ReadyMade, set, go

Quirky DIY rag ReadyMade launched in the scrap-pile days of the dot-com bust. Four years later, it’s self-sustaining. CEO Grace Hawthorne and Editor in Chief Shoshana Berger (left) talked at Compostmodern 2006 about creative reuse, in the spirit of Duchamp's urinal fountain, celebrated by their magazine and new book.

“Our magazine’s Jedi mind trick is really about being resourceful,” said Hawthorne. In a nutshell: You can turn anything into a lamp or a clock.

They want to serve the masses who are tired of mass-produced culture, yearning to use their hands in a world where machines crank out crap at the expense of craftsmanship. Berger describes ReadyMade as “open source design tips for customizing your environment…We wanted to share this peer-to-peer databank of instructions for making stuff.” In other words, reconsider junk, retool broken things, get your hands dirty, rediscover how to darn a sweater, change your car’s oil instead of stopping at Jiffy Lube. And do it with a sense of irony and humor, like Make magazine. Which leads to projects like:

iPod speakers out of Altoids tins, room dividers made from shoeboxes, woven rugs from grocery bags, a loft staircase out of trucking palettes, room divider out of Tecate cans, toilet paper holder from a clothing hanger, an Absolut bottle oil lamp, a chipped wine glass chandelier, a fireplace screen from a BMW dashboard, a martini glass bird feeder, a dog bed out of old jeans.

Some of the projects aren’t eco-pure; some use toxic glues, like a chunk of lace hardened and shaped to serve as a fruit plate. A story that featued power tools in the kitchen would make any EMT or ER doc balk. Still, said Berger, “It’s not like we’re gonna deplete landfills by doing these little projects.”

“This is the Martha Stewart empire for the next generation,” said Hawthorne.