Returning to a "Make It Yourself" Lifestyle

There's a trend going on now across our nation that many of you may not be aware of. I first caught whiff of it last Christmas when Amy Sedaris released her book I Like You! showing people how to make their own food and decorations for parties. It was a satirical throwback to the types of arts and crafts that people were making back in the 50s and 60s. Back then, it was more of the norm for people to make their own stuff. Anybody with some felt and a few pipe cleaners lying around would use them to make some gaudy centerpiece for their table, and despite how ugly it may have looked, nobody really seemed to care because everyone was doing it.

Then came the 70s... and with it a nuclear family that didn't have the time for making silly homemade creations anymore. Our nation suddenly entered into a disposable culture, where it was much easier for people to spend their money on premade items. And when something broke, they just threw it away, and it's been that way ever since.

But recently, a sea change has been happening where people are starting to return to their roots and are making their own stuff again. Part of this trend is due to the growing sense of individualism that today's generation is experiencing through modern technology. With easy access to audio and video editing software, and through social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, people can now express themselves in any way they desire and not feel forced to go along with the crowd. And when you combine that with what is going on in the environmental movement, where the mantra is "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle," what you get is a sudden renewed interest among people to save every scrap they own (like your grandmother used to do with her hundreds of empty butter containers) and then use them for something else.

Take this clock, for example:

It was made out of chopsticks that someone had lying around the house. I saw this clock at the Green Festival in San Francisco this weekend, where I noticed several businesses were starting to tap into this "make it yourself" niche market. The business displaying the clock, ReadyMade, has a magazine that it puts out bimonthly that shows you how to make all sorts of interesting things using recycled items. Some of them are pretty tacky, but some are really creative. It looked like such a fun magazine that I bought a subscription! Another publication that has also jumped upon the "make it yourself" bandwagon is the appropriately titled Make. This is aimed more towards the science geeks out there who want to create homemade rockets and radios, but it's still worth checking out.

And let's not forget the internet, which is just filled with videos of people demonstrating how to make all kinds of stuff. One podcast that's worth checking out is I Make Things, in which host Bre Pettis demonstrates how to make weird stuff out of everyday items. I caught the episode where he and his spunky cute female cohost, Actiongirl, make a Rubik's Cube out of dice and magnets. And if video podcasts aren't enough for you, then there's always festivals going on around the country that you can check out. One of them is called Maker Faire, which is put on by the people at Make and Craft magazines. Check out the following video to get a glimpse at some of the wacky creations that people are making for it.

Just looking at all these fun recycled creations got me motivated to jump on the "make it yourself" bandwagon as well. So I tried my hand at the chopstick clock to see what I could come up with:

Not too shabby for just using a chopped-up chopstick and a picture frame. And the clock works two times a day, too! Now, if only I could figure out a way to add a chopstick snooze alarm...