Firefang

How NOT to set your bike on fire

Sat, 24 Oct 2026 00:00:00 -0700

This summer I did a motocamping trip to Tombstone mountain, and had a little misadventure involving setting my luggage on fire!

I reached out to Longride to suggest I work on finding solutions, and this is what I came up with.

Yukon Animal Wood Stencils

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 00:00:00 -0700

I made these to brighten up my hallway. The frames are made of Baltic birch and sapele with my new favourite finish: raw tung oil and orange extract. The artwork was spray painted with laser-cut stencils, and the playful splashes were added with drops of acrylic paint.

I could see myself doing more of these for the other Yukon animals, but it's hard to imagine a frolicking muskox.

Electric Circus

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0700

The Yukon Circus Society was hired for a "dangle" at the Electrify Yukon event at the Museum of Transportation, and I was invited to photograph them!

Electrify Yukon was an event to help Yukoners learn about novel electric alternatives to using fossil fuels, things like electric thermal storage and electric snow machines. They wanted some background entertainment, so they asked the Circus Society to set up some silks and a hoop and just improvise.

The Museum of Transportation is a really cool venue, but it's also kind of a nightmare to photograph in, which made it a really interesting photography challenge. All of the walls are well lit, but the centre of the bay is mostly unlit, making all the subjects backlit.

If I ever find myself shooting in the Transportation Museum again, I'll use that as an excuse to gear up with some lights, but in the meantime it was a really good exercise and I got some great photos out of it!

Wire Wrapped World Tree

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0700

My first attempt at wire-wrapped jewelry!

This was another secret-Santa project. It's made of copper wire and then tarnished with liver of sulfur and then buffed with steel wool, and I think the World Tree motif was perfect.

It turns out wire wrapped jewelry is a great craft to do while binging Lord of the Rings.

Icarus

Mon, 07 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0700

I love how interconnected Greek mythology is. It's a maze of lifetimes, with no beginning or end. Here's just a single thread that runs through those stories:

Icarus's father, Daedalus, was a legendary craftsman who fled from Athens to Crete. There, he was ordered by King Minos to build a prison for the Minotaur, a half-bull-half-human monster. What he built was the Labyrinth, a maze so elaborate that upon completion, even Daedalus himself could barely escape.

Under the thumb of King Minos, Athens was forced to make a sacrifice to the Minotaur of 7 young men and 7 maidens every 7 years. Upon the third sacrifice, Theseus, the hero of Athens, volunteered to be sacrificed so that he could defeat the Minotaur himself. But his lover, Ariadne, knew he could never escape the Labyrinth, so she begged Daedalus to help him find a way out. The solution was a simple ball of thread, which he used to trace his way back to the entrance.

Furious, King Minos imprisoned Daedalus and his son, Icarus, within his own prison. Although Daedalus could escape the Labyrinth, he could never leave by boat, as King Minos held an iron grip on the ports. So Daedalus set to escape by air. He built wings for the two of them out of feathers and wax. He warned Icarus not to fly too close to the sun, but the boy, getting caught up in the delight of flight, lost himself and soared as high as he could, until the wax melted and he plunged into the sea. The nearby island, to this day, is known as Icaria.

I wanted the wings to resemble the fall of Icarus, after the wax had melted and his feathers had fallen away, with nothing but the lightest down clinging to the skeleton of Daedalus' constructed wings.

Hegemony Rome: The Rise of Caesar

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0700

The second game in the Hegemony series. I was a programmer and lead designer on this one, and responsible for all the historical research, story, writing, and quests, both on the programming and designing side.

On a personal note, I've always had a soft spot for typography. While I created one of the type faces in the first Hegemony game, I'm quite proud of the font I made for the map this time around. It was based off of an ancient manuscript of Virgil’s Aeneid. It’s a couple hundred years older than the era the game takes place in, but it’s the oldest sample of Roman brush calligraphy I could find. I started by recreating the font on paper with a brush and a pot of India ink, so I could understand its form. It breaks some modern typographical rules, especially in the R and the S, and I quite happily preserved those quirks.

Pick up a copy at Longbow Games.

Hegemony Gold: Wars of Ancient Greece

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 00:00:00 -0700

Hegemony was my first commercially released game. It's a historical strategy wargame that follows Philip of Macedon's unification of Ancient Greece, as well as the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta.

I was a programmer and designer on this project. We were a small team of only 5 at the time, so it was a very dynamic team with everybody doing a little bit of everything.

The game was coded from scratch in C++ and DirectX, and my most notable programming contributions were the questing system, the camera and controls, and the GUI code.

As a designer, my most notable contribution was probably the Peloponnesian War scenarios. I was responsible for all the research, writing, and quests in those scenarios. I also did all the writing, editing, and even voice overs for all of the cutscenes. One of my favourite sources for research was the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan, which I still keep on my bookshelf as a memento.

Pick up a copy at Longbow Games.

Duck and Bergamot Cake

Mon, 06 Sep 2021 00:00:00 -0700

I should really tell people we had bergamot cake and duck, because they get the wrong idea when I say we had duck and bergamot cake.

The roast duck came out perfectly, and the bergamot gave a wonderful chai flavour to the cake. A perfect way to celebrate Caitlyn's birthday!

Anniversary Waffles

Sat, 27 Mar 2021 00:00:00 -0700

Celebrating 5 years with Caitlyn 💞

Caitlyn got me a waffle-maker for last Christmas, so I it seemed like the perfect way to celebrate our anniversary. Served with a strawberry compote, whipped cream, and dark chocolate drizzle.

Whitehorse Bagels

Sun, 21 Mar 2021 00:00:00 -0700

Fresh Whitehorse bagels!

What makes a Whitehorse bagel? Well, I figured if New York bagels are made with barley malt, and Montreal bagels are made with honey, then Whitehorse bagels must be made with birch syrup!

Topped with sesame, poppy, and fennel seeds, and ready for lox and cream cheese!

Baby Yoda

Fri, 18 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -0700

Another Secret Santa gift! This time I decided to learn crochet in order to make this adorable little guy. I always know I hit the mark when somebody thinks their gift was store-bought.

Doctor Mario

Sat, 31 Oct 2020 00:00:00 -0700

It's a me! Doctor Mario!

This is my first time making a latex prosthetic, and I'm pretty happy with it! Made the master mould out of Monster Clay and brushed many layers of liquid latex on it. Wish it came out a little smoother, but I think I would have needed to do a slush cast instead of a brush cast for that. Lots to learn still!

Strawberry Cake Pie

Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:00:00 -0700

Just a simple strawberry quick-bread cake served in a pie pan. Nothing too complicated, but I was really happy with how it turned out.

Steady Rest

Sat, 25 Jan 2020 00:00:00 -0700

A steady rest for the wood lathe at Yukonstruct. I designed this specifically for this segmented vase, and cut it out on our CNC router.

This was designed as a parametric model in Fusion 360 and cut out of some scrap plywood. All the files, and the required hardware, can be found on Thingiverse.

Segmented Vase

Sat, 25 Jan 2020 00:00:00 -0700

Here's my late Christmas present to Caitlyn. I had to precisely cut and glue together 240 tiny pieces of maple and walnut. Along the way, I made a 3D model of the vase in order to calculate the correct cut lengths, I made a custom sled for the table saw in order to cut the angles perfectly, and I designed a large steady rest on the CNC in order to turn such a large piece on the lathe. It's fair to say I learned a tonne!

Scratches, Splinters, and Scrapes Station

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 00:00:00 -0700

This is the Scratches, Splinters, and Scrapes Station I made for our makerspace so we can easily access tweezers, antiseptic pads, and bandaids without having to dig into the first aid kits.

Fits:

1x3" bandaids
⅜×1½" junior bandaids
Banzalkorium chloride antiseptic pads
Uncle Bills Super Gripper tweezers

This was modelled in Fusion 360 as a parametric model, so it can be easily modified if your first aid supplies are a different size. All files, including the label, can be found on Thingiverse.

Tree Coasters

Wed, 22 Jan 2020 00:00:00 -0700

Here's the gift I made for our Yukonstruct Secret Santa this year. It's a set of coasters made out of birch pallet wood.

I used a CNC to carve out different species of trees, and then filled the carvings with resin and copper mica powder.

The source images all came from one of my favorite reference books: With the Grain, by Christian Becksvoort. For those wondering, the trees are birch, pine, poplar, and maple.

Alice in Innovatorland

Mon, 25 Nov 2019 00:00:00 -0700

Enjoy our submission to the annual Yukon Film Society 48 hour film challenge!

How it works: we were given 48 hours to write, film, and edit a 5 minute film. There was just one limitation: this year, we had to use a fish!

Watch my entire film challenge play list here.

Flycatcher

Mon, 30 Sep 2019 00:00:00 -0700

In time for Yukomicon this year I put together a costume for Flycatcher from Fables.

I ended up using a surprising number of tools from Yukonstruct for this costume. The eyes were 3D printed globes, with vinyl-cut irises, the spots on Flycatchers cap were laser cut out of felt, and the jumpsuit was way baggier than in the comics, so I tailored it to fit like a glove.

I Heart Yukonstruct

Fri, 30 Aug 2019 00:00:00 -0700

I Love Yukonstuct!

I needed an excuse to learn how to make customized shapes in Tinkercad, and the arrival of some new 3D printers at Yukonstruct seemed to be the perfect fit.

If you also want to show your love for Yukonstruct, the STL can be found on Thingiverse.

Repair Café Screwdriver

Fri, 19 Oct 2018 00:00:00 -0700

At our Makerspace we run a monthly repair café, but we lost the handle for our security bits, so I made this little replacement. Made with a one-colour printer by pausing the print when it got to the text and changing the filament.

Modelled in Fusion 360 and printed in ABS on a Zortrax M200.

The files for this project can be found on Thingiverse.

Unreal Engine Basics

Fri, 14 Sep 2018 00:00:00 -0700

This is a basic overview of how to build a level with a simple house in Unreal Engine 4.20.

This tutorial is part of an after school class that I'm teaching at the Yukonstruct Makespace here in Whitehorse.

Yukon Wildlife Preserve

Sun, 19 Aug 2018 00:00:00 -0700

Here's a few photos from a little photowalk Caitlyn and I did with a visiting friend.

Caitlyn and I had been here when we first visited the Yukon a couple years ago, but we didn’t have much time to enjoy it the first time. Now that we’ve had our first out-of-town visitor, we decided to show him all the wonderful animals the preserve is protecting, and not only did we get to take our time, but we took a guided tour which was really interesting! Did you know that ground squirrels freeze every winter, dropping to -6°C, and every spring they regrow the brain cells they lost? Or that Yukon has twice as many moose as people? Or that the wood bison (the heaviest animal on the continent at 2000lbs!) were thought to be extinct until they found a herd of 200 in Alberta in the 1950s?

We also met a red fox (apparently all foxes with white tips are red foxes) who was “rescued” as a “puppy”, and her rescuers found a dog to nurse it, until they realized it wasn’t a puppy at all! After they realized it was a fox, they called the preserve to take over raising her. The woman who gave us the tour said she’s been trapping foxes for 30 years, and this is the first one she’s seen that rolls over, wags its tail, and tries to bark. She’s escaped a few times, and every time she just wants to see the handlers that raised her. It turns out, she probably wasn’t even abandoned, because vixens make multiple trips to move their kits, so if you ever see an abandoned fox (or deer — this happened with them too) wait half a day before calling any authorities.

It was a beautiful day for a walk through a gorgeous, gigantic park (750 acres!) that felt like unspoiled wilderness, and then we capped it off with a soak in the nearby Takhini Hot Springs, and came home for some delicious locally-made bison sausages.

Whitehorse Road Trip

Sun, 01 Jul 2018 00:00:00 -0700

In October 2016, Caitlyn and I visited Whitehorse, and we fell in love with it. We started fantasizing about moving to Whitehorse, and then spent the next year convincing ourselves that it didn't just have to be a fantasy. In June of 2018, we finally made the plunge.

We spent 19 days driving from Toronto to Whitehorse in what ended up being a sort of pilgrimage as we explored our vast country on the way to our new home.

This is our travelogue. Each of the images here links to one day of our journey.

Happy Canada Day everyone! This was an incredible way to celebrate it.

Quilting Ruler Holder

Tue, 26 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0700

Another handmade holiday gift! I made this rack for somebody who does quite a lot of quilting and needed a better way to store her rulers.

It's made out of maple and walnut, and has quite a bit of heft! Made entirely with traditional hand tools and then finished with a pyrographic Celtic knot and some Danish oil.

It was a joy to make, and I hope it sees a lot of use as its new owner makes her wonderfully creative and detailed quilts!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Air Plant Planter

Fri, 22 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0700

Here's the Secret Santa gift I made this year. It's an air plant planter made of sapele, maple, and copper leaf. Sapele is an African wood related to mahogany and exhibits chatoyancy, which means the stripes in the grain shift colour as the light hits it at different angles.

As always, made with meat-powered tools and traditional methods, including mixing my own animal hide glue and shellac from flakes.

I also crushed some of the geode I found a while back to use as aggregate under the air plants.

I particularly enjoyed making a very modern looking planter with very traditional methods!

Despecialized Edition Boxset

Fri, 15 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0700

This was a gift for a friend who is a big Star Wars fan. It's is a boxset for Harmy's Star Wars Despecialized Edition — a fan-made remastering of the original trilogy, but without any of the special edition additions.

I can't take too much credit for this, as it's mostly just taking other people's work and putting it together, but I did have fun with the actual box, which I made by repurposing the backing of sketchbooks and lining it with construction paper, and pulling together some graphics to print on sticker paper.

Banff Landscapes

Thu, 12 Oct 2017 00:00:00 -0700

This is a bit of a travelogue from my first trip to Banff National Park, taking in the beautiful landscapes with Caitlyn and her family. Our trip started in Canmore, and we drove up to Athabasca and back.

On the way, we stopped by Mistaya Canyon, which was probably my favourite experience. The roaring waterfall here has carved cavernous trenches into the rock. The sound is deafening, and the canyon has been left mostly natural, without being marred with safety rails. It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine, but when you take these beautiful places and barricade them behind safety rails, the whole thing feels more distant to me, as though I'm seeing it on a screen. When I can actually wander through the landscape, it feels much more personal.

The next big stop was Lake Loise, with its beautiful blue waters. After being hit with the initial splendor of the central view, I found myself quite enamoured with all the birds dotting the landscape. A particular favourite of mine was Clark's Nutcracker, also known as the Woodpecker Crow.

Next up was Moraine Lake and the Valley of the Ten Peaks, which older viewers might remember from the $20 bill some years ago. One of the most fun parts of this site was the huge rockpile which was deposited by retreating glaciers. As the dark clouds rolled in, this rock pile gave a wonderful view of the forested valley framing Armour Peak.

At the north end of our journey was Athabasca, with it's severe, ominous views under the dark clouds, and the cheery, bubbly creeks of the glacial meltwater. This is the first time I've ever seen subarctic landscapes, with struggling brush and the red scrubby foliage that has specialized to thrive in this barren landscape.

We made our way back south along the Bow Valley Parkway, along the history railway and the beautiful fields of autumn colours.

Toronto Street Photography

Tue, 12 Sep 2017 00:00:00 -0700

This was my first outing with my new camera rig. It's a mix of old and new: a Sony a6300 mirrorless camera, and a speed booster with a Soviet-era Helios 44 lens.

Just a nice walk in my hometown to get some pretty pictures.

Pencil Crayon Roll

Sat, 09 Sep 2017 00:00:00 -0700

Here's the birthday present I made for Caitlyn this year. It's a roll for her pencil crayons, so it packs up nice and small. Some of the nice touches are the silver thread, silver acanthus leaves stenciled on the outside, and gold stippling painted on the inside.

Whisky Stones

Thu, 29 Dec 2016 00:00:00 -0700

Another Secret Santa project! This year I made a set of whiskey stones out of soapstone with an shellacked oak box. As usual, this was done with traditional tools and no electricity. I also used real shellac flakes rather than any pre-mixed stuff.

Since I thought it was likely the user would put the whole box in the freezer, I was careful to make sure the wood had room to expand, which is why I used a frame and panel design.

Routing the holes for the stones was particularly tricky. If I did it again, I would just resaw the bottom, drill out the holes, and laminate it back together.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to polish the stones with beeswax or not. In the end, I decided to leave them natural, in case the beeswax flavours the drink at all.

In the end, I was pretty happy with it. This is my first time playing with soapstone, and it turned out to be a pretty nice medium to work with.

Handmade Ornaments

Fri, 23 Dec 2016 00:00:00 -0700

One of my favourite memories of Christmas was making ornaments for the tree, like lollipops and stringers of beads, popcorn, and paper. So this year, Caitlyn and I decided to do as much as we could from scratch: we cut down our own tree, and we got crafty.

Lots of paper, twine, beads, and we recycled a book I bought for a dollar that was falling apart.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Sun, 30 Oct 2016 00:00:00 -0700

For Halloween this year, I dressed up all my friends as the Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Frylock and Master Shake were mostly made out of wire and felt. Meatwad was sewn as a pillow.

Glass Paperweight

Mon, 24 Oct 2016 00:00:00 -0700

The first time I visited Whitehorse with Caitlyn, we had a "hot date" as Lumel Studios, and we each made a paperweight and a flower.

After a somewhat muddled-looking flower, I learned the importance of restraint. This was just two colors twisted together, and the clear coating was dipped in water to give it that cracked texture.

Otter Figurine

Tue, 16 Aug 2016 00:00:00 -0700

Made this little guy for Caitlyn with the MakerBot2 at the Toronto Reference Library. He's only 5cm tall and only cost $4 to print, so the paint cost more than the actual model.

I started with a stock model of an otter and rigged it in Blender so it could be posed. After that, it was just a matter of modelling the sign and slicing it for the printer.

He's painted with acrylics and a toothpick for the fur texture. The lettering on the sign was originally included in the 3D model, but it wasn't very legible, so I sanded off the lettering and printed the lettering on paper so I could glue it in place.

The base was a whole separate project. His feet were too fragile and fell off when I was cutting off the supports, so I wanted something to keep him sturdy. I glued together four plastic cards and Dremelled them down to shape before throwing on a coat of spray paint before gluing him down. Kind of wish I spent more time sanding it down; would have looked really cool with a mirror finish.

Tailored Dress Shirt

Mon, 15 Aug 2016 00:00:00 -0700

A more challenging tailoring job this time. Brought in the sides (with flat-felled seams), the darts, and the arms (the armpits were particularly challenging).

In the process of experimenting with how to do this, I had to rip a lot of stitches, I ruined a Value Village shirt I was practicing on, and I never figured out a good way to sew flat-felled seams on sleeves, but it certainly looks a lot better now.

Selfié

Fri, 20 May 2016 00:00:00 -0700

For those of you with selfie sticks and good imaginations!

Despite the levity, the imagary is actually based off of a diagram from Encyclopédie, which is an incredible compilation of knowledge compiled by Denis Diderot during the enlightenment.

This design can be purchased on an actual T-shirt from Design by Hümans or Threadless.

STM32 Programmer

Thu, 24 Mar 2016 00:00:00 -0700

I've been learning how to program STM32 microcontrollers lately. So far I've just been using a development board, but eventually I want to be able to move away from the development board and embed the microcontroller directly in my projects. So I designed this programmer board in KiCAD to let me program said projects without a development board.

Hand-tooled Leather Journal

Sun, 17 Jan 2016 00:00:00 -0700

Another Secret Santa project. A hand-tooled, hand-dyed, and hand-stitched journal made of top-grain leather. The tooling on the front represents the twin oaks outside the recipient's cottage, under which her dog runs around like mad.

Rabbit Pie

Fri, 15 Jan 2016 00:00:00 -0700

Rabbit pie with pork belly, pork mince, thyme, shallots, duck fat, apple cider, and hot water pastry with fresh lard. Still need to let it cool and fill it with chicken stock gelatin and it'll be ready for potluck lunch on Sunday.

Sailor Tattoo

Fri, 18 Dec 2015 00:00:00 -0700

A couple friends threw a wonderful 1940’s-themed party tonight, so I painted my arms with jagua tattoos and went as a WWII sailor. Most of the tattoos were classic Sailor Jerry designs. Here’s the best tattoo (after practicing with different tattoos on the rest of my body).

It’ll be about 10 days before these fade away, but I still have some jagua left over, and it only lasts in the fridge for 2 months, so if any of my artist friends want to use me as a temporary canvas, go ahead and send me your design.

Cheese Tray

Tue, 15 Dec 2015 00:00:00 -0700

I get to share this now. Here’s the cheese tray I made for a friend for Secret Santa. It’s made of riven maple and walnut with a pyrographic monogram for her and her fiancé over an acanthus leaf design.

It’s made almost entirely with traditional, meat-powered tools, although I will shamefully admit that the soldering iron I used for the wood burning is electric. I’m pretty happy with it.

Originally I planned on making a drawbored cutting board, but when I started splitting the wood, I ended up with slats that suggested a form that was thinner and rounder.

Mysterion

Sat, 31 Oct 2015 00:00:00 -0700

I'm an angel keeping watch over the city at night. As violence and darkness take over the streets I work to rid this city of crime. I'm the symbol this town needs.

Definitely some flashbacks to my Riddler costume here. Another question mark made out of foam, and I re-used the leather mask under Mysterion's hood to give it structure.

By far the most complicated part of the costume was the sewing. I made a pattern out of my running clothes and resewed it in lavender spandex.

Traditional Bucksaw

Fri, 25 Sep 2015 00:00:00 -0700

A traditional bucksaw built with traditional tools. Disassembles nicely, so should be good for portaging next week. (The red oak isn’t typically what would be used traditionally, it’s just what I had on hand.)

8-Bit Valentine

Mon, 08 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0700

I tried to design a low-resolution T-shirt for my Minecraft character. I didn't actually have enough resolution to make this work in Minecraft, but luckily, real t-shirts have plenty of resolution!

And I still ended up making a Minecraft skin that resembles this T-shirt :)

This design can be purchased on an actual T-shirt from Design by Hümans or Threadless.

Mint and orange truffles

Thu, 23 Oct 2014 00:00:00 -0700

Mint and orange truffles for a friend’s Halloween/birthday party, dipped in milk chocolate and drizzled with dark chocolate, with just after little presentation.

An Outlet for Drama

Tue, 15 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0700

Based on the electrical outlets used in America and Denmark. The Danish are clearly a very optimistic people.

This design can be purchased on an actual T-shirt from Design by Hümans or Threadless.

Breaking the Case

Wed, 27 Nov 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Our submission to this year’s Toronto 48 Hour Film Challenge.

The requirements:

Genre: Martial Arts film
Character name: “Pierson Vallis”
Dialogue: “I know you think I'm being dramatic”
Prop: Briefcase

Winner in these categories:

Best Choreography
Best Costumes
Audience Choice: Group D

Watch my entire film challenge play list here.

VH Love

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Our submission to this year’s Toronto 48 Hour Film Challenge.

The requirements:

Genre: Period film
Character name: “Harriet” or “Harrison”
Dialogue: “What would you like to know”
Prop: Scissors

Also, enjoy some outtakes from the metalhead tape!

Watch my entire film challenge play list here.

Spider Jerusalem

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

This time I dressed up as Spider Jerusalem from Transmetropolitan. I bought the glasses from a maker on Etsy, so this costume was mostly down to replicating Spider's tattoos and his attitude.

Oh, and lots of hair removal.

Riddler

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

I have billions of eyes, yet I live in darkness. I have millions of ears, yet only four lobes. I have no muscle, yet I rule two hemispheres. What am I?

My Riddler costume was a lot of fun to make! The mask was molded from leather, and the cane head was foam, fiberglass, and threaded rod.

A Warning of What is to Come, and a Tale of Hope, for Hope is Not Yet Lost

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0700

This summer we decided to give ourselves a film challenge of our own making. After picking ideas from a hat and giving ourselves 48 hours to get principal photography in the can, this is what we ended up with.

This was an official selection of the Grand River Film Festival.

Watch my entire film challenge play list here.