Colors

Beautiful morning in Reno yesterday. A couple of views of the colors from our driveway:





So I've been noticing that my wallet (duct tape, of course) has been looking a bit sorry lately. Needed to make a new one. I was understandably inspired by the fall colors, and come up with this:

Rainsticks

I've been saving the stiff cardboard tubes that our library's clear book cover material come rolled on to make rainsticks. Yesterday seemed like the perfect time to do one with Julien.

We made sure we had all the materials - had to run out for more 2 1/2 inch nails - and were all set. First we marked off one inch increments down the seam of the tube, and Julien hammered nails into our marks:



This is what it looked like from the end:



We taped one end shut with duct tape (what else) making sure not to leave sticky on the inside, and then tried a few different kinds of beans to see what gave the best sound. We tried lentils, black beans, and chickpeas - the chickpeas made the coolest noise.



Taped up the ends, a little more duct tape decoration (after much consideration, camo, turquoise and orange stripes), and there's our rainstick!

New wallet

I've been inspired on the duct tape wallet front recently. Can anyone guess what I call this one?



Not to re-post here, but I just ran across a blog dedicated to things that look like ducks...

Press coverage

OK, everyone prepare for the Turi media blitz! I am featured in this month's Reno Magazine in an article about the whole duct tape wallet thing. Boy, I had long hair - that picture was taken like 6 months ago, and they kept pushing the article back. Those shots were all taken in the "Teen Zone" of the library I work at.

Ductflake

Saw this post at lifehacker.com last week, and it looked kind of library-crafty. Gave it a try at work, and it worked pretty well. Had a great idea, though - make it out of duct tape! It actually worked out better than with the paper - firmer, easier to work with. The "chrome" duct tape used here looks really good...