Maker Intention Flags Last Expression

I have been privileged to be a participant in Maker Faire Detroit since it began in 2010. In 2012, I wanted to continue with making a community art project, as I had with The Purl Street Scarf Project and Flower Power (in 2010 and 2011, respectively), but with a bookbinding theme. You can see pictures and read about the process at the blog set up strictly to communicate these projects at The Purl Street Scarf Project. However, so you can see the final product of each:

The Purl Street Scarf Project

Maker Faire Detroit 2010

Flower Power: Making Waves with Yarn

Maker Faire Detroit 2011

For Maker Faire Detroit 2012, I had on display various bookbinding techniques and also provided a free make and take to teach a simple three-hole pamphlet stitch. I also had the idea of people writing down on fabric "flags" what they would like to make and use the same stitch to secure it to a base. These "Maker Intention Flags", based on prayer flags, would then hang in my backyard. While the process changed, due to the sewing of the flag onto the base being too fiddly for newly inducted bookbinders, I still asked people to write down their Maker intentions on the flags which I then sewed onto the base.

Table set up at Maker Faire Detroit 2012

You can read more about the project at Maker Faire Detroit 2012 here and the finished project (at its beginning) here.

Maker Intention Flags at the beginning

The flags flew in my backyard for 15 months. They actually lasted quite well. Sure, the final product was faded and beat up and along the way I had to use clothes pins to attach it to the shepherd's hooks and where one line split in two, but for being 15 months in rain, snow, high winds and sun, I think it held up great! (Bonus real world testing: Tsukineko StazOn black ink held up better than Sanford Sharpie ink.)

Maker Intention Flags through the seasons

And here are some close up before and after shots of the flags:

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

As with prayer flags, these Maker Intention flags were meant to fly for a while and then burned to release their "last expression" of intention into the universe. This past winter solstice I did just that. Despite the drizzling rain, the flags were burned on December 21, 2013 (later than I had wanted to as I remembered I didn't photograph the flags and was scrambling under less than ideal photographic circumstances.)

It is my hope that all the intentions will become (or have become/are continually becoming) reality. Even the zombie one. We all just need to make that first step, the step of intention, to start us on the journey. Intention leads to thought and contemplation which leads to ideas which leads to the urge to make. That, unfortunately, is where we can stall. Don't fight that urge! Make it! Even if it turns out crappy. Make another crappy one. Maybe you'll hate doing the process. That's OK. At least now you know. It's kind of like those cute shoes you want until you try them on and experience what foot binding must have felt like. Either try a different process or try something else but don't give up because the first time wasn't perfect or a transcendental experience.

Embrace crappy outcomes because they give you much more information and a better education. And then, like magic, you'll be making wonderful purses, origami, dances, apple pies, robots and, yes, even zombies because those first crappy outcomes composted into perfection and a transcendental experience!

Go make something! Start with an intention!

Maker Faire Intention Flags through the seasons

I have been remiss about posting pictures of the Maker Faire Intention Flags. (Story behind them here and here.) However, I have been documenting their weathering the seasons. When strong winds blew them off the shepherd's hook plant holders they are attached to, I "repaired" it with clothes pins. I did the same thing when one of the "lines" the flags are attached to tore apart. The structure has held up remarkably well.

This project inadvertently became a real world product testing of Brilliance pigment ink pad by Tsukineko, Inc. and Sharpie pens. The Brilliance ink is holding up the best while most of the Sharpie pen ink has faded. I personally love this fact as I see the fading ink as the intentions being dispersed into the world. There's something very satisfying with that happening. (Yes, it's that metaphysical artistic view that I indulge myself with every now and again.)

Without further ado, here are the flags in all their seasonal glory:

AUTUMN

(before garden cleanup)

(after garden cleanup but before raking leaves)

WINTER

SPRING

Maker Faire Detroit Intention Flags Flying!

It didn't take very long to sew the flags in and then the "spines" together. I made a little cross stitch between each flag so the paper (that made up the spine) would remain closed and not flop open like my prototype did.

I waited a little while to hang to hang them outside because the weather was becoming unstable (a cool front! yay!) and I wanted to have them out at least a couple days before it might rain. So, after the front and rain came through, Sunday became the perfect day to unfurl the banner!

It was a windy day so all the intentions were able to be released as soon as the flags were hung!

They look so pretty and it makes me smile knowing that people are so willing to be involved in new and different things. Even though I joked with people at Maker Faire saying the price for the free make-and-take was their involvement in the Maker Intention Flag project, even those who seemed a bit uncertain of the artistic concept were willing to become a part of it. I suppose you could say, "Well, you kinda backed them into a corner there." However, I think people want to be involved and want to be challenged and it gives me hope that they do.

Hey! Look! I even tried my hand at uploading a video to YouTube and embedding it! (Don't laugh, it was my first time and I'm very excited.) Here's a short clip of the flags waving in the breeze:



Thank you Maker Faire and The Henry Ford for giving me an opportunity to spin (or perhaps I should say "sew") my madness and thank you to everyone who stopped by the booth to look, talk, give encouragement, give advice and/or learn a simple bookbinding technique. Above all, I am grateful for my good friend, Elizabeth Najduch, who encouraged me to send in my proposal and helped me out at the booth both days despite having to increase her car mileage by about 300 miles on Saturday. Thanks, Liz! (The animated gif was made for you because I know you don't have streaming at work. Another first! Enjoy!)

Everyone has something to teach

The wonderful thing about Maker Faire is the exchange of people's passion and knowledge is not limited to the "registered" Makers. I enjoyed hearing about book and paper projects that people had made or were interested in making. One young man even spent the time to fold me an origami flasher that he had learned to make:

And it wasn't a simple three or four fold structure, either:

This is how it looks closed (and if you had a few beers, sorry for the fuzzy quality).

This is what it looks like opened. The best part of this structure is watching it unfurl as you open and close it. You'll have to trust me on that.

So,  of course, I had to do an internet search and find out more about these fun structures. I was able to find the folding pattern for the one the generous young man did for me (note to self: write down people's names because you know you're going to forget). Find the pattern here!  (Don't be afraid that the URL is "...barf.cc..", it's a legit site. It stands for Bay Area Rapid Folders. As a matter of fact, check out the whole web site, there's lots of great structures the members have kindly made public.)

Jeremey Shafer is the designer of the structure and he magnanimously shares many instructional videos on his YouTube site. He also has written a couple books (information on his website). His designs all look engaging and entertaining even though some look quite time consuming. Go take a look and try some!

Thank you again young man and mom (she was really the instigator) from Illinois who shared their enthusiasm and knowledge and sparked my curiosity. (I'm going to try to incorporate it into a book structure somehow.) I hope this example demonstrates that we all have skills and information to share and should do so with abandon. It will not only enrich the other person but your self as well.

Recruiting Bookies at Maker Faire Detroit

Even though my table at Maker Faire seemed to be off the beaten path, it was flanked by two awesome planes (which I neglected to get information about), so there was nothing to complain about. It even added another dimension to the project name of  "Bound and Determined".

I met many wonderful people and was able to give several lessons on the three-hole pamphlet stitch in the free make-and-take. It was heartening to see the interest and I was impressed with everyone's sewing abilities!

 I had to adjust my plan for the Maker Intention flags a bit. When making prototypes at home, I spray starched the fabric (nine times (!) so it was stiff enough to act somewhat like paper) and then sewed it directly onto the paper "spine". However, it seemed that starching them in advance, along with the humid weather we had right before Maker Faire Detroit opened caused the fabric to lose its crispness. (We finally got much needed rain, a good news/bad news scenario because of Maker Faire.) This made it rather clumsy for the budding bookmakers to sew in. After the first three or four brave and undeterred (or should I say "determined", nyuk, nyuk) binders, I decided to have people just write their maker intention on the fabric and I sewed them in during and after Maker Faire. Apologies and kudos to those initial intrepid makers!

It was fun to see what everyone thought of to fill out the statement "It's fun to make ...". It ranged from the philosophical "sense" and "people laugh" to the practical "apple pie" and "small humans". Two people wrote "zombies" so maybe the "2012 is the end of the world" prediction might not be far off. However, the "stormtroopers" and "robots" will take care of them.

Many thanks to all who took the time to learn a new skill and engage in an art project that may or may not have made sense to you!!!!

Stay tuned to see the flags flying in my garden!

Bookie Action at Maker Faire Detroit

Maker Faire Detroit weekend flew past. My helper, the indefatigable Elizabeth Najduch, and I met many wonderful people as we spread the love of bookbinding. Briefly, I'd like to share some images as, to be honest, I'm rather exhausted from the experience (but in a good way).

The set-up

Display of books

Under the title banner, you can see the Maker Intention flags from Saturday.

(Yes, that wonderful plane was the backdrop!)

Teaching a group the pamphlet stitch for their make and take.

More details to come!

Prepping for Maker Faire Detroit

To determine if the paper I chose for the spine of the Maker Intention Flags would be strong enough to withstand the weather, I made a mock up of just one strip to put in the yard.

Unfortunately (really, really unfortunate and not just for this experiment), I've only had a total of maybe fifteen minutes of rain in the past four weeks. (Official weather stats record 1.48 inches of rain on 7/3/12. This did not happen anywhere near my house.) It has gotten about fifteen to twenty seconds a day of shower by hose when I moved it next to a potted plant.

(Funky colors courtesy of failing camera.)

It seems to be doing OK but I'm planning on pasting in a cloth liner just to be safe. Fall will eventually come and with it, hopefully, the rain.

Since I will be teaching people how to do the pamphlet stitch, I thought it would be good to show some different ways it can be used. I have been having fun constructing models and, as I do them, I generate even more ideas. Unfortunately, I won't be able to do all the ones I want before Maker Faire due to other tasks that need to be done. (Why is it that the actual time it takes to do a task is always 3.59 times more than you plan on it taking?) However, I plan on doing some during Maker Faire and exploring this simple stitch more afterwards. I'll tag team my Keith Smith project and this one.

Here are some of the models:
(Apologies for the photo quality. My camera is not playing nice and these are stills from a Flip camera video.)

Beaded Spine

Three signatures sewn separately

 Two signatures with tunnel

 Two signatures with tunnel top view

Two signatures with pocket