Browsing Tag

DIY

The Uncommon Life

Gift Lab #9: An Inspired Ukulele

July 8, 2010

Build Your Own Ukulele

1) Product Name: Make your own Ukulele Kit

Make Your Own Ukulele

2) Background Research: This is a joint project that my partner, Leo, and I will endeavor upon as a team.  I have a continuing fascination with building models. In college I built a full-sized circular saw with a rotating blade entirely out of cork. I also am a working painter. My partner can play the accordion, trumpet, piano and guitar.

3) Hypothesis: The do-it-yourself nature of the project will enable both of us to bring our talents together to create a functional instrument that will have continued playability.

4) Experiment: I will paint the body of the ukulele and Leo will demonstrate the sound.

make your own ukulele

5) Results: Music has the capacity to transport one to specific moments in our lives so I wanted the ukulele to speak to the present in my own life.  I’m about to celebrate one year living in Brooklyn, New York, so I decided that a view of my daily commute home from work would be the prefect landscape. I’m fortunate enough to live within walking distance from the UncommonGoods warehouse so I enjoy the sights of Brooklyn’s Fourth Ave each day. Additionally, from a compositional standpoint, I hoped that the median would echo the fingerboard of the ukulele.

make your own ukulele kit

The wood grain behaved differently than the stretched canvas that I am more familiar with. The gouache soaked into the wood and bled slightly (I decided against applying gesso). I enjoyed the effect in the large color planes, like in the sky, because it added a softness that would have been difficult to achieve with the brush alone.
After I completed the body, it was time to assemble the instrument. The directions kept declaring “This is a point” whenever something important was about to be written, but due to my lack of general guitar anatomy and the somewhat confusing translation miscues, I admit I found myself perplexed on what the “point” was.  Nevertheless, my partner and I trudged along, despite some complications with gluing plastic to wood (be sure to use clamps). We found a metric ruler and assembled the hardware.

After the ukulele was fully assembled, my partner researched how to string and tune a ukulele on Youtube as a supplement to the written instructions. As a guitar player, the process was not difficult for him, but he noted that the tuning of the ukulele was much different than that of the guitar. Because of the nylon strings, as opposed to the metal strings often found on acoustic and electric guitars, the ukulele may be more forgiving on the fingers of a beginner string instrument player.

6) Conclusion: Whether displayed on the wall or sitting on the player’s lap, the ukulele was a success to both one’s ears and one’s eyes. The time we committed to the ukulele-building project was rewarding and justified.

Click here to see Mary Catherine and Leo play the Ukulele!

make your own ukulele

The Uncommon Life

Gift Lab #6: Channeling Jackson Pollock

June 16, 2010

Action Painting Kit

1) Product Name: Action Painting Set

Action Art Kit

2) Background Research: I was looking for a fun way to make some paintings but it always seemed to be too time and energy consuming.

3) Hypothesis: If I use the action painting set, I will have some vibrant little paint squares for my wall.

4) Experiment: To use the action painting set and create some paint squares for my apartment and have fun with paint!

5) Results: So, I was all excited to get started with my action painting set during the weekend. I opened the package and it had a few paint tubes, drip stick , 2 little canvas squares and sand. The instructions were pretty clear, except for the sand part. It said ‘use the sand to give structure to the painting. I wasn’t exactly sure what it meant and decided to leave the sand alone and come back to it later.

Action Art Kits

I started to mix the paints in little plates and had three watery paint concoctions. The paints wash away easily, so don’t worry about messing up the plates or your dress! I followed the instructions for using the drip stick, it was as simple as dripping the dripstick in paint
and dripping/splashing it on the canvas. However, the drip stick tends to hold a lot of paint so it started to drip big blots of paint
on the canvas. If you want to get thin lines on the canvas, drip the paint on a paper before dripping it on the canvas a few times until the lines start getting as thin as you want. I did not seem to realize this until I had finished one of the squares, but my loss is your gain.

Action Art Kits

The canvas squares are not that big, so it won’t take very long to finish your drip painting. In less than 30 minutes, I had two painted squares finished. Though I did not use the sand (since I did not figure how to use it, and forgot all about it until I finished the paintings) and did not make any specific patterns, I had twp vibrant little pieces for my wall!

6) Conclusion: The action painting set makes for a quick way to get creative and have fun with paint.

Action Art Kits