diy

Mulberry Street's Do It Yourself Series continues on October 19th at 6:30 p.m. We'll be constructing a paper magic folding box that is sure to please!

As some of you remember, this year's summer reading theme was "Be Creative!" Here at the Mulberry Street Branch, we participated by starting a summer Do It Yourself Series for adults. The program was held once a month and met with very enthusiastic participants. Mulberry's creative staff members transformed and revamped ordinary items into awesome and useful objects.

The first craft was a cereal box notebook using recycled cereal boxes and scrap paper. Who needs expensive Moleskine notebooks, when you can make your own!

In July we took old t-shirts and transformed them into tote bags! The library may have run out of plastic bags, but these easy to make totes hold all your library materials.

We got a little fancy in August with wearable button art. Using colorful buttons and felt, participants made fantastic brooches with these simple objects.

The staff and participants had so much fun this summer with our adult crafting programs that we've decided to continue the series into the fall. RSVP to our next craft on October 19th by calling or emailing the Mulberry Street Branch!

Last weekend, as I sat and ate my lunch in Bryant Park, I had the unexpected treat of listening to Geoffrey Hayes read from his children’s comic book Benny and Penny in Just Pretend. The day’s readings and activities were linked to Children’s Book Week, which runs all this week. And I left the park thinking about children’s books that I loved when I was little—books that encouraged me to make, create, and play.

One of the books that I spent hours and hours with as a youngster was Steven Caney’s Play Book, which I have become reacquainted with thanks to the copy at the Children’s Center at 42nd Street. This book is one of several creative play books by Caney, a noted toy maker and designer. His projects all encourage hands-on building, pretending, playing, and inventing, and most draw upon everday materials that a family might already have on hand. Paging through it, I remembered the fun and discovery I felt as I tackled many of the projects—from secret codes to musical nails, from salt gardens to bottle gardens.

Do you have a favorite DIY book from when you were small? Perhaps we have it at NYPL—come into the library or look in our catalogs (Leo or Catnyp) and see what books, both new and old, we have waiting for you and the young makers in your life.

Did you enjoy following the adventures of our Design by the Book artists as they found inspiration at NYPL? Do you want to dig in to the Library's collections too, to find materials to fuel your own creativity? If so, then check out my User's Guide to NYPL for DIY Designers and Artisans--it will get you up to speed on the treasures and the quirks of the entire Library system. And with it in hand you can start your own hunt for inspiring stuff. Once you get started in your handmade endeavors, please join our Design by the Book Group on Flickr! It’s an open group, and you can post pictures of your creations there, along with a caption explaining the part that NYPL played in your project!

Here's one completed project from the Design by the Book Group (thanks, egoldberg.rm, for sharing!)--a vintage image in the Library's Digital Gallery has been remade into a lovely blue-hued sunprint:

Now it's your turn! Get making and start sharing--I'll do the same!

Worldchanging offers greener ways to imagine a future changed world. (Image from the NYPL Digital Gallery.)

The latest issue of ReadyMade arrived in the mail last week, and I was happy to find within it an interview with Alex Steffen, one of the forces behind Worldchanging, an organization committed to promoting and supporting efforts to build truly sustainable ways to live. In the interview, Steffen states:

"I'm really excited about a movement that doesn't have a name yet. I see a common cause out there. There's this culture-wide movement amongst smart, usually young people to know what's behind the systems that you're dealing with. It includes anything from the whole new crafting-DIY aesthetic to people who are messing around with their local food supply and starting local farmers' market and CSAs; people doing biodiesel cooperatives or sustainable design. This movement of people is defying the fundamental expectation that marketers place on Americans."

Current interest in the handmade is indeed tied as often to an individual's commitment to redefining one's relationship to what he or she consumes as it is simply linked to a creative urge or a certain style. And Steffen's organization Worldchanging is a go-to source for education and inspiration when it comes to rethinking the stuff in one's life. So if your handmade tendencies sprout from an interest in upcycling, recycling, and stepping outside common consumption habits, check out Worldchanging online and also take a look at Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century. NYPL has copies at the Science, Industry, and Business Library as well as in its branches. You might be surprised at how closely your crafty habits can be aligned with the green movement.