If you’re a maker just starting out your journey in sustainability, it can be overwhelming to figure out how to get started. From understanding the types of materials to utilize, learning what steps will help reduce waste and emissions, and finding inspiring new ways to explore creativity that don’t have a negative environmental impact. The good news is there are plenty of resources available for DIYers looking for ways to make their projects more sustainable – from simple switches you can make today, big-picture ideas for longterm change, or exciting new ways makers are helping push sustainability into the future. In these blog posts we’ll look at tips tricks and ideas specifically tailored towards diyers and makers on the road to creating projects with greater eco consciousness so that not only will you create something beautiful but also respect its impact on our planet!
Diane spotted this interesting idea from London designer Lucy Norman, who writes: “There is currently no infrastructure set up to recycle the paper from books because the paper is low grade and the glue on the spine must be removed. The Paperback Partition is made from this waste, creating an aesthetically pleasing and interesting divide in a room. It provides both good heat insulation, and acoustic insulation…”
We editors and authors here on CRAFT have been oohing and awing over these cute Little Leftover Note Cards. Kristin Roach over at Craft Leftovers has done an amazing job with her step-by-step how-to; she makes these elegant cards look easy-peasy to make. I’m now thinking of all the odds and ends I have in […]
Here’s a follow up to my previous post “Jeri Ellsworth vs Talking buses #Trimet“. Jeri a well known engineer created a video showing an alternative way to make a noise-making device and strategy for TriMet’s new audible warning system for pedestrians. Jeri has also has made a low cost body scanner, transistors, how-to videos, many […]
Here’s a link to the fantastic British brainy-toys site Grand Illusions that I’ve been hoarding for awhile, hoping to someday reproduce the process and post it as a tutorial. I have tried sun-drying several of the largest orange peels I can find on suitable forms, and have made one functional round box that is quite small and ugly compared to these.
Mississippian Hillar Bergman is known, first and foremost, as a musician—he plays the fiddle. His YouTube channel, as catinnahat, has several videos describing his wonderful “apocalyptech” potter’s wheel, and demonstrating his skillful use thereof. It’s just an old wheel and tire, mounted on an oak stump with a pair of pipe flanges and a short nipple, and spun up to speed with a tire iron stuck through the holes in the hub.
We have covered septuagenarian Palestine, TX, resident Pat Delany’s DIY multimachine, which is mostly built from recycled auto parts, before. Following on the success of that design, Pat has branched out, researching and promulgating three more simple build-it-yourself tool designs: A treadle-powered electrical generator, a simple compound lever drill press, and—most interesting to me—a lathe made from cast concrete and aligned with wedges sawn flush after the concrete has set up. Engineering for Change has a good overview of the story and the available online resources. [Thanks, Jake!]
This is a crafty and eco way to create holders for your earbuds out of an old credit card.
