[liveblog] gingerbread stata by Gloria Z. '26
we are building stata out of gingerbread
[ — JANUARY 23RD, 2026 — ]
[10:49am]
It’s bad ideas weekend! We’re building the Stata center out of gingerbread today and Teresa is also here. Much of yesterday was spent baking 15 sheets of gingerbread, each 12″x18″ (hopefully that’s enough stock material). We will be laser cutting and gluing (with frosting) and not eating the carcinogenic unflavored gingerbread :-D.
the stata center
transporting the gingerbread sheets to n52 (makerspace where we’re doing this)
[11:40am]
The event technically starts at 12pm, so I’m just getting everything prepped (setting out trays and putting down paper etc.). Also here’s a cute little sign! Kind of reads as “gingorbread” though.
little sign to test out the brackets (below) and rice-paper-behind-cutout technique
laser cutting right angle brackets for holding things up
[1:30pm]
We’ve made our game plan and our first building! Some unexpected problems: the variable thickness of the gingerbread means that the laser doesn’t always cut all the way through, and the brackets don’t always fit on certain parts of our cut pieces. But so far the frosting is holding up pretty well, and we’ve also got two pieces of foam acting as supports for the elevated base of the building :-).
the base and our first building chunk on the right
our plan (but tbh we’re probably only going to do half of these buildings / focus on the front-facing parts)
[3:06pm]
This is Teresa briefly taking over while Gloria eats lunch … so far I have somewhat unsuccessfully made goopy icing and a less irregular version of the yellow cylindrical building by laser cutting and stacking gingerbread rings! I broke some of the rings up so the glow from the fake candle could seep through the cracks :) I need to stop eating the gingerbread because it probably has a lot of fumes…
pretend it is less wobbly and burnt
progress!!!
Our roommate, Jinhee W. ’27 stopped by and contributed a building <3 and Gloria has done some filling in, including the amphitheater steps in the bottom right. We’re planning to add in a few more buildings and then cover the ground in marshmallow fluff as if Stata has been blanketed by snow (from the upcoming winter storm, perhaps…)
Note from Gloria: we have two colors of edible luster dust that we’re using to “paint” the buildings, so if you see them change color, that’s why. Specifically we have a silver color (for the metal buildings) and an orange color (although it looks more pink than orange).
[4:30pm]
Many people have showed up and there are now many cooks in the kitchen (/positive). Here is the current status! photo taken by Ellie
there are a few new construction projects in progress
[5:22pm]
A firespinner (performer/member of fire spinning club), a wheelchair accessible ramp, and snow, among other things, have been added!!! -Teresa
some of our awesome contributors
anika stealing the icing
snowfall in progress
[6:10pm]
It is done!!!!!!!!!! We’re in the process of cleaning up now, but we took it to the n52 photo room to take some nice, atmospheric photos with Gloria’s camera. While those are pending, here are some behind the scenes from my phone :)) -Teresa
setting up the photo room…
3/4 roommate selfie!!
really shaky photo taken from my phone using portrait mode……. better photos incoming
[6:15pm]
We are finally done!! The event was super cutie and now we are cleaning up–gingorbread stata however will be out for a whole week so drop by MAD (morning academy of design) to see her :) -Jinhee
our building out and about in the wild!!
[some time a couple days later]
Hello this is Gloria and I’m finally back after getting around to editing the photos from my camera. I’m very glad with how this event went (frankly, I was worried all the structures would just collapse and we’d be left with a pile of gingerbread and icing). Shockingly, we ended up with something that (in my opinion) sort of captures the vibe of Stata, at least from the front (don’t look at the back of the structure). It was also fun (and chaotic) when more people started showing up at the end and beginning their own little mini projects to finish up the project.
Anyway, here are the photos…
oohhh spooky scary
in daylight
Happy bad ideas weekend + stay safe in the winter storm :-)