Creating art from simple objects
ReadyMade book shows how to make neat stuff Gender neutral projects appeal to men and women

 by Suzanne Alyssa Andrew
Toronto Star Thursday, June 1, 2006

Planning an intimate dinner for two on your deck? No romantic evening would be complete without a chandelier. As the light reflects off the mult-tiered frame (plastic bowls) and dances from its hanging pendants (plastic cutlery), your guest is sure to admire the glow.

But if this fixture catches their fancy, they may be disappointed to know they can't buy one at Caban. The only way to get one is to invest some sweat equity, gathering the modest materials and assembling it themselves. The cost? About $25.

If you can't find what you're looking for at Ikea and you're not interested in dropping a month's pay on boutique furniture, ReadyMade: How to Make (Almost) Everything is for you. Co-authored by Shoshana Berger and Grace Hawthorne, who in 2000 created ReadyMade, the magazine for people who like to make things, this anthology of essays and projects is organized by their constituent elements (paper, plastic, wood, metal, glass and fabric).

All ReadyMade designs use everyday objects, like a hubcap or a drawer, and reinvent them ? transforming them into art for the home. With an ironic nod to Marcel Duchamp, who coined the term "readymade" in 1915 to refer to the found objects he selected to show in art galleries, a couple of old hubcaps become a garden fountain, a broken blender becomes a blamp (blender/lamp) and a collection of old laundry detergent bottles becomes an ultra-clean coat rack. The book's Mini Manifesto calls for readers to agree to, among other things, "acknowledge that common, everyday objects are precious gems," and with a strong environmental ethos, to reuse goods, revelling in both simplicity and the process of making things.

Berger is a self-described tinkerer, who as a child was encouraged by her engineer father to take apart old radios. She found her inspiration among a group of creative friends whose craftiness was limited to pushing and clicking a mouse all day. "We were all craving tactile activity but nothing on the newsstands spoke to us," she says, pointing out that her parents read Martha Stewart Living and This Old House. "There was nothing hip or urban."

ReadyMade soon grew into a DIY empire, complete with an active online blog at readymademag.com. While half of the magazine's content consists of reader-submitted projects, the book provides new and tested designs anyone can make. The book was so popular it required a second print run after only a few months.

While it appeals to everyone from high-school home ec whizzes to energetic 60-somethings like Hawthorne's mom, the secret to ReadyMade's success is that it speaks to Generations X and Y. Berger and Hawthorne, who are both 36, note that 20- and 30-something crafters are different from their parents. Not only are they more technologically and design savvy, they're also more gender equitable. ReadyMade is neither male-driven Popular Mechanics nor ultra-feminine Laura Ashley. Its projects are gender neutral, to be enjoyed by guys who want to be involved in choosing furniture and paint colours and gals who aren't afraid of wielding power tools.

"Making things is a result of the need to express oneself," explains Hawthorne, who notes that for our consumer-savvy generations, it's not only about living cheaply. "We will go to the ends of the earth to get what we want that expresses ourselves. ReadyMade is about a need for customization."

While ReadyMade strives to inspire new generations to crafting, Berger points out that the magazine didn't create a DIY movement, noting that the return to simplicity and democratic design has re-occurred cyclically since the beginning of the 19th century. With roots in William Morris's Arts and Craft movement and later Bauhaus, Art Nouveau and the streamlined architectural designs of Frank Lloyd Wright, a precursor to the contemporary ReadyMade philosophy also appeared in the 1970s with the Whole Earth Catalogue and the Nomadic Furniture movement.

Berger and Hawthorne, for whom the term "home decor" is verboten, don't want their reader-designers to be caught in the preciousness and perfectionism often associated with too-formal interior design. It should be noted that not all of their experiments have been successful. A phone-book table turned out to be nearly impossible to drill and clamp together. A fireplace screen made from a car windshield was prone to crack. That's why the book, like the magazine, issues reader challenges to remake projects, re-envisioning them into something better. Hawthorne and Berger know that design collaboration is almost (but not quite) as much fun as the act of DIY.

"There's a thrill in being able to say I made this," explains Berger. "It's a luxury we've forgotten to enjoy. It is a beautiful, simple pleasure."

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