Brilliant paper artist and Couturier de Cardboard, Matthew Sporzynski sent a truly wonderful insta-hack he devised recently when trying to fix a vintage toy parakeet…A valuable lesson in improvisation and knolling.
Read More
A Few Tools for Getting Unstuck + Amy Friend
Getting STUCK, whether in a relationship, decision-making process, or career path, is very much part of being human. In our productivity-obsessed society, it is an especially big concern. Here are some approaches we’ve found that work.
Read More
Floyd’s Ingenious, Mutable Bracket & Table Leg Designs
The Floyd Shelf Bracket is a clever tool that allows you create a shelf from any flat surface by simply installing the brackets on a wall and clamping them to the material. With them, you can turn all sorts of interesting materials into shelving and switch out surfaces whenever you find something neat and new (or old).
Read More
Clever, Strong Folding Sawhorses to DIY or Buy
(Video link HERE.) Barclay Moore is a woodworker who was fed up with broken sawhorses. So he designed is own and knocked prototypes out of plywood. Then he created a Kickstarter to raise money to sell his invention. The project, he says, developed out of necessity (as many great inventions do). What interests us most are all the constraints…
Read More
Plywood Swirls via Jigsaw Make Surprising Tables and…
We stumbled on this lovely side table at the ever-illuminating Aqqindex. “Paint and parchment side table” was the only info. We instantly envisioned plywood, one of our favorite materials for its possibility and accessibility. You could make a table like this with three rectangles and two flat sides cut with whimsical swirls.
Read More
Micron, A Cheap, Great Pen to Repace the Rapidograph
Having used Rapidograph technical drawing pens forever, I finally switched to the disposable little Sakura’s Pigma Micron pen and love it. Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor of the New Yorker, draws all his pointillistic funnies with one. It costs a mere $2.98, as opposed to $25+ for a Rapidograph.
Read More
Use the Right Tools for the Job and Hack Them If Necessary
This image exemplifies the great sculptor Alexander Calder; we feel the tactile sense of the massive tin snips that he customized with little bands of wire afixed with string to make them more powerful. The guy was fearless in his use of materials and tools; he just went AT them and made things. His output was immense,…
Read More
graffiti artist’s custom tool coat for making art on-the-fly
Dig this brilliantly-devised graffiti artists coat, lined with cans of colored spray paint: genius! It is the perfect example of devising/hacking/creating tools for your own unique needs and vision. It reminds us this principle from Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth: Make your own tools. Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things. Even…
Read More
how to make tree trunk furniture, max lamb style
One of many things we love about artist/designer/craftsman/journeyman Max Lamb‘s work is that he ALWAYS has an unusual take on the practical AND he loves to reveal his process, offering in a powerful lesson in EMPOWERMENT. This video shows him making a wood stool out of huge chestnut tree log he hauled home from Springfield…
Read More