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Wiretap.com
This year, why not frustrate the marketers who want you to
buy their mass-produced Christmas junk, and make something
yourself? And no, a homemade gift doesn’t have to be
a lopsided brown clay mug or a paperweight, like you might
have made in second grade arts and crafts. Influenced by the
do-it-yourself ethic of punk culture, people of a younger
and hipper type are beginning to craft. As a result, it’s
easier than ever to find tons of ideas and instructions, on
Web sites and in books and magazines, that will help you produce
things that are actually unbelievably cool.
Why else should you go the DIY route this December? “It’s
nice to let friends know that they’re worth more than
an afternoon at the mall,” says Sophie Tusler, 20, who
“comes from a very DIY family” and consequently
has been knitting and doing needlepoint “since I was
old enough not to poke my eye out with a knitting needle.”
Beth Falkof, 23, agrees: “Knowing that someone had you
in mind during the entire inception of the idea and throughout
the process is pretty personal.” A bonus, and super-practical,
reason to craft gifts, according to Sophie: “You can
be sure you won’t be returning things, post-holiday,
because of double-gifting.”
So once you’re convinced that a crafty holiday is the
way to go, where do you get your ideas? Maggie Turner, 22,
says that craft ideas come to her before she falls asleep.
She gave her sister, who had a run-in with a supermodel’s
dog on her trendy Brooklyn street, a set of laminated placemats
with magazine pictures of the model in question and pretty
pieces of paper. (You could take this idea and bend it to
fit your own inside joke.) This year, for Christmas presents,
Maggie plans to take a bunch of scrap paper and make it into
little pads tied together with ribbon or raffia, “for
people to jot notes down, or write grocery lists on.”
Beth’s ideas tend to come from her background as a fine
arts major and her photographic training. She gives photographs
or paintings, matted or framed, or gets even more creative:
“I sew photos onto water color paper or muslin and make
small books and cards, or wall hangings.” I found a sort
of similar project, a journal made out of a hardcover book,
at craftster.org.
Sophie says she tends to knit or bake something for holidays
or birthdays. She adds that a good way to get around expensive
yarn store prices (which can make DIY-ing as financially impossible
as going the corporate-gift route) is to look for yarn in
“thrift stores around elderly communities.” It's
also possible to find cheap yarn at yard sales, but if you’re
under a deadline, thrift stores might be the way to go. And
basic instructions for a ton of knitted projects, including
wristbands with skulls and crossbones and a scarf that’s
supposed to be super easy and take only 2-3 hours, can be
found in Debbie Stoller’s excellent book, Stitch and
Bitch: The Knitters’ Handbook. (Debbie is the editor
of Bust magazine, which usually runs a few DIY project
ideas each month.)
Another avid crafter, Jocelyn Harris, 19, says of the expense
issue, “Oh, cheap DIY projects are easy. There are only
35,000 of them. T-shirt panties, D-ring belts/arm cuffs, guitar
pick jewelry, photo magnets, melt-n-pour soap, embellished
photo frames, stenciled t-shirts, etched shot glasses/candle
holders, bulletin boards, no-sew pillows, sugar scrubs.”
(I would add these felt flower pins, which you could make
for literally about a dollar each.) I found a couple of sites
with instructions for these projects, but if you go to supernaturale.com,
or getcrafty.com and browse the boards, you’re sure to
find more.
What if this all sounds great, but you’re in the middle
of finals and just don’t have time? Buying original items
from DIY businesspeople is the next best thing. I’m totally
slammed this holiday season, so I went to a craft fair in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which was held in an art gallery and
brought together by my friend Andrea. There were all sorts
of appliquéd shirts, handbags made by our other friend
Teeter and her sisters, knitted items, and jewelry. Find craft
fairs by looking in local alternative weeklies or by posting
on the sites below. If you don’t know of a craft fair
in your area, Bust, Venus and Bitch magazines
list Web sites of independent designers. By getting my gifts
at the fair, I got to help people who want to be creative
full-time live their dream, which is about ten times better
than supporting Wal-Mart.
Resource Section:
www.getcrafty.com:
Has a special crafters’ blog section, where crafters
reveal their secrets.
www.supernaturale.com:
Links to forums and idea swaps.
www.craftster.org:
More forums and ideas for hip projects. Easy-to-use visual
menu of new projects on the front page. Their motto: “No
Tea Cozies.”
www.churchofcraft.org:
Organization in New York, San Francisco, and other cities
that brings people together to craft. Gift memberships for
Christmas are available.
Crafting magazines:
(if you’re feeling super-thrifty, don’t buy; go
to your local library and photocopy projects instead):
www.readymademag.com:
This magazine is extremely fun to read. Its holiday issue
features ideas for turning stuff you have around the house
into presents. Examples: a Xerox transfer technique to make
pictures into wall art; how to build a house of cards with
old snapshots; and recipes for a homemade spa day.
www.budgetlivingmagazine.com:
Not nearly as dorky as it sounds. They’ve always got
a DIY project section. A recent issue shows how to make an
old board game board into a wall shelf.
www.venuszine.com:
Cool for many reasons, Venus, which covers women who are active
in arts and music and writing, also has a DIY section with
projects and interviews with designers. Most recent issue
includes a recipe for homemade massage bars.
www.marthastewart.com:
Go ahead, laugh. The incarcerated one’s henchmen and
women are still cooking up projects, and they’re pretty
cool. There’s a section on the website where you can
get ideas for free, if you don’t feel like subscribing
to the incredibly pastel mag.
Other links featuring alternative Christmas gifts:
www.buynothingchristmas.org:
Take Buy Nothing Day (that’s the Friday after Thanksgiving,
by the way) one step further. This site has a page on Christmas
gifts that can be made without purchasing anything.
www.grist.org:
Grist Magazine, a neat Seattle mag that’s focused on
environmental issues, provides a rundown of what you should
and should not give if you want to stay green.
www.angelahoy.com:
Gift ideas from Angela Hoy, of Writers’ Weekly, that
put writing skills to use.
December 21, 2004
http://www.alternet.org/story/20816/
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