TOOLBOX
Big Little Sharpie
Sharpie Mini $1 at office and drug stores, sharpie.com
30 Amazing Minutes
The Way Things Go, by Peter Fischli
and David Weiss $20, amazon.com
· You may have seen the Honda com-
I, like most women I know, have used the venerable black Sharpie mercial where parts from an Accord
for many wardrobe fixes — scuff marks and bleach splatters are are used to create a fantastic Rube
no match for the queen of permanent markers. Then the colored Goldberg-like
Sharpies arrived, and oh, the possibilities. An eight-pack of various contraption.
That footage
colors means I can hide the chips on the rim of my expensive platter pays homage to
and mask the gouges in my not-so-expensive kitchen cabinets. artists Fischli
Pastels come out at Easter; red and green come out in December. and Weiss’ 1987
But none of them hold a candle to the new Sharpie Minis. Complete film, The Way
Things Go,
with a ring on the end so you can attach them to your keychain or which opens
backpack, they are maker nirvana in miniature. Now I always have with a large
a powerful writing utensil with me — I can copy something off a garbage bag
suspended from a twisted rope. As
bulletin board; make adjustments to myriad items, from handbags the rope unwinds, the bag lowers until
to posters; or get an autograph on my son’s T-shirt from his favorite it bumps into a tire, which begins to
musician. Permanent, colorful, stylish, non-toxic, utilitarian. Dreamy! roll, and the chain reaction begins its
—Shawn Connally way through the warehouse.
Common objects are employed:
tires, ladders, chairs, and bottles
— even a humorous old pair of shoes.
And there’s more than just kinetic
interaction: chemical reactions,
fire, and even crude rockets and
explosions are used to make things
go. Sometimes events happen fast;
other times, you have to endure the
anticipation, perhaps while a container
slowly fills with enough water to make
a can float and tip a chair.
—Terrie Miller
See the Honda commercial at
makezine.com/06/toolbox
Shawn Connally is managing editor Joel Raedeke misses Ax-Man
of MAKE. Surplus.
Always Use Protection
Vinyl Film
Travis J. I. Corcoran hacks software, Matthew Russell tries hard to live
wood, and metal. He is founder and life as a renaissance man, but is
president of TechnicalVideoRental.com. distracted by the cult of Mac.
Prices vary, available at craft stores
· Five years ago, I wanted a clear
protector for my iPod that worked
like the sticker that Quickie-Lube
Steve Johnson ( mojocode.com) is an Dan Strunk and his scratch-free iPod puts on my car windshield. So I went
IT consultant with a point. live in Minneapolis, Minn. to my local craft store to see what
they had. I was initially intimidated
Terrie Miller is online manager of Phillip Torrone is senior editor of by the different thicknesses of vinyl,
MAKE. MAKE. but they let you decide if you want
light protection from minor scratches
Goli Mohammadi is copy chief of or something that might absorb the
MAKE. impact of a drop onto a hard floor.
The thin stuff doesn’t even require
a cutout to let the click wheel move
— it flexes just the right amount. I
cut the material to size and wrapped
it around my iPod like a burrito. It
Dave Prochnow is a frequent con- Have you used something worth keep- sticks really well to a clean iPod (and
tributor to MAKE. You can learn more ing in your toolbox? Let us know at itself) without any adhesive. When
about his projects at pco2go.com. toolbox@makezine.com. my iPod died after five years of use,
it didn’t have a scratch on it.
Tom Owad is the author of Apple I
Replica Creation and editor of
applefritter.com.
—Dan Strunk
