Endless Pastabilities #2 - Women in STEM

Contents: Blood of my Enemies, Unicorn Tail Teal, and Armored Unicorn

As you all know, our workshops were born out of a desire to connect with our community, and to let our fans be involved in the process. We’ve had so much fun learning from our community, and finding new ways to integrate our product with causes we can really stand behind.

Our latest workshop was no different, in that, it was the first time our attendance was split 50/50 with men and women. For me, personally, it was a treat to see such representation in the STEM field. We’re honored to celebrate that diversity with our August subscription! Choosing the right colors was the tough part, but that’s where you came in! Thanks to everyone who participated in the poll. We enjoyed sharing these community creations, and appreciate the time you took to give your input.

Our poll revealed a clear winner, Blood of My Enemies, created by Amie Dansby (@amiedoubled). This deep, translucent red was inspired by Amie’s gorgeous cosplay creations. Her day job is coding, so having a creative outlet is a must, and with a background in videogame design and game hardware development, the ideas are always flowing! She’s managed to pick up quite a few technical skills along the way, and incorporates them all into her amazing creations.

Amie’s passion for women in STEM is a personal one. As an early coder, it was difficult to be respected in such a male-dominated field, so much of her early work was published under a male pseudonym. This led to a desire to help other women know that there is no reason to hide. Together with the owners of the National Videogame Museum (NVM) in Frisco, TX, Amie set up a scholarship fund for young women interested in pursuing a degree in game development and technology.

In partnership with Amie and NVM, Protoplant is committed to funding a portion of this scholarship. In early September, we’ll open up pre-orders of each color in this month’s subscription. We’ll then proudly donate a percentage of pre-order sales to this fantastic project. We’re honored to participate in the future of young women in STEM!

As for the rest of the poll, the next 6 colors were all very close! We had to make some executive decisions on this, but we’re proud to announce the other two colors were also created by women.

Unicorn Tail Teal, by Kayla Jacobs (@BuildTakChik), is a much lighter, translucent version of our Mermaid’s Tale, but now with all the GLITTER!! Kayla added an obscene amount of our ever-popular multi-color glitter to really make this Unicorn sparkle! She has visions of a large-scale print of a mermaid planter, but it hasn’t come to fruition yet. We’ll keep you updated on her progress!

Armored Unicorn, by Stef Sharp (@sharpstef), was born out of a vision for a beautiful rose gold. Inspired by Living Coral, Pantone’s Color of the Year, Stef wanted something a bit more gold that could diffuse the light well for her cosplay ideas. It’s the perfect blend of pink and orange, like a gorgeous sunset, and just the right amount of gold pearl to warm it up and make it shine.

 

We hope you enjoy these stunning colors as much as we do, and we can’t wait to see what you create! We’ve provided a printing suggestion for you over on our Instructables page. Check it out! Keith has also provided a new spool that only requires 50g per side, and makes it super easy to manage your coils! Don’t forget to #ShowUsYourPrints by adding #protopasta to all your Instagram posts. You just might win 10% off your next purchase!

Happy printing!