New geek necklace sets and limited edition earrings in time for Valentine’s Day

Friday, 20 January 2012 06:55

Green Resistor Necklace and Earring Set
Here is a companion necklace to our popular Green Resistor Triplets Earrings. The necklace features larger versions of the resistors use on the earrings and comes packaged in an anti-static bag with a tamper-proof holographic authenticity seal.

Teal Capacitor Necklace and Earrings Set
Both our Teal Triple Capacitor Necklace and Capacitor Earrings are popular, so we decided to combine them as a set, with just a slight variation on the necklace.

Orange Varistor Earrings
Varistors are like the “surge protectors” in a circuit. We happen to have two pairs of these orange components elegantly made into earrings.

Bridge Rectifier Earrings
We only have one pair of these earrings made from bridge rectifiers and dangly spring rings

. All of these pieces come in silver anti-static bags with a tamper-proof, holographic seal of authenticity. Make someone happy this V-Day!

Geek vs. Nerd infographic

Wednesday, 4 January 2012 02:12

What do you think? Do these differences make sense to you?

[via]

Happy Almost New Year! Here’s a coupon for you.

Thursday, 29 December 2011 11:09

The new year is just a few days away, so we’re sending you a coupon good for $10 off your order of $40 or more,* good until January 12, 2012. Just use the code h4ppy2012at checkout.

We’ve also added a bunch of stuff to our Clearance section to get make room for new stuff to be added next year.

Have a good celebration!

-Liz

* In-stock items only. Not good on t-shirts or musical instruments. EXP 1/12/2012. Limit one use per customer.

New limited edition ties from Cyberoptix

Friday, 2 December 2011 06:05

Cyberoptix has unleashed more limited edition ties made from real vintage screens used for printing circuit boards. The Resistor Ties feature a pattern for (presumably) an oven’s controls. If you click the detail photos you can zoom in and check out the component labels. The modified polka-dot pattern of the Screw Ties is actually various screw heads including Frearson, Philips, Polydrive, Robertson, slotted, Torx, hex and cross (check out this awesome identification guide we found on Instructables). One of these would be a great gift for an engineering / DIY kind of guy. The Element Control Tie features a graphic, minimalist slice of a wonderfully geometric circuit board screen that was used to print circuit boards for appliance control panels on an oven. Lady Ada has a nice section on circuit board design if you’re curious.

Cyber Monday? Nope: Chuck Testa

Monday, 28 November 2011 11:55

Hello, friends! Liz here. In case you’re wondering why Fractalspin is not jumping on the Cyber Monday / Black Friday uber-discount-mania bandwagon, it’s because the prices you see here are closely tied to real value.

Mrr?? Ok, let me explain.

I started Fractalspin to share cool stuff with people who are interested in fashion, technology, geekery, edgy electronic music, and the blurry overlaps within and without. It’s been super fun, and so rewarding to meet such a cool group of people who’ve wandered this way from all directions. I feel so lucky to have interacted with you all, and I am grateful for your support. I personally select everything we carry here because I think you’ll like it, and the stuff I choose to carry is special. I seek out interesting people creating innovative things who have committed their time and energy to creating these interesting things.

Now that the gushing gratitude is out of the way, let me share some profiles with you so you see where I’m coming from.

I met Michael Una of Unatronics through a friend and got a tour of his studio. It contained–besides the obligatory monitors and computers–a disco-ball bike helmet and a bicycle that would generate music patterns triggered by wheel-speed. Later, he sends me an invite to an art opening at a show featuring his latest work. His piece involved sitting in a chair with headphones listening to ambient sounds that were supposed to resonate with your brainwaves and create a different state of mind. No, this is not craziness–this is being researched. Since Michael understands electronics, he built his own musical toys, the Beep-It, Beep-It Deluxe, and the Seeq-It.

Love our geek-chic ties? They have come from the mind of Bethany Shorb, aka Toybreaker / Cyberoptix. I met her because while touring as an electronic music producer and DJ through Detroit, I saw her art, performed alongside her, and was intrigued with all the things she does. Fast forward a bit and I learn she’s making cool ties. So it’s obvious: Must. Share. We carry the geekier side of the ties she puts out. BTW: She also doesn’t do sales. For pretty much the same reasons.

Unlike major retailers who negotiate on price as a function of distributor-ship arrangements (boring, I know), here at Fractalspin, it’s not about margins. It’s not about increasing chart digits to make shareholders happy. It’s not about doorbusters or bait and switch action. That makes zero sense.

It’s about giving you something super cool that you probably didn’t know was awesome until just now, and you feel comfortable knowing that we are doing it right.

Take a deep breath. And another. Then think about your gift recipients. What do they need? It doesn’t matter what you paid for it–that’s only a tiny victory in your own mind. Think about what they need that they can’t readily acquire.

Keep it local, keep it human-level, keep it authentic.

Totally sincerely, IRL for reals,

Liz McLean Knight

New “Replacement Parts” for the Electronic Musicians’ Emergency Adapters

Thursday, 10 November 2011 04:34

In case you lost pieces from your Electronic Musicians’ Emergency Adapters, or left a cable plugged into a mixer in Ohio, you can easily “>replace the parts you’ve lost easily.

Credit Card Organizers are back in stock

Wednesday, 28 September 2011 06:32

One of our most popular and unusual wallets, our retro-futuristic Credit Card Organizer is now back in stock. You load up six cards in the slots and then push the switches forward to access the card you want. Pretty neat.

Circuit Board and Microchip Ties

Wednesday, 31 August 2011 03:48

These are part of a limited run of ties printed from vintage circuit board screens. The first is made from a PCB screen and the second is from an SIR Test Board. Yes, they are both printed from real circuit board screens! Cool, right?

$30.00 each

You can win a special edition Neuron Tie in Black on Sage

Thursday, 9 June 2011 04:24

You have a chance to win a special edition Neuron Tie in Black on Sage by Cyberoptix, just in time for Father’s Day.

Tell us “Who’s your favorite fictional dad?” on our Facebook page by June 16 to enter for a chance to win. Peter Griffin? Darth Vader? Mufasa? The Doctor (Yes, he’s a dad–Google it.)?

Good luck!

Cool stuff for geek dads

Thursday, 9 June 2011 02:20

Upgrade your dad’s wallet to a Duct Tape BiFold Wallet and he’ll get compliments every time he pays for something. What cool is that even though these are made with real duct tape, it has a special adhesive that won’t lift, shift, or get sticky.

Yeah, yeah, we know that ties for Father’s Day can be cliche, but if you check out our ties you’ll see they are far from ordinary. If your dad’s a scientist, he’ll love our Microscope Ties. And if he’s a psychologist / psychiatrist, our Neuron Tie, featuring a screenprinted, textbook-like neuron would be perfect. f you’ve got a space nerd for a dad, the retro-blueprinty IApollo Cockpit Tie would stylishly project his appreciation (and envy) of astronauts (unless he is one, then, awesome!).

Or, you could get your dad a stylish new laptop bag that looks like a Vintage B12 Pilot’s Messenger Bag, with subtle leather accents. If your dad has more minimalist tendancies, the Classic Messenger Bag that’s available in 3 colors will be sure to make him happy.

If you have a gadget-obsessed dad, he’ll love opening the Lightmare LED Watch with a stainless

steel band on Father’s Day. The large dot represents the hour hand on a traditional analog watch, and the small dot at the outer edge represents every five minutes. The four dots in the center represent the minutes between the five minute marks.

Cool writeup on our screw earrings & hex standoff necklaces

Friday, 27 May 2011 11:58

Here’s a nice writeup from Screwcrew, featuring our “carefully crafted and constructed creations for fastener freaks”.

Call for submissions to a Chicago electronic music compilation

Thursday, 19 May 2011 03:07

subVariant is planning to release a free-to-download collection called Frequencity featuring quality songs from regional musicians. All electronic music genres are welcome.

subVariant will also release an original t-shirt design in the theme of “Chicago Electronic Music” when the compilation is officially released.

Ready to submit? Read more and do it now!

The deadline for submissions is Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 8pm.

Share with the interwebs!

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