Man Made DIY

I never set out to write a craft book--or, for that matter, to write business columns, or reference materials, or textbooks on teen sex and Chernobyl, or basically anything that's paid the bills over the last five years.  I'd written for years, but it had been an after-hours art:  Essays about technology and sexuality and Detroit's decay; stories about clockwork robots, haunted dogs, monster wives, and giant squid--the kind of stuff you gut out after dark; the kind of stuff you write for the consuming love of finding how to say it.  The kind of stuff that's hard to sell.

I've always been a crackerjack essayist (honest; I won prestigious… read more

I'm typing these very words at a local bookstore/coffee shop. Whenever I have "just-computer" work to do, I try to get out of the house/workshop as much as I can, and often, those days are my most productive of the week. (Provided the wi-fi is reliable). For me, working in public provides just enough distraction: the low din of coffee grinding, the unique and often boring conversations, moms trying to keep their kids from screaming or getting them to eat lunch.

Turns out, there are lots of folks just like me. The Atlantic reports that while telecommuting is a relatively new phenomenon, the need to write and get work done away from the office is not. The author states,

There is... a long history of people - especially writers - working from a favorite coffee shop or cafe rather than an office. Today we tend to associate the phenomenon with the Paris of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, or the coffeehouses of Vienna at the turn of the 20th Century. The poet Peter Altenberg was even known to have mail delivered to his favorite hangout.

No matter what your medium - art, illustration, sewing, knitting, soldering, voodoo doll making - you gotta have someplace to do it. Many of us work in basement, garages, offices, closets, kitchen tables, and from boxes in couches.

But, as I've advocated before, a designated workspace to store and organize your supplies, whatever they are, can help one be more productive and inspired.

I'm really digging this design by Randofo, which was built, in his words, as a

"simple work table for my home studio so that I could have a surface upon which to work and document projects. I tried to keep the design as simple as possible as I only have a limited arsenal of power tools, a small vehicle for transporting materials and little patience for woodworking."

I especially like the white surface - which is great for documenting and taking step-by-step photos. I wonder if the effect could be recreated with a secondhand, white dry-erase board supported by 3/4" plywood.