ReadyMade: How to Make {Almost} Everything a Do-It-Yourself Primer by Shoshana Berger and Grace Hawthorne.
Runaway craft projects meet recycling-chic in this book by the publishers of ReadyMade magazine & website. Illustrated steps guide you through the process of making coat-hanger wine racks, cd case murals, Fed-Ex cd racks, shopping bag rugs, chandeleirs using silverware and water-bottles, beer can room dividers, denim dog beds and much more. The book is organized by raw material with short witty histories of paper, plastic, wood, metal, glass and fabric. Each chapter has a few unweildy (and some just plain senseless) projects that fall into the “why I don’t do this everyday” category. A few sections just titled “This is not a project” cover how to use chopsticks… to eat, or how to build an ark. Go figure.
While you read this book, just keep repeating mini-manifesto #05 “I will attempt to keep all consumer goods in circulation, and out of the big Wal-Mart in the sky, by reusing them. If anything it’ll make you want to make a lounge chair out of a couple of weeks of plastic water bottles. Good fun.