Jonaven Moore and friends having a party at his “caboose” in the British Columbia woods; shot by Jeff Patterson with a remote controlled midget helicopter:
This little girl stood there and went through every page of Tiny Homes (yesterday).
Is this fun! I’ve been walking around the Maker Faire handing out the mini Tiny Homes books (2″ x 2″) to kids. I search the crowds for kids with life, or light in their eyes, and hand them one. Bingo! Delight.
This is Tristan, who came to our booth riding on his dad’s shoulders. I asked dad if OK to put on blog and he said, “Sure, he’s already a model for Pottery Barn.
I also search out people who look alive, especially like surfer and skater dudes, or builders or gardeners. Everyone gets it.
There were long lines all day at Tumbleweed’s tiny home. The Maker Faire (2012, San Mateo) has good vibes this year. Huge crowds, sunny skies, an instant village of creative people for 2 days. I had a great crowd for my tiny homes talk last night, doing another one tonight. The speakers before me were talking about backyard chickens and they had a sellout crowd. Who would’ve thought (40 years ago) that all these Whole Earth Catalog concepts would take such root today…
This is a huge event. The orientation is science/math/robot/gizmo (Burning Man lite), but there’s a corner called the Homegrown Village, where I’ll be doing Tiny Homes slide shows Saturday, May 19 at 5:30 PM, Sunday, May 20 at 5 PM.
The Faire is a photographer’s cornucopia.
Gen. info: https://makerfaire.com/
Homegrown Village schedule (including gardening, coffee, beekeeping, backyard chickens, etc.): https://shltr.net/KZt0jS
Cool smartphone app for event by O’Reilly: Maker Faire
When I was in Minnesota, I did a radio interview in Grand Marais at radio station WTIP; this transcription just arrived. I talk about the tiny homes book, the ’60s, and the new generation (20 yr olds) who are discovering the Shelter book.
I also did a GIMME SHELTER newsletter last week, which I send out to about 600 people at erratic intervals. It’s here: I’m in this 3-month promo blitz (well, blitz for me), and I feel a little odd about all the self-promo, but by golly, it’s just the way things work these days. My goal is to get people to pick up the book and look at it.
Recently someone told me about these 2 books and I got both of them used. How to Build Your Home in the Woods by Bradford Angier (1952) is on building a log cabin (and rustic furniture and details like door latches etc.). The Sunset Cabin Plan Book is a gem from 1938, with drawings and floor plans for very small homes. It’s like the predecessor of Lester Walker’s (also excellent) Tiny Houses. Check out Amazon and also Abebooks (which is often cheaper than Amazon on used books).
Making Shelter Simple: An Interview with Lloyd Kahn By Avi Solomon at 1:07 pm Tuesday, May 15.
It’s a pretty long interview, along with an audio track. It’s nice when a journalist gets it right. Here’s the beginning:
Avi Solomon: What do you see in your childhood that pointed you onto the path that your life took?
Lloyd Kahn: When I was a kid I had a little workbench with holes in it, and the holes were square or round or triangular. And you had to pick the right little piece of wood block and hammer it in with a little wooden hammer. And so I’d hammer with it, put the round dowel into the round hole, and hammer it through. And then maybe the most formative thing was when I was twelve – I helped my dad build a house. It had a concrete slab floor, and concrete block walls. And my job was shoveling sand and gravel and cement into the concrete mixer for quite a while. We’d go up there and work on weekends. One day we got the walls all finished, and we were putting a roof on the carport, and I got to go up on the roof. They gave me a canvas carpenter’s belt, a hammer and nails, and I got to nail down the sheathing. And I still remember that, kneeling on the roof nailing, the smell of wood on a sunny day. And then I worked as a carpenter when I was in college, on the docks. I just always loved doing stuff with my hands.…”
Click here for the whole interview: https://boingboing.net/2012/05/15/making-shelter-simple-an-inte.html
“When I am asked ‘What will the inside of your new bus look like?’, I always reply ‘Just like the inside of my housetruck, only bigger.’ For most people this is answer enough, but for those of you in Netland who are curious, I provide this photo essay to spark your imagination.
Inside, the living space is decidedly non-automotive. In planning the interior, I toured motor homes, travel trailers and yachts, and found the latter to be most appealing, although the end result would never be considered “nautical”. “Early Twentieth Century Studio Apartment” would be the most accurate description. Nearly all of the furniture, fittings and fixtures are collectables. Wood, brass, natural fabrics and leather predominate. Use of plastics is almost non-existent. A Vermont Castings ‘Intrepid’ wood stove keeps away the winter chill, and multiple skylights illuminate my daily activities.…”
https://www.mrsharkey.com/busbarn/sharkey/sharkey.htm
