Furthermore: Where the Headlines Take You

Make It Yourself

So as you know, the economy is a bit dodgy right now. Money is tight and folks want to find ways to economize. At the same time, public concern for the well-being of our natural environment is rising, and many people are looking for ways to live lighter on the land. This combination of influences is encouraging people to spend more time and effort making things they once would have bought, repairing things they would once have paid to replace, and repurposing things they would once have thrown away.

Crafts! DIY! Homekeeping skills! I'm here to tell you, there are a lot of swell books, zines, and magazines about how to make, do, maintain, repair, and repurpose things! Here are just a few that I especially like:

If your chief interests in do-it-yourself are saving money, learning how things work, and making neat stuff, sometimes it's best to cast an eye back to the past. Practical Projects for the Handy Man is a reprint of a book originally published in 1913 by the editors of Popular Mechanics Press, and with it in hand, you can learn to make furniture, toys and household objects, how to build the apparatus for magic tricks and science projects, and a dizzying array of other tips and tricks. The how-tos are interesting and helpful, but part of the charm of the book is the way it reflects the energy and, dare I say it, vim of an idealized active boy of 100 years ago.  This imaginary boy is fun loving, nimble with tools, curious about science and the natural world, and above all interested in creating things that will make life more interesting and amusing, save laborious work, and build his skills.  Being something of an optimist, I think there's a little bit of that idealized boy in all of us, and Practical Projects might help set yours to work!

But modern-day crafters and creators are all about sharing their how-to's also. The Best of Instructables collects more than 100 super awesome projects from the web community of the same name, where people around the world share how-to instructions for everything from soup to nuts. With The Best of Instructables, you can learn how to: eat a banana like a monkey, build a teeny greenhouse inside a light bulb, take the case off of your flash drive and stick the guts into a Lego brick, or make a frighteningly realistic werewolf costume, among other things.

Enough with the amusements, bring on the ideas and instructions for serious work! Formulas, Methods, Tips and Data for Home and Workshop, by Kenneth M. Swezey and Robert Scharff is a compendium of information you might need if, for example,  you wanted to determine what color a particular species of wood will turn when weathered outdoors, figure out what materials you'll need to build a brick wall of a certain size, or find a recipe for making homemade hand lotion. The sheer quantity of data, recipes, explanations, and project instructions in this 600+ page book is amazing, but it's readable, clearly organized, and incredibly down-to-earth.

If you'd like to try a few projects that are a bit more unusual, try browsing through Making Stuff and Doing Things, edited by Kyle Bravo and Jenny LeBlanc. How-tos from dozens of zines are reprinted in facsimile form, which means you'll get all the pleasure of the cute little drawings and diagrams illustrating how to do and make whatever it is. Some of my favorites explain how to make your own soymilk, unstink your socks, re-use typewriter ribbons, and do basic electrical wiring.  The book also has a nice little essay on some of the philosophical underpinnings of the DIY ethic.

If these particular books don't make your inner do-it-yourselfer jump up and down with excitement, try taking a look at the books on specific kinds of projects. Whether you want to learn about knitting, woodwork or upholstery, do a little appliance repair, plan some garden crafts, study furniture making, fix your bike, learn how to bind a book, build a fence or brush up on your jewelry-making skills, I promise you the library can help you get started.

And if you don't spot what you're looking for right away, there's always someone to help you out. If you're in the library, stop by the reference desk and we can help you find books, magazine articles or websites about your project. Or, if it's not convenient for you to visit the library immediately, a friendly librarian is only an email or a phone call away!

Seriously, if you’re ready to make stuff, the library is a great place to start.