Erin Woodward, who runs the blog Sutton Grace, has created a fabulous play kitchen for her daughter out of an old entertainment center. You know, the kind you see for sale at almost every garage sale you’ve ever been to in the burbs. Although the one she used in her reuse project was a bit nicer than those, with some nice detailing along the bottom.
Lucky for us, Erin included a thorough step-by-step of the project, so any of us can make our own. Time to go check out some garage sales!
I’ve been lucky to have a young MAKE fan living less than a mile away from me since we started the magazine. Now 12 years old, Cassidy Mountjoy has stolen every copy of MAKE I’ve ever given to his mom, made every Howtoons project we’ve ever published, and tried his hand at BEAM bots, vibrobots, and bristlebots with varying degrees of success. Throughout it all, he’s remained steadfast in his exuberance about what MAKE offers and hasn’t ever let the complexity of the some of the projects discourage him.
He’s the perfect example of a young maker, and more than once his enthusiasm has buoyed my commitment to all the MAKE endeavors, be it the blog, the magazine, or Maker Faires of all sorts and sizes. As we start out this month of Make: Kids and MAKEcation ideas, I can’t wait to meet other young makers like Cassidy and soak in their excitement. Send us your inspiring young maker story!
I can’t really think of anything pithy to say about advertising and design student Stephanie Casper’s knitted meat series. But I will say that all the pieces are awesome (and meaty)!
Our pal Holly White-Wolfe over at Sono-ma.com points to this awesome seascape created by Monica Ashley to celebrate the solstice and the arrival of summer. To which I say: “Felted friends, the beach, cool breezes, and plenty of sunshine. Hallelujah!”
Monica also offers summer art camps for kids in the San Francisco Bay Area, with cool themes like Down by the Sea, Fairies, Gnomes & Elves, and Birds, Butterflies & Frogs. They all sound fun to me.
Here’s a neat, mostly animated video we were sent to check out, and we like what we see. Roughly 3,000 frames were drawn by hand. It was directed, animated, and produced by Arjen Noordeman of Elasticbrand. You should check it out, too!
We sent David Veloz, Jr., a Navy engineer at Port Hueneme, 29 copies of MAKE a few months back. He volunteers as a facilitator for a high school outreach program for students with an interest in science and engineering. Here’s his note back with a great pic of the students holding MAKE Volume 19.
Here is a photo of the kids and their magazines. They were impressed with them, and I was surprised some hadn’t heard of MAKE. I talked to them about the article, “A Feel for Engineering” and how passion should drive them in what they choose for their career. We talked about the aerial drones and drew a quick sketch of “Makey” on Google’s Sketchup.
I passed out a couple of $2 multimeters and went over circuit layout, analysis, and even put together a simple LED circuit. There were a lot of smart kids with great potential; it’s good that we can talk to them, and rally them on. So thank you for your part and what MAKE does.
I always try to get my boys to make something for their dad for Father’s Day, and I usually ask for Help Coupons for myself on Mother’s Day. This works out well — I’ve gotten the hillside weed-whacked, foot massages, and breakfast in bed. All better than a box of candy or new kitchen towels in so many ways!
This year I got inspiration from Brenda Ponnay’s fantastic-looking Daddy Cam over on AlphaMom. Brenda does a great job describing just how to do make your own Daddy Cam, and the photos are really helpful (plus her daughter is super cute!).
I’ve mentioned my friends Scott Constable and Ene Osteraas-Constable on the CRAFT blog before, and Scott’s recent post about the ideal characteristics of the venerable sawhorse, along with a photo of some beautiful “indoor sawhorses” he’s made seemed like good fodder for a mention here.
Scott writes:
To me, there’s also something inherently a little sad about a workbench. Like a well-intended New Year’s resolution, a workbench tends to be over-built and under-used, its function shifting too easily from utility to burden. Sawhorses, on the other hand, take up very little space, and both their construction and use are perpetually open to interpretation. Now that I have more space than I ever imagined, I still opt for sawhorses over workbench, a strategy more in keeping with the ever-fluctuating scope and scale of my projects.
Scott’s been making amazing furniture and art projects for years, so I trust him wholeheartedly when he suggests that the most important characteristic of a sawhorse is that it be owner-made. A good first furniture project, indeed.
I’ve mentioned my friends Scott Constable and Ene Osteraas-Constable here before, and gushed adoringly about their work. Recently, Scott’s ruminations about the ideal characteristics of the venerable sawhorse, along with a photo of some beautiful “indoor sawhorses” he’s made, seemed like good fodder for another mention.
Scott writes:
During the rainy season, projects would occasionally migrate indoors, so I made sawhorses as though they were furniture (pictured above). The prolonged lack of a dedicated bench opened up my thinking to the kinds of projects I would consider taking on, and I learned how limitations can be liberating.
Scott’s been making amazing furniture and art projects for years, so I trust him wholeheartedly when he suggests that the most important characteristic of a sawhorse is that it be owner-made. A good first furniture project, indeed.
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