How do you empty your tip boxes? Do you wildly attack it with your pipette, removing tips randomly throughout the box, or do you start in a corner and neatly work your way through. I always did the second of the two, but after I left the lab I discovered that there was a third, even more awesome way. You can create tip art by leaving the remaining tips in a pleasing pattern. An alligator, for example:
This is one of the creations from the Tip Art website. They also produce more permanent works of art based on this method, using resin and colours:
Through their Etsy store you can commission works of art similar to this. (Or sexy glasses.)
The nicest ones are all $50, and maybe you don’t have $50 to spare on art, but guess what…
You can win a Tip Art commission with a contest at the Node!
All you have to do is submit an image that has something to do with developmental biology and “intersections”. Bob at Tip Art kindly donated the prize, and it could be yours! Are you already thinking about what you would commission if you won? I am, and I’m not even allowed to participate…
(Yes, that’s promotion of my day job, but I’m always showing off all the Etsy science geekery on here anyway, and now for once I’m actually giving you an opportunity to get something for free!)
5 comments
I love Tip Art it’s great. I’m like you, I work neatly through the box in order!
Have been thinking about submitting my mascot for the image comp, not sure it’s that good though!
Just send it in! We haven’t had that many submissions yet, so your chances of winning are still relatively high, and *always* higher than if you don’t send anything in at all…
In grad school I would spell out words and make smiley faces with my tips. Anything to keep entertained. 🙂 The website is neat. Thanks for sharing.
I used to use my tips in an orderly fashion, but diagonally – starting in one corner, and taking each diagonal row in turn, one tip at a time. People who took their tips either one row or one column at a time thought I was weird, but we _all_ agreed that the people who took their tips in completely random order drove us nuts!
Racking tips was another matter – anything to break the monotony. I tried to find a new pattern each time, but my favourite method was to create mirror image patterns by using both hands, starting at different ends (or corners) of the box.
Cath, did you try Wordpress?
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