The value of the half-assed craft (or: How to make a pencil holder)
At some advanced point while I was cleaning my desk the other day, I had two piles: assorted paper to recycle, and a collection of pens and pencils. Nowhere to put the pens and pencils. So I took the thickest sheet of paper in the recycle stack (a scratch sheet of 8.5″x11″ Tufte graph paper… ooh…), and folded it into a pencil holder, which I taped to my wall.
There’s something very satisfying about using a piece of trash to make something useful, and the process doesn’t have to be elaborate. I hope to incorporate more re-use like this into my life; it’s one of the best ways to craft daily.
Next half-project: I’ll use cardboard strips to attach shoeboxes to the underside of the door that I’m using as a desk (courtesy of Brent), and attach pulls at the front of the shoeboxes so that they can be used as drawers. When I move out next June, I will just remove the boxes, put the tops back on, and ship ’em home.
“When we craft, even half-assed, we make something from nothing; we create rather than just consume.”
— from Jean Railla’s blurb in the most recent issue of Craft magazine, defending the “lazy crafter”
