Man Made DIY

Every year, I'm officially ready for the holiday season when three things happen: 1) I stop being surprised by all the Christmas commercials; 2) I begin to toy with the idea that maybe, just maybe, this will be the year I learn to like egg nog; and 3) Simon Doonan's Christmas windows at Barney's are unveiled.

Last year, I actually got to see the SNL-themed displays, sporting a Conehead Christmas and an extra-large Mango, Gilly, and Mary Catherine Gallagher. This year, Doonan and co. have hit the kitchen for… read more

Everyone should learn how to make pizza at home. It's versatile, healthy, delicious, and relatively easy. You may never turn out anything as good as the pizzaiolos in Naples or New York, but making pizza that will delight your family and friends is within the reach of anyone with a few basic ingredients and a cooking scale. 

I've been experimenting with different dough recipes and cooking techniques for about nine months now, and while I don't consider myself an expert, I've learned a few tricks and can now produce thin-crust, spongy-cornicione, nicely-charred pizzas. 

What follows is my typical pizza process (I make… read more

On Saturday, I attended the first session of my six-week drawing class. It's my first official creative instruction class since eighth grade. I make, saw, draw, sew, cut, paint, and cook stuff daily, and I haven't had any instruction in fourteen years.

I make my living writing about, creating, and showing other folks how to make art, design things, and craft their way to a more fulfilling life. And I have no official training. I studied humanities in college, and had no room for visual arts coursework. I started my master's degree Ph.D-bound, preparing for a life in academia. 

In short, I'm totally winging it here.

So, I decided to try something new. Instead of just figuring it out myself, I decided to seek some actual instruction, and see where… read more

If there are gonna be tanks, then this is the only way we wanna seem 'em: boldly colored, deflate-able, and safe for kids to play on.

Apparently, at the end of the exhibition, the piece was deflated for a group of youngsters:

We don't have much else to say, since out source is in German, but check out more photos and details: 

++Hans Hemmert 

Guess what! You can make a super efficient Stirling engine from two soda cans!

"Awesome," you'll no doubt say. And then...

(beat.)

"What's a Stirling engine?"

Turns out, it's a super-efficient type of engine that converts heat into energy using cyclic compression, meaning it continually feeds itself energy by "compressing cool gas, heating the gas, expanding the hot gas, and finally cooling the gas before repeating the cycle."

… read more

We love these new cookie cutters by Mizuguchi Nami. Sold as a construction/puzzle/science-y toy thing, though would make equally good throwing stars.

Illustrator, author, and artist Robert Sabuda provides these free, downloadable pop-up card templates and how-tos that'd be great for the upcoming holiday season. We especially like the new pirate ship design and all sorts of Star Wars models, including R2-D2 and a totally excellent Millennium Falcon.

We also love the "Pop-Up Basics" that show you how to create your own,… read more

I'd seen this make the blog rounds last week, and I wasn't gonna post about it. But, wouldn't you know it...this morning, on my way out to a meeting, I couldn't find my phone, which contained a text message of the address where I was supposed to be.

So - take it from first person experience. It's simple, it works, and the site looks pretty cool as well. Provided you can hear the vibrations of your… read more

I'm still young, so I haven't yet had trouble seeing things on or manipulating my iPhone. Thought, that doesn't mean I wouldn't like a giant 58" version of it as my dining table.

"Table Connect for iPhone is a superb project which makes an exact copy of the iPhone onto a huge 4 feet 10 inch table.  All of the same mulitouch movements (swipe, pinch, etc.) apply.  We have seen some epic DIY furniture before, but nothing comes close to this fully functioning 58″ capacitive multi-touch surface."

Check out the… read more

Today, we're enthralled by "Layers" a short film about artist and illustrator Jake Early  and his serigraphs, made by Steven Holmes.

The film documents Early's process of printing by hand: the cutting of film, burning screens, mixing custom ink colors from scratch, and printing each color by hand.

Click through to… read more