CIRCLE WITH A DOT

@SarraceniaWilds thank you!

@smellsofbikes Yeah, we had 12 that were already made and enough parts to make 12 custom ones and we sold out in 12 hrs yesterday and I’ve fielded about 10 emails from people who are bummed they missed out. It’s not people’s fault, it’s a dwindling disposable income problem which is a shitty capitalism problem and an authoritarian regime problem. ‍️

@smellsofbikes I absolutely will. It's my favorite platform, it never feels like a chore to post here, and I like my feed. And thank you.

I'm not going to ever stop engineering and making things, my love for building BULLSHIT remains strong, but I am taking a break from selling things and owning a business. Because I am def burned out on THAT bullshit. Lastly, just a big thank you to everyone who has supported us over the years. This community continues to bring me belonging and joy in a way that no other has. If you feel like dropping a comment, I'd love to hear how our work has impacted you. Thanks, friends.

There's a lot more info in the link on the first post, especially about support and repair kits and parts for our yarn tools. These social media accounts will revert to Carrie's personal accounts, and I'll still continue to post BULLSHIT projects here on mastodon, which is my favorite place to share stuff like that. I'm also starting a Discord (yes I know the issues) if you want to be able to stay in touch or easily get my attention. https://discord.com/invite/PFkED6JNca

All of our electronics kits, boards, weird shit, and misc notions are on sale starting now. This week, thru 02/20/26 everything is 25% off. Week 2, 02/21/26 - 02/27/26 everything will be 35% off. The last week 02/28/26 - 03/08/26 everything will be 50% off. Soldering kits are already 50% off and won't be discounted further. https://www.alpenglowindustries.com/collections/closing-sale

Hello friends, family, supporters, and maker community. I've had to make the incredibly difficult decision to shut down Alpenglow. Even though we had a great fall and holiday season, the short story is that we aren't making enough continuous sales to cover our shop space and employee costs, and it's too much of a gap for any short-term solution to cover. So it's time to call it, and just send out a huge thank-you and hug to everyone who has supported us. More info: https://www.alpenglowindustries.com/blogs/all-blogs/closing-the-business

The enameled wires are each one long piece, stripped in the middle by solder, then wrapped around the letter leg or resistor leg and then soldered to them. Then onto the next letter. For the overall paths: Gold/GND goes from the battery out left, to micro, then letters starting with T to B. Red/+ goes from the battery out right, to clasp, then letters B to T, then micro.

(13/18)

Enter service loops. Service loop everywhere! Service loops for everyone! I wrapped the 30AWG wire around a small drill bit to create them. Here are some shots of wiring - red is +, gold is GND (controlled thru a FET by the ESP32), and a 100 ohm current-limiting resistor on each letter. There's one service loop where the wire enters the holder, through a small hole on the right or left at the bottom. So one loop for red and one for gold, 2 wraps each.

(12/18)

Finally, there was the worst part of this entire project - the WIRING. I wanted it to be minimal and not extremely visible at first glance. Silicone wire is super flexible but it's also thick and obviously looks like plastic wires. Enameled wire is much thinner, and has much more of a classy, minimal, look to it that makes it look more like part of the jewelry than electronics. But it's not forgiving and can easily work-harden and break if flexed back and forth.

(11/18)

And how about a microcontroller for some last-minute hackability and maybe sound reactivity? I'm using an ESP32-C3 Super Mini (it has a chip antenna onboard) because I thought the recipient might want to be able to add a remote switch so they could turn it on from their pocket (I ran out of time for this). And it would just be more fun if it were sound-reactive, so I used an amplified analog mic, the DFRobot SEN0487 board. Plus a FET for LED on/off control.

(10/18)

I took a page from @geekmomprojects book & ran power through the magnetic clasp so that it doubled as an on/off switch. I liked the design and feel of some clasps I ordered, but there was no access to the back of the magnet for soldering a wire. Time for another custom part! I used a bar magnet, printed it out of PETG so it would NOT flex, & made a cutout for the wire and solder on the back. The front has a classy BS embedded in it which glows orange under blacklight.

(9/18)

I'm really proud of this part, it's one of my more complex models. Again I used TPU for its flexibility and softness. I used off-the-shelf contacts and slotted them into either end at an angle so that the solder tab ends protrude to either side at the bottom of the part. It's printed entirely without supports. The finish isn't perfect, but it's pretty darned good and black hides a variety of crimes.

(8/18)

How about power? These are bright enough for indoor and night use at 11-12 mA. BULLSHIT is 8 letters, I want it to last at least 8 hours, so that's 768 mAh min. An 18650 is too big for this and overkill, a 14500 is a bit too long to be comfortable in the vertical orientation (horizontal doesn't conform to your neck and would make the choker too long). I had a 16340 size 950 mAh battery with integrated charge port that was perfect.

(7/18)

I found tiny jewelry hinges but didn't see a way of attaching them to the TPU that wouldn't be visible when the letter was lit, didn't add a ton of thickness to the letters, or space between them. Gluing them in did work, but it was super finicky with so many chances to get glue inside the tiny hinges. So I made my own hinge - I created a boss to either side of the letter holders and used 0.8mm brass wire pushed through them. This used the smallest amount of space between letters.

(6/18)

I iterated a bunch on how to join them - at first I was just going to use jump rings, but this made it too long. The letters are pre-made in one size, so I had to figure out how to link them in a flexible way that could wrap around your neck, but also in a way that added the least amount of space between letters. I still needed to have room for a clasp, battery, and microcontroller in the very back, and I wanted the letters to be as close to the front as they could be for readability.

(5/18)

I will note at this point that I found the "T" was wider than the other letters by 3mm, and the "I" was of course very skinny. So custom widths of the holders had to be made for each of those parts, the "I" really needed to be skinnier so the kerning didn't suck. I might have opinions on fonts.

(4/18)

I liked the idea of being able to hide the letters, and for the BULLSHIT to be able to be a surprise. For this, I prefer smoked gray acrylic as opposed to the black "LED" acrylic because I didn't want any diffusion. I needed to be able to hold the acrylic over the letter, so I thought a 3D-printed piece out of TPU would hold the letter and the acrylic snugly, and also be comfortable against your neck as it heats up to body temp pretty quick.

(3/18)

I've been working with filament-style LED shapes a lot lately (check out our Glowies if you haven't already), and they also make letters. Being the person I am, I of course have letters for the best words such as: FUCK, YOU, BULLSHIT, THIS, etc. I wanted to make a bigger piece of jewelry powered by one larger battery, and eventually the idea of a BULLSHIT choker coalesced. Yes, this is also political commentary and a cathartic rage-make. I call it "Choked by Bullshit".

(2/18)

A few weeks ago was my favorite holiday event, a #makergiftexchange that a group of friends have now done for 4 years running. You don't make anything for a specific person, you just make something cool and then we swap and steal white-elephant-style. Strap in for a long thread because this year, I made the finest piece of BULLSHIT I've ever made.

(1/18 probably unless it changes as I manually post this)