For Christmas I made my partner a Final Fantasy VII themed picture frame to hold all of the signed postcards, pictures, and posters he got from from Pax East earlier in the year. The edges mimic the style of the guard of the buster sword from the game. The top lights are LED arrays I wired myself from multicolor LEDs and a cannibalized phone charger. The light is diffused by large glass half beads given texture with Mod Podge to match the in-game appearance of Materia.
The frontman of the Syracuse NY-based MetalCore band, A Greater Danger, is a good friend of mine and offhandedly mentioned how expensive good, portable stage risers are at a get-together. He and his bandmates had tried to DIY one in the past but it was rather unwieldy in the end. I was immediately intrigued by this challenge and asked if they wanted any help.
I have been growing my home gym set-up since the winter of 2014 and I was finally in a position to be able to invest in making my own olympic platform in 2016. I used layered plywood and horse mat in 3 pieces so the platform would hug my lifting cage frame and be a bit more portable in the event of a move (there have been MANY). I also included a quote and emblem from my favorite Overwatch character who is actually canonically an olympic lifter.
