARGHHHHHH!!!!! 

No, no, and a thousand times NO.  Absinthe was drunk MIXED WITH WATER!  And it was drunk in the middle of the afternoon, as an aperitif before dinner.  Not as a "midnight cocktail" drink.  But wait, someone will say, they are in a Bohemian bar (Dracula mentions it some scenes later), and they are drinking it doing the "Bohemian ritual".  So it must be correct, right? WRONG.  The "Bohemian ritual" was invented by the Czech absinth producers circa 1990, to mask the poor taste of their concoctions.  The following paragraphs in cursive are taken from The Wormwood Society website:

At no time in the history of absinthe, until the late 1990's, has the “Czech Method” of lighting absinthe-soaked sugar on fire—recently popularized in the movies From Hell, Moulin Rouge, and Alfie—ever been used.  This is a modern innovation and a pointless abuse of good absinthe.  Aside from spectacle, it has no effect whatsoever except possibly that of introducing a burnt-marshmallow taste to the absinthe thus obscuring the delicate herbal nuances and ruining its flavor.

No one who knows anything about absinthe and its history would use this method.  Compare it to shaking a bottle of champagne.  Given the high-proof nature of the liquor it can also be very dangerous, resulting in a cracked or broken glass, injury and accidental fire.

It's probable that the “Czech method” was borrowed from the Café Royale, a traditional coffee drink where a brandy or cognac-soaked sugar lump is ignited in a spoon before adding it to the coffee.  This was depicted in 1887 by the American painter, Irving Ramsey Wiles in his painting, The Loiterers.  Several years ago the painting was mistaken (and mis-titled) as portraying a couple drinking absinthe.

More over, they show some moments later Mina having visions of a past life, and we are led to believe they have been induced by the hallucinogenic powers of the absinthe she has drunk.  HELL NO!  Absinthe is not and never was a psychedelic drug.  You don't trip ballz with absinthe, sorry.  The thujones, that are supposed to be the responsible for the hallucinations, are convulsants, nothing more.  And you would need to take such amount of them that you would be dead from alcohol poisoning before noticing their effects.

Another point to make, regarding Mina.  Remember when we talked about respectability and reputation?  Who would trust a physician that spents all night (they come home at dawn!) partying and supposedly taking drugs?  Another thing to rest points to Mina.

There is more, but these points are the worst.  I could mention the fact that Dracula was never sensible to sun burning, or ask why the Order of the Dragon would take the time, resources and chance to create a monster that could potentially destroy them.  And let's not forget Lady Jayne.  A Victorian lady wearing leather trousers, that has an assasin's technique knowledge and weapons, and decapitates people.  Sure, why not?

Keep them coming, NBC.  Or better yet, DON'T.

*ETA*: I just found out that Cleolinda is doing episode recaps of Dracula in her journal.  I will go read them now, and you probably should too.  They will be a lot more fun than to watch the series.

Hand hygiene

Yesterday at the lab we were shown this video:

Please, pass it along, and remember to cleanse you hands frecuently.  Not only for yourself, also for the sake of others.

Clean hands save lives.

On vampires and blood

Hematology is one of the subjects on the lab tech course that I am doing, and I just love it.  Not only because it is fascinating, but also because I am a vampire lover, and when I realized I was going to have 15 hours a week of talks on blood I thought life could not get better (I’m kidding!).  I secretly hoped I could discover what exactly nourishes the vampire, and if it could be explained by science. 

So if you want to take the journey with me…

CRASH COURSE ON HUMAN BLOOD – for vampire lovers and the scientifically inclined (or both at the same time) – PART ONE.

Blood is a very simple substance, and at the same time, terribly complex.  It cannot be created (sorry, Ms Harris, True Blood will never exist, and the Japanese will not be able to invent it), and if someone needs it, it has to be donated.  An adult person has about 68-77 ml of blood per kilogram of weight.  Do the math and see how much blood you have.

Blood is a tissue made of living cells (erythrocytes, leukocytes and platelets), and plasma.

Erythrocytes are the commonly called red blood cells.  They are red because of the hemoglobin, which is a protein they carry inside that contains iron and that transports oxygen.  Red blood cells live up to 120 days, and we have around 4,500,000 erythrocytes per ml of blood. 

These are my favorites.

Leukocytes are the white blood cells (you may know them as they are part of our immune system).  They are the only blood cells that have nucleus.  We have 5,000-11,000 leukocytes per ml of blood.  There are 5 types of leukocytes: 
Neutrophils
Basophils
Eosinophils
Limphocytes
Monocytes

It would be long to describe them all, so let’s say that most of them have a life of hours or days, except the limphocytes, that can last for years – these are the ones that keeps us free of diseases because they keep a memory of the agents that enter our body and how they got rid of them.  That’s why they last for so long.

Platelets have a life of 10 days.  They are the agents that close up wounds when we get hurt (they stop the hemorrhage) , and we have 140,000-400,000 platelets per ml.

Plasma is the liquid fraction of the blood.  Of the total amount of blood, 50-55% is plasma, and the rest are the blood cells.  Plasma is composed of:

- 91.5% of water

- 7% of proteins (55% albumin, 38% globulins, 7% fibrinogen)

- 1.5% of other substances such as glucids, lipids, electrolytes and waste products

The fibrinogen is a protein that helps the blood get clotted.  A blood extracted can get clotted as fast as 3-7 minutes.  That’s why labs use anticoagulants when they extract blood that has to be preserved, be it for lab work or a blood bank.

So, after all this info, what’s your take?  Why vampires like blood so much and what is exactly the component that nourishes them?

Here are my thoughts on the matter:

It cannot be the plasma – it is mostly water, after all!  Maybe the proteins on it? Albumin… You can get that of eating eggs.  Not the fibrinogen.  After all, vampires do not lick blood that has been spilled and it’s clotted.  Well, some do.  Eli from “Let the right one in”.  But they usually don’t. 

The globulins then?  They are proteins with medium molecular weight…

What about the cells?  Oh, how they love the red color… Maybe it’s the erythrocytes.  The thing the erythrocytes have the most is the hemoglobin, which is mainly iron and oxygen.  They do not need the oxygen, as most folklores insist they are dead. 

Leukocytes are not needed either.  As dead people, they do not have diseases or infections.

Platelets are very, very small.  If they needed them, probably a whole person would not be sufficient per night.

Hold the thoughts while I am being taught in a few days about blood banks, and we’ll talk about the honorable vampires that want to live off them…

In the meantime, here are some pictures of slides of dyed blood I made.  I took them with my camera through the lens of the microscope.

The orange dots are erythrocytes.  The two purple dots are two basophils.

More erythrocytes.  To the top right, a neutrophil.  To the left, a monocyte.  The one that is further down is a lymphocyte.

Erythrocytes and an eosinophil.

A monocyte.  The tiny purple dots at the bottom are platelets.

And if you have read up until now, go and reward yourself with an erythrocyte, a leukocyte or a platelet.

A new design made specially for all of you mad scientists and medical geeks out there!

This is a set of 10 medical posters that will look splendid in any laboratory, asylum, hospital or medical office. They are real vintage medical drawings printed in parchment paper, for you to hang on the walls, frame or simply lay about. This set includes brains, skeletons, the circulatory system, the heart and muscles. Already available at my shop!

Scientist weekend

Hubby and I are now working long hours in the lab after every body has gone. I help when I can; lately I have been going there 3 hours a day, and I can not sit for a moment because of all the work that there is to do. It is practically impossible to spend all that time between experiments without thinking "How could I do this in miniature?".

To relax tension, I have made this simple but funny vignette:

Yes, in labs there are objects chained to the wall - he said that chained containers are generally made of aluminum, not glass, but I think that seeing green stuff in a glass jar is more fun! It's available in my shop, so go grab it if you like it :)

Spending all this time in the lab has given me new energy to try and make a lab bench in miniature. I'm considering the possibility that most of the stuff that will sit there is too geek-related for the non-scientist to understand (I have made the equivalent of a Kleenex box with wipes for microscope lens - they are called Kim Wipes), so I don't know if it would sell well. We'll see...

Lab Crafting

Yup, I do not only craft miniatures, but scientific crafting too!

My dear husband is so so busy these days that I pop in at the lab when everybody else is gone to keep him company. But I like to help if I can, and this is what I have been doing lately for him to use in his experiments. Bear with me, because this is long...

He taught me how to use this lathe so I could make holes in the bottom of little Petri dishes.

Dish before the process. The part on the left is the cover.

You secure the dish in the lathe:

And using the blade of the right (and much caution) you make a hole:

Dish after the cutting

When you have made holes in 20-25 dishes, you clean them up, scratching the rests of the plastic that have not come out. If you skip this step, cells get poisoned by the scraps and then they die :(

When you have finished cleaning them, you line them up in the table and take out 30mm round glass microscope covers. You can see them inside the big round dish:

These covers have been previously treated - you clean them 10 minutes under distilled running water, and leave them inside sulfuric acid overnight. The following day you clean them again under distilled running water and put them in a stove to dry overnight. You take the glue and put a circle on the bottom of the dish:


Then you take a glass cover and stick it to the glue:


You have to squeeze out the air bubbles:

And then you put them under an UV light for one hour on each side to cure the glue. Then there is no way the glue breaks or falls. Yup, the same UV that gives you a tan in a tanning saloon (and because I know how UV lights work, you will never see me in a tanning saloon).

Whew! What a work! Good thing is, doing this saves a lot of money for the lab. A ready made Petri dish with glass bottom costs around $10 - yes, research is expensive-. And this is a nice way to lower the costs.

Oh my, what a nerd I am :)