I came across this interview of Mark Frauenfelder, editor-in-chief of Make Magazine, on The Colbert Report last week. They were talking about his new book, “Made by Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throw Away World“, now available. Contrary to what we would assume the book’s synopsis is–a look back at projects and tips–Frauenfelder goes deeper, and talks about both becoming a Do-It-Yourselfer and getting closer to his children by working together on DIY projects.  

I find this guy really intriguing. He reminds me a little bit of myself, but much quirkier. His wild hand gestures and eclectic way of speaking draw me to want to learn more about doing more DIY projects. I don’t know if I would go as far as being able to  find uses for a fallen tree limb, but his points about how we have grown lazy and less connected to our things, because we have no pride in creating our anything special like we did 50 years ago really struck me. For the past year, this impulse has taken hold of me as well. Most recently I stripped, sanded stained and finished my own dresser. It was a bit of a pain to do the work, but when I finished, I was really proud of what I was able to do. Check out the book and blogs, makezine.com and craftzine.com for more tips and ideas on being crafty or just doing some DIY projects, like a homemade hands-free lawnmower!

By the way, you can also download an excerpt of the book here as well [heads-up, it's a pdf link].

Personal favorite of the segment: Mark shows Colbert the most useless machine in the world–its only function?  To turn itself off.

Colbert: “I’ll tell you what it does, Mark.  It breaks my heart.”