Making Something New Everyday

April 19, 2009 8:49 PM

Making Something New Everyday; a blog where old-time MeFite Alison tries to make something new everyday. With over 100 projects posted so far, there's plenty for you to gawk at, such as a Robot Tea Cup and Saucer, a Color Perfect Pitch Tester, a Hidden Chamber Hamburger, Capacitor Bugs, Accidentally Gay Cardinals, a Fibonacci Petticoat, Marzipan Birds and Laptop and, erm... poop (possibly NSFW). Something for everyone, then! [via mefi projects]
posted by Effigy2000 (19 comments total)

shouldn't this be in turq? oh wait...
posted by the aloha at 8:53 PM on April 19

This is the most adorable thing ever.
posted by nasreddin at 9:02 PM on April 19

Not calling that robot china "robocup" seems to be a wasted opportunity.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 9:10 PM on April 19 [2 favorites]

Every day? It would take me three weeks to do one of those projects. I am jealous.

Very cool. Clever and fun.
posted by Xoebe at 9:13 PM on April 19 [1 favorite]

A seven thousander is old-time?
posted by dhartung at 9:15 PM on April 19

Yeah, great idea.
posted by stbalbach at 9:16 PM on April 19

This stuff doesn't look ordinary at all.
posted by Stylus Happenstance at 9:23 PM on April 19

This is super-cool, and inspiring, and the frog tombstone story is hilarious (and sad (but hilarious)).
posted by tepidmonkey at 11:09 PM on April 19

Fibonacci Petticoat is the most wonderful two-word phrase I have ever heard.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 11:40 PM on April 19

Inspiring is the word. I've got kids to infect with this kind of attitude - looks like we're getting a china pen today...
posted by Harald74 at 11:48 PM on April 19

Also: this guy, although it's visual arts focused and he's apparently been slacking off lately.
posted by cmyr at 2:48 AM on April 20

As someone with a grocery list of projects to work on, this is making me feel that small is beautiful. Even though I want to do a 90 hour Tiffany glass embroidery for my mum.
posted by mippy at 7:08 AM on April 20

I am seriously coveting the robot china. It's so cute!
posted by sarcasticah at 7:14 AM on April 20

This is really cool, and also exhausting. As with many of these types of things, the first (unwritten) step is always, "Marshal your substantial artistic sensibility and skill." One of the things that demoralizes me about Make Magazine, the idea of which I love, is that every project basically starts with "Dust off your Electrical Engineering PhD..."
posted by OmieWise at 7:31 AM on April 20

Oh, yes. I dithered for ages about subscribing to Craft - I'd love a sewing/embroidery magazine for - for want of a better word - hipsters, but Make is of little use to me even if I admire the projects. Same with Instructables. I haven't even used a soldering iron for eleven years.
posted by mippy at 9:16 AM on April 20

Holy crap! Thanks for publishing my project on the front page!

This is really cool, and also exhausting. As with many of these types of things, the first (unwritten) step is always, "Marshal your substantial artistic sensibility and skill."

I dunno. I'm a messy, impatient person. Most of my projects take less than an hour because that is about the limit of my attention span. I probably wouldn't finish half of the time if I did something more elaborate. Still, this endeavor is probably well suited to me because I like doing new things all of the time. I'm actually not very good at drawing or painting or almost anything that takes patience or delicate skill.

I think the point is that I write about my projects because it's mostly stuff that other people can do, too. It's why I give out my code most of the time and why I tell people where to buy similar supplies. The only special thing about my blog might be the volume, but each individual project should be accessible to anyone interested in trying, artistic sensibility regardless.
posted by Alison at 9:46 AM on April 20 [1 favorite]

I was hoping the hidden chamber hamburger would be an actual beef patty with a indent/hole in the middle for... I dunno, pickles?
posted by luftmensch at 10:04 AM on April 20

Cool site, Alison! Now I have a lot of inspirational little ideas floating around in my head that will likely surface at a later date when I sit down at my kitchen table for some crafty relaxation, so thanks! Keep learning and making new things ... and having fun doing it!

Late last year one of my friends pointed out that I make some sort of little (or big) artsy-crafty thing every day ... and wouldn't it be cool to set up a web site and post about them? It last all of two weeks, and then the daily artsy-crafty thing started feeling like something I had to do (i.e. work as opposed to fun) and the spontaneity of it was lost as I started having to plan ahead, to make sure I had an idea for every day, because I don't actually do anything of note every day (and all the associated photographing and posting about it on top of doing it). I am happily back to just getting the urge to make little clay animals, a knitted washcloth, or whatever strikes my fancy whenever I feel like it, no added work involved. I'd have gone nuts if I'd have felt like I HAD to do something every day because someone was expecting there to be a post about it on my blog.
posted by Orb at 10:05 AM on April 20

Neat projects. And I have nothing further to....NO I CAN'T SUPPRESS IT. It's something new every <space> day.
posted by DU at 5:04 AM on April 21