Spirits Dancing

I’ve been making yoghurt for a couple of months now, and I’m still blown away by how easy and good it is! I got my recipe from searching Down to Earth.

Here’s what I do:

• Mix 1 1/4 cups of powdered milk into 750ml cold water. (Or just under a litre of any kind of milk; if powdered, mix according to recommended proportions and add an extra 1/4 cup of powder)
• Heat milk in a saucepan until it is really really about to boil over.
• While the milk is heating pour boiling water into the pot the yoghurt will set it, and its lid, to sterilize them. I’m using a kg pot left over from when I last bought yoghurt.
• Tip the water out, pour the milk in.
• Put on the lid and let the milk cool to only just warm; this takes an hour or more.
• Stir in three or so tablespoons of good fresh live-culture natural yoghurt.
• Put on the lid again, wrap the pot in a towel and leave it untouched in a warm place for about 12 hours.
• Voilà! Yum!

I’ve taken to making this while I am preparing dinner, then it sits by the fire overnight, and is ready in the morning. But I’ve also had success with putting the pot in an esky with some containers of boiling water. And yes, once you make one batch you can use it to make the next.

Tags: homemade. how to make yoghurt, make, recipe, yoghurt

How to makedo – extended from MAKEDO on Vimeo.

I’d love to have a play with these cool Makedo reusable connectors!

Tags: make, makedo

This suggestion of a seagull skeleton is a prop for a new play I’m working on, but I rather like it as an object for itself. It’s given me some ideas for making some stranger ones when I get some time later.

By coincidence, today I happened across Chris Jordan’s photographic collection Midway: Message form the Gyre, a photographic documentation how albatross chicks on Midway Atoll ban in the middle of the Pacific Ocean often die because they end up being fed heaps of plastic junk. It’s shocking – only look if you are feeling strong.

Tags: albatross, bird, make, prop, skeleton

Tags: face, make, sculpture

Tags: make, scultpure

Not finished yet.

Tags: make

Here are a few photos of how my tissue paper shell came out of the mould.

Tags: make, sculpture, shell

On FriendFeed today Amy today pointed to a British House of Commons debate about trying to save traditional crafts. I rather fear it is a lost cause. The upsurge in crafting and making in the last few years driven by the web is great in many respects, but I suspect probably can do little to help the traditional crafting skills of the sort referred to in the debate, as economies of scale are lined up against them.

But the article did remind me of some lovely images of traditional craftsmen by printmaker Stanley Anderson. Here are three:

Coppicing:

Chairmaking:

Basket weaving:

These are from Country Bazaar, a 1970′s book about country crafts.  (I’m not sure about copyright here – please let me know if it is an issue). You can find a few more if you google, for instance The Violin Maker, but wouldn’t it be cool if it were possible to see the whole series?

Tags: craft, make, stanley anderson, traditional craft

Yes, I know now that this has been all over the web, but I only saw it today: Tubbypaws’s papercraft Ceiling Cat.

Tags: ceiling cat, make, papercraft, pattern

(photo credits and thanks: zetavares)

This fabulous giant Pinóquio puppet premiered last weekend at the Imaginarious Festival in Santa Maria da Feira in a street theatre production called The fantastic history of a child called Pinóquio by the theatre company Trigo Limpo ACERT. They come from Tondela, a small town in the centre of Portugal.

The choice of Pinocchio, the classic tale of a wooden boy who wants to become human, is particularly pleasing, because it reflects the puppeteers’ conceit of being able to bring inanimate things to life. And he looks beautifully articulated – I really like the way his leg and foot can turn and rest in his signature stance.

Zetavares has a great Flicker photoset of the 7 metre marionette, and has kindly let me post some of his photos here. He also has interesting sets of the making of the puppet, and the rehearsing the manipulation.

The character was sculpted by Carles of Madrid and Nico Nubiola  of Taller de escultura De la Madrid & Nubiola, both of whom were involved with the production of the opening ceremony for the Barcelona Olympics. They have a cool video of  how they made Pinóquio:

Teatro e Marionetas de Mandrágora were involved with the manipulation of the puppet. I first saw pictures of Pinoquio on their blog Espaço das Marionet@s, which I have been following for a while now.

Trigo Limpo ACERT have previously made some other great street theatre pieces, two of them large versions of traditional wooden push-along children’s toys. Memoriar na rotunda had a man pedalling a bicycle, (making photos here) and Golpe d’Asa, a bird whose wings flap as its wheel base rotates.

Tags: giant, make, marionettes, Pinóquio, puppetry, puppets, royal de luxe, street theatre, Trigo Limpo ACERT