Inspired
by the birth of his daughter, Greg Tate's Pinup Lamp uses wooden clothespins
that skirt the rings of a wire tomato cage and cast a corona of shadows
soothing crankt babies and their new parents alike.Brian Slaughter
for ReadyMade
That may be the best way to describe the slightly demented but very
creative minds who've conjured up the funky projects that fill the
pages of ReadyMade, a new magazine for people who like to make stuff:
unconventionally cool stuff.
For example, thanks to the latest issue of ReadyMade (Issue 4), you
too, can put together a duct-tape wallet, candle holders made of hot
and cold shower knobs, a wall of salvaged tires, newfangled advent
calendars, even a decoder wheel chart (via a some-assembly-required
pullout contributed by "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius"
author Dave Eggers) that tells you things you should know about Scandinavian
Nobel laureates.
The quarterly print magazine, $4.95 and available at most bookstores,
is for those "who see the flicker of invention in everyday
objects - the perfectly round yoke in the mundane egg," according
to the mag's Web site, readymademag.com. "Contributors draw
up instructions for making things and, in many cases, take their
own photos of the finished projects."
And these crafty contributors could probably care less about how
Ms. It's-a-Good-Thing thinks you should reuse cheese cloth or terra-cotta
pots.
Case in point: "Martha has it all figured out, down to covering
a bulletin board with fabric to match your décor. We at ReadyMade
see this as a missed opportunity," writes contributing artist
and designer Adrian Van Allen. "When it comes to sticking things
with pins, an acupuncture body chart is more suitably cathartic."
Van Allen proceeds to explain step by step how to make this "body
of knowledge" bulletin board.
"This magazine publishes some weird science," editor Shoshana
Berger writes in the "A Confession From the Editor."
Weird, yes. Fun, for sure.
The current issue offers ways to make lamps for those looking for
lighting with a twist, including a styrolight (fashioned out of
250 Styrofoam cups), a snakelight (made with 10 feet of bulk dryer
tubing) and a blamp (i.e. blender plus lamp).
We tried our hand at the pinup lamp - built from a wire tomato-plant
cage and clothespins.
It was a fairly simple weekend project that cost about $40 and took
2 hours to make, not including the time it took to hunt down the
parts at City Mill Home Improvement Center, Lowe's Home Improvement
Warehouse and Wal-Mart. (See box.)
To make life a bit easier, each project is stamped with a handy
reference card that shows the required time, cost, skill level,
ingredients and tools.
In keeping with the sometimes comically sarcastic flavor of the
magazine, a skill-level indicator separates its readers into four
categories: Monkey ("opposable thumbs"), Cro-Magnon ("has
tools, fire, but may be clumsy with both"), Drudge ("has
tools and basic know-how") and Craftsman ("uses terms
like 'threaded nipple'"). The magazine warns, "If you
do not fall into one of the ... categories, please reconsider doing
projects yourself."
The pinup lamp, by the way, should be a breeze to build for Droog
types... http://www.droogdesign.nl/
The school and movement in the Netherlands.
By Zenadia Serrano Espanol
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