ReadyMade: Instructions for everyday life

Editors' Notes
Author Archive

Flickr Picks: Rainy Day Shelving

If you’re anything like us, you have a lot of at-home projects you’ve been meaning to take care of forever, but somehow never seem to get around to. I like this photo from the ReadyMade Flickr pool because it’s about the moment of triumph that comes from getting one of those projects done. The creator writes:

another rainy day at home, and we decided to do something about the piles of picture books and easy readers spilling from an overloaded bookshelf — we have shelves in our attic playroom for big kid books and novels, but these wider picture books don’t fit there . . . enter a hundred bucks worth of ikea shelving and a patient husband wielding a bunch of wall anchors, a drill, and a level, et voila! shelves for books we haven’t dug out in years. and best of all, an annoying 24″ deep alcove in an upstairs hallway finally starts earning its place ~

I think it looks pretty nice. Agree?

Go ahead…add images of things you made to the ReadyMade Flickr Pool.

[Image from lakbdesign/fergusandme, on Flickr]

How to Throw Your Own Craft Night

Reposted from Etsy’s blog, The Storque. We’re helping Etsy with a few special contributions to their June 18 Craft Party initiative. Read on to learn how to join in and host a craft get-together in your town. (Written by Julie and with photo by Sophie Blackall.)

You want to hold a Craft Night, you say? That’s all you have to mention and you know I’ll make it my business to be there. I view crafting as a very inclusive, inviting, participatory, and community-oriented activity, not to mention great fun! There is just something about craft that has been a driving force for bringing friends and neighbors together throughout the ages — for the sake of meeting one another, fostering creativity, and even galvanizing for good deeds. From quilting bees and crochet circles, to barn-raisings and planting victory gardens, to painting murals and knitting for the needy (and even penguins), there is nothing like connecting with like-minded souls, learning a new skill, and making something with your own two hands.

I’ve been dreaming up crafty gatherings ever since I could wield a pair of scissors, from childhood birthday parties to various incarnations of knitting clubs and craft nights throughout high school and college. These days, I organize the weekly Craft Night that occurs every Monday at the Etsy Labs in Brooklyn, NY. Along the way, I have gleaned all sorts of knowledge for how to throw a successful crafting event without needing to spend much money at all.

So, if you’ve been aspiring to coordinate a creative event of your own, sign up for or organize a June 18 Craft Party in your town (there are over 325 events around the world as of writing this post!).

Even if June 18 isn’t an option, get started planning your own event — be it a crafternoon, a stitch-and-bitch, painting in the park, or mimosas & making (for the sake of this post, I’m calling referring to such get-togethers as “Craft Nights” — of course, you can call it whatever you’d like and meet at any hour of the day).

Read on for tips and ideas to help you get started without breaking the bank.

1. Get focused
First, you’ll need to decide what you want your Craft Night to be all about. Here are some questions to consider:

  • Is this a one-off event or a recurring gathering?
  • What will the participants be doing at each meeting? Will there be an organized project for attendees to learn (like how to stencil), a general creative theme for participants to work on independently (like embroidery or stamping), a group project (like knitting scarves for charity) or more of an open, crafty free-for-all?
  • If there is an organized project, what will it be? Who will teach the project? Will there be a different skill-share at each meeting?
  • Who are you hoping to meet at your Craft Night? What sort of new friends are you hoping to make?

(more…)

Gregory La Vardera’s Modern House Plans

I’ve been intrigued by architect Gregory La Vardera’s “Modern Plans” for a while now. Spurred into action by the insipid, McMansion-ridden state of contemporary architecture circa 2001, La Vardera got started putting together a collection of plans for modern houses. Pre-drawn house plans are much maligned by architects, he notes, but there’s a sizable group of design-appreciators who can’t afford to hire an architect to design a modern house from scratch. La Vardera’s housing plan collections, which have grown in number over the years, are for that minority.

I like many of his modern designs, but the one I go back to the site to look at repeatedly is the “XHouse3,” a simple two-story number with dormer windows and front and back porches. Why do I like it so much? Maybe it reminds me of a modern twist on the bungalow I grew up in (thank you, Google Street View):

(more…)

Flickr Picks: Franken-Table!

Found this before/after montage in the ReadyMade Flickr pool. Maker ckilgore writes:

I found this crappy old table by a dumpster (yeah for living in a college town!) and it was in bad shape, but I liked the base. I had some more metal file boxes, so I painted them up and put them together to make a new end table with a little storage.

We love the international orange/baby blue color combo, and the Frankenstinian approach to furniture (re)making.

Go ahead…add your own photos of things you made to the ReadyMade Flickr pool.

[Photo by ckilgore, on Flickr]

Country Living’s 2010 ‘House of the Year’ is Prefab and Green

We at ReadyMade have long had a fascination with pre-fab architecture. So it tickled us to note that Country Living magazine’s annual House of the Year is, for the first time ever, a prefab model.

The 2-bedroom, 1607-square-foot modular structure—it’s a “Hudson” cottage from New World Home—has been decorated with care by the Country Living team. It’s open for visiting through June 17 at the World Financial Center in New York; directions are posted on Country Living’s website.

New World and Country Living have collaborated on five prefab home designs, including the Hudson; you can explore the line, here. “Green” is a word that gets bandied around a lot, of course, but New World’s bona fides appear to be good: their “New Old Green Modular” buildings are all LEED for Home-certifiable (at the silver, gold, or platinum level) through the U.S. Green Building Council.

[Via: Mediabistro]

How to Reuse: Ceramic Dishes

In the tradition of my post a while back on how to reuse skate decks, here is a passel of ideas about how to breathe new life into ceramic dishes—broken or unbroken.

1. Make a mosaic
Use broken pieces of crockery pressed into concrete or another medium to make a mosaic-topped table, countertop, bar, etc.


Image from natureinspiredcrafts, on Etsy.

Here’s a tutorial.

2. Tile a walkway

mag05rock1h__1238796205_5064

(Photo: Eric Roth/Boston Globe)

3. Draw on them

Done02_rect540
Decorate your own tea set: instructions here.

hand painted bowl
These painted dishes are from sendmeyourbrains, on Flickr.

(more…)

Armchair Traveler: Airbnb, Take Me Away!

I may have been one of the last people to learn about Airbnb, the Y Combinator-funded start-up website that links travelers with short-term rentals all over the world (Newsweek, the New York Times, TechCrunch, and about a million other outlets got to it first), but after Keith wrote a post about Airbnb on ReadyMade’s travel blog, I’ve been back a few times to engage in online flights of fancy.

The site is a wonderful time-waster (or a valuable tool, depending whether you’re actually looking for a place to stay, or just dreaming about going somewhere!), and it’s also a pretty excellent place to look for home-design ideas.

Shown above: “El Born Serendipity,” a modern apartment (in an 18th-century building) for rent in Barcelona, Spain, from $126 a night.

(more…)

HDYGTFAJ: Doug Jones of the Los Angeles Film Festival

Mondays suck (and so do the Tuesdays after a holiday weekend)—especially if you hate your job. But the day doesn’t have to be a total waste. You can look forward to reading about ReadyMakers who have worked their way into f*&%ing awesome jobs—and maybe find a little inspiration to jumpstart your own career in the process.

For a good portion of the year, Doug Jones’ job consists primarily of watching movies. As the Associate Director of Programming for the Los Angeles Film Festival, Jones is responsible for picking the comedies, documentaries, adventure movies, three-minute indie shorts and crowd-pleasing features that light up screens all over the City of Angels during the ten-day annual event. This year’s Festival runs from June 17 through June 27; it will present 200 films from over 40 countries. To find out what’s playing and buy tickets, which go on sale on June 1, check out the Los Angeles Film Festival website.

VITAL STATS
Occupation: Associate Director of Programming for the Los Angeles Film Festival
Location: Los Angeles, CA (and movie theaters all around the world)
Age: 39
First Job: It was at the Hollywood Theater in Sioux Falls, SD. I was 14, but I told them I was 15. That was still too young to sell tickets, but they let me handle popcorn and candy. There’s now a parking lot where the theater used to stand.
Best Job: Video store clerk. (There was something about alphabetizing videos I found very soothing.)
Greatest Professional Challenge: Keeping up with emails. I thought the paperless office was supposed to make things easier. I’m actually nostalgic for the time I used to spend huddled around a fax machine.
Salary During 20s: Not so much, then a little bit more, then not so much again

1. Hi, Doug Jones. How did you get that f*&%ing awesome job?
Hello. Well, there was one particular morning that set things in motion. Back in 1994, I was living in Minneapolis, working in various movie theaters and film societies, when one morning my clock radio went off and the DJ comes on and says, “The wind chill outside is about 60 degrees below zero. If you don’t have to go outside, don’t. If you do, don’t expose any skin.” Shortly after that, I decided to move to California.

There, I landed a job as the print shipper for the San Francisco Film Festival. I was responsible for getting every film print to the festival and then sending them away afterwards. The next year I came back to work in the programming department, so I didn’t have to lift the movies anymore; I had to watch them. With each passing year, I got more and more involved, until finally I joined the staff full-time. After almost a decade with San Francisco, I started working with the Los Angeles Film Festival.

2. Is working on the L.A. Film Festival a year-round job for you? Is it your only gig?
Even though the festival only lasts for ten days, it takes most of the year to put it all together. The festival takes place at the end of June, but I start watching movies and talking to people in September. There are a lot of people who work at two or three festivals a year, moving from one temporary job to another. I am incredibly fortunate to have a year-round home.

3. I heard that you started out in film at age 14, working behind the concession stand in a theater in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. That’s a pretty picturesque story! What was it about film that was so alluring?
Even as a little kid, I knew movies were “my thing.” On weekends, I spent Saturday mornings watching cartoons and Sunday mornings watching Academy Award Theater on TBS. (Thank you, Ted Turner and Bill Tush.) I still remember seeing certain films on the little black & white TV I had in my room: Harvey with Jimmy Stewart, The Greatest Show on Earth with Jimmy Stewart…I guess I watched a lot of Jimmy Stewart movies.

And then, of course, there was Star Wars, followed a few years later by Raiders of the Lost Ark. That was it. It was all over for me.

4. What is your typical day like?
It depends on the time of the year. Two things are fairly constant. Every morning I take my son Wylie to school, and, at some point in the day, I usually watch a movie. When I’m working on the film line-up for the festival, I start watching more and more movies each day, until it reaches a point when that’s all I’m doing. Feature films, shorts, fiction, documentary, music videos, American indies and international stuff—I’m watching it all.

I also do a lot of traveling, going to other film festivals in other countries to find movies to bring back to Los Angeles. At a festival, I’m usually watching my first movie by 9 in the morning, and then I’ll keep going until maybe a midnight show. I think my record for the most movies I’ve watched in a theater in one day would be seven or eight.

5. What’s your favorite thing about your job? Any things you could do without?
There are a lot of great things about my job. I get the opportunity to see movies that most people have never even heard about. And then, when I find something I really love, I get to work with the filmmaker and share it with other people. To be in a theater with an audience who loves a film and to know I had some small part in bringing it to them all is one of the greatest feelings I know.

That said, not every film I see is, um…going to become a classic. I am the first to admit that making a film—even a not-so-good film—is a lot of work, but sometimes so is watching them. Let’s just say that I watch a lot of 30-something-white-guys-with-a fear-of commitment-learning-to-say-I-love-you movies, so you don’t have to.


Above: Doug Jones with actor Clive Owen at the Los Angeles Film Festival screening of I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead in 2004; Top: Doug Jones at the 2009 LAFF filmmaker retreat.

(more…)

Summer Fantasy Furniture: Carlos Motta for Espasso

I was noodling around on the web yesterday when I stumbled upon a design find I am quite taken with. Carlos Motta is a Brazilian designer who, according to the bio on his website, began to work with wood in the early ’70s, as an offshoot of the surfing he loved to do on the coast off Sao Paulo—the waves would wash driftwood ashore, and Motta’s first experiments with furniture were born.

As befits its maker’s surfy roots, Motta’s work—he is also an architect who has designed gorgeously rustic buildings that undulate from level to level with the landscape—projects an organic, laid-back vibe. Probably because the first hot days of summer are upon us, bringing in the season of outdoor lounging, I’m feeling especially drawn to his reclaimed-wood “Asturias” chairs today. They seem as though they could make just about any space feel like a lazy tropical patio.

Some of Motta’s pieces will be on display this weekend at the Steven Alan shop in East Hampton, New York. If you’re one of the lucky New Yorkers who’s making it out that way for Memorial Day, stop by and give them a sit.

[Images: Espasso]

RM Flickr Pool: Tennis Racket Jewelry Holder

Fresh from the ReadyMade Flickr pool: Flickr user tiborabea took a page out of our blogger Megan’s book (see Megan’s vintage cheese grater earring organizer, here, and her DIY necklace displays, here), and created a jewelry caddy from a cool antique tennis racket and frame. (Insert sports joke about winning style points here!)

Made something? Go and add it to the ReadyMade Flickr Pool already.

111 Navy Chair Made from Recycled Plastic Coke Bottles

Those who know me know that I’m no friend of plastic. As a material, it has many obvious selling points—but the throwaway culture it makes possible has spun madly out of control. (In the unlikely event that you’d contest such a claim, Google “North Pacific gyre” or, if that seems too far from home, see the recent spate of articles about plastics and your health.)

Plastic isn’t just famously non-biodegradable; it’s also difficult to recycle. Less than 7% of the plastic used in the U.S. makes its way into the recycling stream. (Only about 25% of PET bottles, like the ones that water and soda comes in, do.) And what does get used again is often “downcycled”—for a number of reasons, plastic is notoriously difficult to form into new containers, so recycled plastic vessels are commonly turned into more basic items like plastic lumber or fiber fill for pillows and garments.

All that said, I do get interested when I see people trying to do new things with recycled plastic, and the 111 Navy Chair by Coca-Cola and Emeco is one such experiment. Made from “at least” 111 recycled plastic PET bottles (and, the press release notes, some other materials as well, including fiberglass), the chair mimics the shape of the iconic Emeco Navy Chair designed for the use of the U.S. Navy in 1944. It has a much smoother look than other recycled-plastic furniture I’ve seen (mostly benches made for outdoor use).

Design and/or soda afficionados can purchase the chairs, which come in a number of colors, through Design Within Reach. If the chairs sell as projected, the Coca-Cola estimates that their production will give a second life to more than 3 million PET bottles a year.

Pretty neat, though don’t forget…plastic is forever, so keep recycling, but remember that “reduce” and “reuse” come first in the saying for a reason, ‘kay?

[Image from Coca-Cola]

Glassphemy! Has Broken

ReadyMade was out at the opening-night party for Macro-Sea’s Glassphemy! project in Gowanus, Brooklyn, last Thursday. Glassphemy! lets people vent their aggression and do their recycling at the same time, by hurling empty glass bottles against an imposing facade of bulletproof glass. But pictures speak louder than words—frequent ReadyMade contributor Keith Mulvihill captured the evening for us:

Don’t forget to submit your own idea for what should be done with all that broken glass as an entry in our Glassphemy! contest. The deadline is June 4 (but entering only takes a minute), and the details are here.

Win a One-of-a-Kind Mike Perry Shower Curtain

In the “To Do List: At Home” section of our June/July issue, we feature a Ty DIY Edition Recyclable Shower Curtain–a customizable little number for your bathroom, from the RISD grads who run Grain—customized by none other than Mike Perry, graphic designer extraordinaire.

For your chance to win the one-of-a-kind shower curtain illustrated by Mike, leave a comment below telling us what you like to doodle (in the steam on the shower wall, or anywhere else).

The giveaway is open through June 15. One of the valid entries will be selected at random, and the proud winner of a new shower curtain will be notified by email.

BKLYN Designs 2010: Second Round of Picks

Here are two more finds, of special ReadyMade interest, from last weekend’s BKLYN Designs expo. (Read our first post on the show, here.)

Red Hook, Brooklyn-based design team Uhuru was out, introducing their “Coney Island Line” of funiture: tables and a wonderfully swoopy chaise (inspired by Coney Island’s famous Cyclone roller coast, natch) made from wood reclaimed from the Coney Island Boardwalk itself.

The boardwalk wood in question turns out to be Ipe (pronounced “EE-pay”), a tropical hardwood prized for its durability (the boardwalk was first installed in the 1940s, meaning that some of the Ipe has been working hard for 70 years).

Not surprisingly, perhaps, Uhuru’s designers found working with Ipe to be an uphill battle: it took forever to sand and plane the weathered boardwalk strips into the sleek, shiny boards that form their furniture. But the hard work paid off: the finished pieces are beautiful and, we have to presume, made to last.

Over in another corner of the exhibition, the EcoSystems company was showing off a modular furniture concept I really love. The “Snug-it!” is a series of metal fasteners (they come in three-way and two-way varieties) that can be used to hitch together any type of 3/4-inch-thick material.

The combinations are literally endless…this Snug-it! bed is a California king made from nothing but Snug-its! and three sheets of 3/4-inch plywood.

See more photos at our BKLYN Designs 2010 photoset on Flickr.

What Would You Make With Broken Glass? Enter the Glassphemy! Contest

Last year, ReadyMade broke the news about the dumpster pools of Brooklyn—a story that quickly grew wings and took off, gathering attention from corners of the mediasphere as varied as the New York Times, BoingBoing, ABC News and NPR. This year Macro-Sea, the company that conceived and built the pools, is back with a new project, a “psychological recycling center” called Glassphemy! (Read the New York Times article about Glassphemy!, here.) And ReadyMade is teaming up with Macro-Sea to sponsor a contest to get our readers involved in the recycling and design process, too. Read on for the details…

Not so long ago, in Philadelphia, a meeting of architects and urban planners was convened by the Community Design Collaborative to think of ‘interim uses’ for empty lots around the city. One of the lots in question was always strewn with piles of broken glass. The architects and urban planners furrowed their brows in thought: would it be possible to create a project that would lure people away from their littering ways, converting the lot for more constructive uses?

And then, a brave woman in the audience, Bethany Edwards, said: “What if we just create a place for people to go break glass?”

David Belt was a panelist at that event. Taken by Edwards’ comment, he brought the glass-breaking idea back to his company, Macro-Sea. And that’s how Glassphemy! was born. Part game, part art installation, part mobile recycling center, Glassphemy! is a 20-by-30-foot steel structure lined with bulletproof glass. A person standing on one side can throw bottles at a friend or enemy who is standing in safety behind the clear wall on the other side. Satisfying crashes and bright lights ensue upon impact. Glassphemy! is about relieving psychological tension, having fun, and getting your recycling done all at the same time.

The project was brought to life by Macro-Sea, the same group behind 2009’s mobile Dumpster pools. Glassphemy! is opening on May 20 at the Dumpster pool lot in Gowanus, Brooklyn. The bottles that are broken there will be recycled on site. When the installation is through, the Glassphemy! structure will be broken down and recycled or moved to a new location.

To honor the spirit of innovation and smart material re-use, and to keep the conversation and ideas flowing, ReadyMade is teaming up with Macro-Sea to offer the Glassphemy! contest.

Here’s how to enter.

Submit an idea or design that answers the question: What would you make from broken glass?

The glass can be in shard form, or it can be ground up further, melted, mixed with other materials–transformed in any way you can think of. Your design must incorporate broken glass, but it can include any other materials you like. You don’t need to make the thing you’re designing (though you can!). But you do need to provide a general description of how to make it: what the materials are and how it would come together.

You may submit your design in any form you like: Drawings on the back of a cocktail napkin, a 300-word essay, SketchUp files, a video of yourself describing it in words and hand gestures. Whatever best gets your idea across!

Send your design to info@readymademag.com, or mail it to: ReadyMade Magazine, attn: Glassphemy! Contest, 125 Park Avenue, 18th Floor, New York NY 10017

The contest starts on May 12.
The entry deadline is Friday, June 4.
International entries and multiple entries are accepted.

Entries will be judged by the ReadyMade and Macro-Sea teams based on: originality, usefulness, visual appeal, and executability

Prize: The winning design will be built by the Macro-Sea—the same group that built the Glassphemy! installation. One copy of your design will go on display at the Glassphemy! site in Brooklyn, and one copy will be sent to you. The winning design will also be featured in ReadyMade magazine.

Runners up will be féte-d in this blog, and rewarded with coveted ReadyMade ceramic travel mugs, a ReadyMade tee shirt, and a one-year subscription to ReadyMade.

Need more inspiration? Click through for more pictures and info about Glassphemy!

(more…)