HOWTO: Shave a snazzy hedge-maze into your deep-pile carpet

Here's a snazzy MAKE: special project:

I saw an expensive designer "labyrinth" carpet like this in a catalog years ago, and wondered at the time if I could recreate the effect on the cheap by taking electric hair clippers to a piece of ordinary deep pile carpet. Long story short: It works!

Hedge Maze Area Rug (via Craft)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: howto

More at Boing Boing

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

Hackers prepare for first "national holiday" in their honor

tyger11

another idea: QR code

also: variable width clippers, and automate it with a modified Roomba or something. The Maker possibilities here…
kpkpkp

Does it… uh… match the drapes?
- Snig
  
  Only she and her topiarist know for sure.
g0d5m15t4k3

Hah! Great idea. Though I’m sure it isn’t going to wear as good as it would have in its original state.
Anonymous

I worked as a set dresser on a tv show and we used hair clippers to distress and age a carpet for a scene that took place in abandoned house.
Cowicide

Kids, your Mom would probably really love this as a surprise when she gets home. So be sure and start on this project with plenty of time for shaving and cleanup before she returns.
MacBookHeir

I think a simple BRAZILIAN WAX would be easier and more thorough in the long run.
Anonymous

someone should get that mutant an r/c golf ball for their rug maze.
AllanX

This is a great idea. Unfortunately the edges of shag carpet tend to look pretty ratty and easily fray and shed, something that’s normally hidden by baseboard. The process really needs one last step that will affix the perimeter of the rug so that it doesn’t fall apart over time.
webmonkees

Just mowed a fresh maze in the yard. Great for contemplative walks and letting the neighbours know the house isn’t abandoned…

Cheapest biodiversity lesson yet; just corral off a section of the yard and make a small maze. Take note of what insects and plants thrive in such conditions..
Should be legal, as most plants don’t need building permits.
- Snig
  
  Expect a bumper crop of minotaur beetles.
Anonymous

i have that same pattern shaved into my chest hair. too bad I didn’t trademark or patent it