To my surprise and delight, I ended up working with a Radiolab producer on the piece I wrote and recorded in less than 24 hours. It was an honour to be part of such a smart and ambitious project, and downright awesome to have my piece included in the final show.

Here it is:

To do that, I’m gonna need some help. That’s where you might come in.

If you’re jacked up by the idea of being a Maker but you’re not quite ready to show off your own project, come help me with Mighty Ugly! You’ll get to experience the event from the other side of the table yet still have loads of time to check out all the other amazing stuff as well.

Check out the form below, and submit it if you’d like to help be a part of something ugly and amazing and creative and wonderful.

We’re hosting a Make Something Ugly space at the One of a Kind Show in Vancouver!

These will be mini versions of our longer workshops – all the crafts fun, not so much the deeper thinking. We’ll be making wee ugly creatures that may (or may not at all) make for great stocking stuffers. A perfect break from your handmade holiday shopping! No crafts experience necessary

The workshops are free with admission to the show. Since space is limited, registration is required. Sign up today! And bring some friends. All the sessions are listed on our Upcoming Events page.

I had a blast making a creature, photographing it, and writing up the decisions I made for a tutorial post over on the CRAFT blog. If you’ve been a little intimidated about making an ugly creature, maybe this step-by-step will help you out!

So try it out! We’re now taking registrations for our Saturday, October 8th workshop at Plush on Main in Vancouver. I know, fall seems far away. But just think how psyched you’ll be in two months to have a good weekend activity already set up for yourself.

To celebrate this shiny convenience, we set our schmancy online shop to give you a $5 discount when you buy two registrations. So bring a friend! Bring a date!

(And if you hit a snag during registration, please let me know. It’s a new system, after all, and I’ll appreciate your help working out any bugs!)

Come say hello, and get your ugly on!

Here I am with Shoshana and another ugly doll at CBC Vancouver, after doing a wee interview for The Early Edition about the event:

Go, Portland, go!

Bobbie put out a call last week for DIY (do-it-yourself) projects involving upcycling – using materials that might otherwise be thrown out, and using them in new and interesting ways.

Here’s the email I sent her and her producers, which will also sum up the project for you:

Hi Bobbie and The Today Show,

A couple of months ago I started a project that’s a lovely compliment to upcycling old stuff into new stuff. It’s called Mighty Ugly, and the gist is that you take a couple of hours and some supplies that would otherwise end up in the trash, and you make a totally hideous creature. Why? Because we put so much pressure on ourselves to create beautiful (cute, pretty, attractive) things, and that pressure can be totally paralyzing.

By using scraps, we remove any inclination we may have to consider our materials precious. By making something ugly, we challenge our general crafty mindset but also set ourselves free – which is especially awesome for people who don’t consider themselves crafty in the first place.

There’s no pattern, and you can use any materials you want. Just make an ugly creature. It’s pretty amazing that almost everyone who’s taken one of my workshops ends up saying they’ll keep their ugly creature. The people who come in saying they’re intimidated by making stuff leave with a spring in their step, and the crafty people overcome feeling threatened and end up feeling inspired.

You can see some examples and hear some stories from crafty people at http://mightyugly.com. Attached is a photo of Shoshana, the mascot of the project.

Thanks for your consideration!

Cheers,
Kim

Take a look around the site, and set aside a couple of hours to make something ugly. Then take some photos and drop us a line and tell us about your experience. We bet a hundred ugly crocheted scarves you’ll enjoy yourself, or at the very least you’ll think about crafting from a new perspective.

Keep up with people’s stories and our musings by subscribing to this blog, or by following us on Twitter and/or Facebook.

If you live in the Vancouver, BC, area, we’ll be starting up with workshops again in September.