Readymade
is a guide for the crafty, wasteless
By
Brigid McGuire
Diversions Editor
Online Forty-Niner
As Californians we try to recycle our cans and bottles to help fix the environment,
so that we may say we made a difference. However, do you ever ask yourself:
Is there more I can do to avoid waste or recycle some of my everyday products?
Well look no further, for the founders of Readymade magazine have just published
the book: “Readymade,
How to Make (Almost) Everything.”
The authors, Shoshana Berger and Grace
Hawthrone, put together a genuinely unique book, which gives instructions to
change everyday items that we throw away into new and useful household items.
The creators credit Marcel Duchamp for creating the word “readymade” and
describing it as taking a found object and turning it into a work of art. The
writers took this text to heart and created the book with a ruler for a spine
and the hard cover as a straight edge.
There are many different projects and essays included in this book and all
are displayed in a different and fun way. Each chapter is classified by the
type of material used in the project, like wood, glass, plastic, metal and
fabric.
The beginning of each chapter contains a brief dateline of the history of the
material. For example in the chapter on plastics, one can learn how to make
a wall mural out of CD cases and a chandelier out of plastic spoons and knives.
At the bottom of each page is a little fact about the material. For example,
pieces of plastic debris that float on each square mile of the ocean: more
than 46,000. Each section also contains helpful hints on how to avoid waste
and alternative uses for usually discarded items. Who would to think of using
old water bottles as planters or a rain gauge?
Each chapter is littered with fun essays from heavy metal music to how to build
your own Noah’s ark. One piece titled “How to Break Through Your
Own Glass Ceiling,” gives a step- by-step guide on how to surpass your
own personal barriers to self success. One can also learn how to write the
perfect love note, including dramatic schemes to gain attention like writing
a song or wearing a RESERVED FOR sign and writing in your beloved’s name.
“
Readymade” is an overall wonderful book for any college student trying
to get by the skins of their knees or any crafty person ready to take on the
next challenge. The book is priced at $25, so practically anyone can afford
it.
Now get ready to make that CD holder out of those old FedEx boxes or put together
that wine rack out of coat hangers and start making something new out of something
old.
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