UMN DIY Fest!

What awesome timing! This is the most perfect way for me to end my project. I will definitely be checking this out this evening!

http://metromag.com/blog/fashion/unraveled-diy-festival

What I've learned

Everyone has different passions and skills. Everyone has access to different materials (based on location, money or what you can steal from work, for example!). But DIY is great. It gets people thinking about products in a new way. Many times the things we buy become these mysterious objects, because we lose touch with the ways they are created. Many people have no idea how computers work, what goes into making a couch, the process behind obtaining certain materials. I am saddened by this. I personally like to know how objects are made. I like knowing that I can make those things. I don't need to spend obscene amounts of money or support a negative business strategy in order to obtain the things I would like to own.

DIY is awesome. I can't wait to keep going! After a little break, of course.

Other Thoughts

One thing that has been bugging me about "DIY" is the definition. Well, I don't really know what the definition is. There seems to be a stereotype of the DIYer that includes a grandma knitting little rosettes or something kitschy and tacky. I personally think it should be applied to everything. Anything you create mostly yourself can be DIY. And anyone:

Kids - All that crafting you did as a child? That's was DIY. Now you just have better taste (hopefully).
Teens/YAs - Searching for a unique identity; perhaps don't have much disposable income to buy expensive designs
Homeowners - Can save a lot of money by DIYing
Politically Motivated - Opposed to worker exploitation, Environmental harm
Gifters - Yes Grandma's afghan's can be considered crafting or DIY
Tech Savvies - Wish to create better objects or ones tailored to their uses- DIY computer!
Drinkers - The growing popularity of beer brewing...

I just believe that DIY is such a broad term! Lots of things are DIY. I'm not sure people realize that or make the connection. I don't know that it matters, it's just something I've been thinking about.

Or when a company steps in and curates your DIY experience, what then? Is it HDIY? Hybrid DIY? Plain ol' DIY? Not DIY? I'm not sure!

Examples:

Nike allows consumers to design their own shoes, Build-a-Bear allows kids to make their own teddies. What can this be called? Just customization? Is that really different from DIY? Is it?

And techno/virtual DIY. Recording your own music on garageband? Photoshopping your own photo? It's art, I will definitely argue that. But is it DIY? People are indeed doing it theirselves...but the term DIY has such a strong connection to physicality that confuses me. I'm not sure there is an answer, and I don't need one. But I will say that I think the DIY mentality and wants are becoming more mainstream, as evidenced by these other forms of 'customization'. It's all very interesting. Maybe the whole world is just becoming more hipster & we all want to be unique. ..have something no one else has (or has even heard of, for that matter).

TOMS>>BOBS??

Today we had a discussion about TOMS shoes. Tonight I learned about BOBS shoes, Skecher's total knock-off of the company:

"There is no problem with Skechers or any company copying the TOMS concept. In fact, Blake Mycoskie has stated that he hoped others would copy his business model. But by mirroring the TOM's concept so blatantly, Skechers not only showed a lack of creativity and originality, but they left themselves wide open to accusations of disingenuous social concern."

This is so shocking to me. The fact that the shoes look the exact same and are for the same cause DOES make their efforts seem disingenuous. What a negative twist on such a positive thing.

Read more at: http://www.fastcompany.com/1696887/toms-vs-bobs-how-skechers-shot-themselves-in-the-foot

#10: The Big One

This is the project I've had in mind since I started this blog. I am so excited about it! My bed currently sits against a radiator rather than against a wall. The worst part: I have no headboard. So I've been sleeping without leaning my pillows against anything all year--it's been a problem at times. Last summer I sewed some yarn in the pattern of a curly French headboard on some cream colored fabric. I think it turned out really cool, but it is very impractical at the moment because It's just hanging over the radiator, so I can't really touch it or it will fall down...

Now I've been planning to make my own headboard since this sewn piece's creation 10 months ago. And I finally have the motivation to do it: I am doing it for college credit! Fantastic!

First, a trip to Home Depot for the wood. This was a great experience. Everyone who helped me (5 people) was insanely kind. They all wanted to know what I was making and we had nice chats. It was really fun! And I even got a discount on my wood (it ended up being only $3! woohoo!).

And I already have foam, because I've known for a while I would eventually make this headboard so I bought it while it was on sale a couple of months ago.


Stapling on the foam... man I love that staple gun...


Next comes stapling on the fabric. I tried to be really careful about making sure it was straight and taut. It took a bit of time, but was worth it.

And here's the finished headboard! I'm pretty happy I was able to pull off this DIY. It wasn't hard at all, it just seems like something I never would have imagined I could make. But this was so cheap and so easy to make! Anyone could/should do it! Really!

#9: The Shirt

Since the nautical look is "in" this summer, as it is every summer, I want a classic striped shirt. I had this idea that I could use the leftover spray paint from the chair I reupholstered to make it. With a little bit of tape and a little bit of sprayin', my plain white tee went from so-boring to swashbuckling! That was a dumb joke. Here are pictures:

#8: Mod Podge Proj Two

I'm insistent on making this Mod Podge work. Today I will make a plate. This is cheating, because I've actually done this before, but I want to prove that Mod Podge is awesome after yesterday's tragedy. Since I've made a few of these I've got the process down pat.

First trace the size of the plate on nice scrapbooking paper and cut a half inch around that.

Next cut slits from the edges toward the center of the paper about 1/4 way in.

Then Mod Podge the back of the plate.

After that lay the paper on top of the plate where you just Mod Podged, good side facing down, and Mod Podge it all again. The slits allow the paper to curve around the edges.

Let dry, make a little hanger out of duct tape, and stick it on the wall in a cool pattern! Like so!

#7: Mod Podge Proj One

I think Mod Podge is awesome. It has so many uses! It can allow you to create THIS!!


I want to make this!

Mod Podged string around a balloon. Simple:







Or... not. This did not work for me. I think my string was too packed & so it could not absorb the Mod Podge. Which is really too bad. I think I will try this again with different string, but maybe not. It took a lot longer than I imagined it would have to wrap the string. And it got really messy...well, we'll see.

Reasons behind DIYing

I've decided, through research not just my inklings, that there are basically 3 main reasons behind the DIY movement.

1: How horrible businesses can be: We all know that corporations are not exactly moral angels. They exploit workers, do shady business deals, practice planned obsolescence in order to make us purchase more things, and do harm to the environment. Plus, their decisions are their decisions; our only power is our purchasing power which doesn't offer a lot of choices: buy or don't. We have no freedom with that! DIY can be used to create unique items in a world of sameness and for political activists who are againtst bad business practices.

2: Obviously, to save money: Now it's not always a sure thing that by DIYing you will save money, but generally it is true. College students & young adults don't have a lot of money (stereotypical but you know what I mean), and so turning to DIY can be a smart way to still have a design-oriented life on the cheap!

3: The pure joy of creating! Our reading of Janet Abrams' article in Metro Mag perfectly described the joy creating your own object can be. Hers was a more artistic, organic, crafty story, but I think her ideas can apply to all forms of DIY. If someone is ripping apart a shirt and making a skirt, it's still a physical act of creation - old to new. It's still exciting. This is probably the best reason for people to DIY. I agree with her that things are moving so quickly toward all-digital all the time. It's insane. And there's nothing wrong with working on a computer, but it should not completely replace our physicality and relationship with the objects around us.

Festivals

Make magazine sponsors the Maker Faire, the world's largest fair for DIYers to come together, annually. It began in 2006, and now draws over 160000 people. It is held in the Bay Area, Detroit, and New York. This fair looks really amazing and wonderful. With the huge crowd, it draws many artists to bring the best of the best of their work. DIY festivals are becoming increasingly more popular, and really are a great way for the artists, who can oftentimes be isolated physically from other DIYers, to come together in a spectacular way. I can only imagine the kind of crazy energy that would be felt at this fair.

To learn more, visit: http://makerfaire.com/

#6: Chair Time!

OK so I've been waiting for this one: Re-upholstering a chair. Sounds scary. I've never re-upholstered before. But I have a brand new staple gun and I'm excited!

I have this super nasty chair that a house a few blocks away left on the curb this past spring. And by nasty I mean really nasty. I guess I grabbed it because the shape was decent, and I thought it would be easy to fix...and that's what I'm still hoping! Well here, I'll show you what I have to work with:


So now you see it & no doubt agree with me on its grotesqueness.

BUT I have a plan.

Firstly, I must clean and spray paint all of that awful metal. It is not at all pleasant to look at.
Secondly I need to remove the cushions and reupholster that ugly green stuff with whatever pretty fabric I have. I don't own a lot of fabric, so hopefully there's something!

Ok I found a nice black & white swirly/dotty patterned fabric that should look good. A little while & a lot of fun with my staple gun later, I have THIS::::





The wooden armrests still look really worn, but I forgot to buy a wood stain...so it will retain a bit of its original look for now! But the worn wood doesn't bug me much. This is a HUGE improvement. I will actually bring this into my house now.

#5: Jewelry Storage

Now that I have a great new necklace it would only make sense for me to create a jewelry hanger. But I'm not going to make a necklace hanger - that would make too much sense. I'm going to create an earring holder!

I have this old frame I found at a thrift store for $1. That was a steal. It's a hot pink color that I hated at first, but the longer I've had it the more it's grown on me. Plus I don't want to buy spray paint if I don't have to! And I luckily have this grate thing from a really impractical metal shelf that I hate. It's disassembled and should probably just be gotten rid of, but hey it's coming in handy now. This is why I never get rid of things.

So this project is super simple (great cause I'm busy today!)

I'm attaching the grate to the frame (I'm lucky cause the latches that keep the glass in the frame are perfect for holding the grate in place - no taping/gluing/whatever required!).




And now...it's pretty much done. Hang it on a wall & stick some earrings on it. I like it!

Local DIYers

Today I took a couple of field trips around town in order to talk to some Minneapolitans (& St Paulitans...Paulites...Paulers?) who are themselves taking part in the DIY movement.

First up: Steve of BlackBlue on Selby in St. Paul. He's not exactly a typical DIYer, he's not selling little knick-knacks that he himself made. He actually sells pretty nice upper-line clothing for mostly men. But the DIY part came into play with the way in which he started his business. He had a small amount of business training at the U of M, but he's more interested in the artistic part of his business. When I went in, he was rearranging the store's racks and pallets, looking for a more feng shui feel to the space. He even asked me for my opinion! But his main background stems from a degree at MCAD. He would like to take that back up again and design his own fashion line, which he has a bit of experience in, but would like to further explore.



He had an interesting take on design and the DIY movement & culture. He believes that formal training is no longer necessary with all of the access to information we have today. It was very refreshing! And exactly what the DIY movement encompasses. Knowledge, & general capability is no longer limited to an elite few to hand out, we all can be responsible for our own knowledge & creativity. It's a nice way to look at things.

Next up was Angela, from I Like You in Northeast Mpls. She was very sweet and had her young daughter with her. She shares a similar story with Steve, because they both started their shops independently & from a small idea, and with a lot of motivation were able to create impressive businesses. She started about 5 years ago, and has been in her current building for 2.

The shop carries work (DIY) from local artists, and is mostly Minnesota-related, which is cool. Magnets, T-shirts, prints, you name it. They carry it. Great for gifts around Christmas she said. And people are more than willing to spend money if they know it's going to a local artist, she said Minnesotans are very supportive of local art. That's pretty evident in NE particularly, what with Art-A-Whirl!

Unfortunately for her though, she is not able to concentrate on her own crafting due to the stress and time running her business takes. I find this unfortunate, because without people like Angela, none of the people whose work she sells would have that exposure. It takes one person sacrificing almost in order for others to be successful & be able to sell their art.

#4: Coffee Art Part Two: Jewelry

Onto my second part of coffee art. Who knew random coffee shop items could be so inspirational? This time I'm making a necklace. It's a spike necklace--made of stir sticks. That sounds like a really bad idea when I type it out like that, but give me the benefit of the doubt!

Supplies: coffee stirrers, ribbon, scissors, needle & thread

I will start by lining the stirrers up in a line & threading them together:

Next I will cut two diagonal lines giving the stirrers a V shape:

Finally, I will tie the ribbon to the ends & my necklace is finished!

Between these last two projects, I have infinitely more respect for coffee shops. I always thought they were pretty great, but now I have a more stylish bedroom AND neck (occasionally) because of them. For free. FANtastic.

The Drawback to Fast Fashion

"I’ve always thought that Forever 21 was a brilliant name for a fast-fashion retailer. These two words succinctly encapsulate consumerism’s mission statement: to evoke the dream of perpetual youth through constant shopping. Yet it also conjures the suffocating shabbiness of that fantasy, the permanent desperation involved in trying to achieve fashion’s impossible ideals."



This article is really fascinating. In it, the world of fast fashion is discussed in terms of how it ups the pace of the fashion industry to hyper-speed. Designs, oftentimes not even their own from what I keep hearing, can be made, created, and shipped to stores within 15 DAYS! What!?

They keep consumers buying by only offering a limited amount of certain items based on hints of emerging styles and rushed out quickly.

It's just an annoying system. I personally have way way too many clothes for one person. If I stayed my same size forever (I wish!) I would be fully clothed in decent quality garments for the rest of my life. But the reason I keep buying new clothes is because of Zara & Forever 21. Their clothes are cute and cheap. It's really bad for our environment to keep buying and tossing so many items of clothing! And the sweatshops I'm sure these business must work with in order to get new lines of clothing into stores in probably less than 10 days.


Read more at: http://nplusonemag.com/the-accidental-bricoleurs

#3: Coffee Art Part One: Decor

For my second project I'm looking to make some wall art. I have a big blank spot above my bed. It's like a gaping hole in my life that needs to be filled with something....something like...coffee cozies.

"Coffee cozies?" you ask. Why yes, you heard me. Well, actually that may not even be the correct term. But I'm talking about those cardboard ones you can grab right in the coffee shop for your hot drinks that I never grab cause I usually only buy coffee in the winter when I'm only really buying it for the sake of warming up my hands so I like the cup to be hot and I'm protected anyway cause I have mittens on.

ANYWAY onto my project. My plan is not exactly of my own independent creative inspiration. I stole this idea from someplace online.





So here we go:


Grab some cardboard coffee things:

Hot glue them together into a pretty flower shape & hang on wall:

Voila! Wall art! Pretty wall art! FREE wall art (yes I walked into a coffee shop, stuffed those cozies in my backpack, and quickly turned around & walked out before anyone could say anything). Awesome!

#2: Rompin'

I found this romper....at a thrift store (you knew I was going to say that, didn't you?). It was at the GoodWill outlet! Where they sell clothing BY THE POUND. FOR VERY CHEAP. So it was something like 30 cents or whatnot. And it's from Target. And looks brand new. Score!

The thing is though, I hate rompers. Not always, really. Some people look nice in them, but I've yet to find one that doesn't pull or sag or make my top half look 4 times larger than my bottom half. They're just bad news on me. Moving on.

I really like the pattern of this romper. It's black with little blue and yellow flowers & some suggestions of foliage. Pretty classic. And I thought it would make a nice dress or skirt and tank top when I bought it.

I've decided to go the skirt and tank top route. No real reason why. I guess I already did a dress, and skirts are more versatile. And if it's two items of clothing I can get more use out of it.

So here is the romper in its full romp-ness:


This isn't horribly horribly bad, but the back is.





I cut it in half & hemmed the top of the skirt (which already had elastic in it) and the bottom of the tank.

The tank turned out really short. I will not be wearing that. Maybe however a small child somewhere will appreciate it if I return it to GoodWill...
But the skirt's pretty fun! I actually left them as shorts, but they're so loose they could easily be mistaken for a skirt. PLUS if it's windy I won't have to worry about holding it down whenever I'm walking outside. Great!

This one from TopShop is $56 & in my opinion the pattern is a bit kiddish:

Design It Yourself!

This is totally design! It's identifying a need, and finding a solution! DIY=DO IT YOURSELF=DESIGN IT YOURSELF.