Last week I had the chance to take my first trip to Seattle. The American Society of Engineering Education was holding its annual conference there and two of my Playful Learning Lab undergraduate research students (Emma Koller and Lauren Van Beek) had both a paper* and workshop accepted. (Two peer reviewed acceptances for a national conference. Excellent work Emma and Lauren!)
The conference was wonderful, but I was particularly excited about the location. Two of my long-distance collaborators live in Seattle and this was a great excuse to meet up with them in person. And to pull off a surprise involving two seemingly different fields...
E-Textiles, felting...
I have long been a fan of the amazing hand-felted art of Moxie Lieberman. I've seen her work online, and in-person at the Exploratorium. Here are two of her pieces that I fell in love with:
I was so intrigued that I reached out to her a few months ago and we exchanged some surprise packages, and emails. We then decided that we have to find a way to do a project. Conveniently, one of my research students (the above mentioned Emma Koller) is working in the field of e-textiles. Thus we have embarked on a project to <secret to be announced in a few months>. As Emma and I were going to be in Seattle for ASEE, we asked Moxie to host a felting class for us and some of our friends (and collaborators on unrelated projects.)
But for a three hour class, of course we'd need snacks. Right?
and Pastry!
I also know two chefs in Seattle! Chef Eric Rivera of the Huxley Wallace Collective (who I collaborated with last year when he was still the Director of Research for the Alinea restaurant team)... and his amazing fiancé Kate Siegel, who has just opened the Seattle-based Sweet Tooth Cake Company .
Unbeknownst to Moxie, I asked Kate to make a dozen cupcakes based on Moxie's work. I knew they'd be amazing, but I had no idea just how amazing they would be. Look at those images above of Moxie's felt work, then check out these cupcakes:
Moxie was definitely surprised! We couldn't resist a picture of her about to take a bite of the "Hungry" replica.
After an amazing felting class and some beautiful pastries, I had the opportunity to spend a bit more time with Chefs Kate and Eric, and even visit one of their relatives' farm, complete with baby goats. Which gave Kate another opportunity to make a cake.... one that is possibly the most amazing cake that I have ever seen.
In case you think my opinion of Kate's artistry is biased by friendship, check out the article that Eater Seattle published about her today!
(And yes... I am the luckiest engineering professor in the world to have such amazing friends, collaborators and students.)
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*"Implementing and Evaluating An E-Textile Curriculum in an Engineering Summer Program for Girls," Emma Koller, Lauren Van Beek, Deborah Besser, Siddika Selcen Guzey, AnnMarie Polsenberg Thomas