Mark Frauenfelder’s ‘Made by Hand’ DIY experiments

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There’s a beehive in the backyard, a dark closet full of fermenting kombucha tea and music from cigar boxes-turned-guitars floating through the air: Welcome to the do-it-yourself Studio City haven of Mark Frauenfelder.

Jessica Hundley over at Brand X recently spoke with Frauenfelder, who is the current editor of MAKE magazine and founding editor of tech/culture webblog Boing Boing, about these DIY experiments and others, chronicled in Frauenfelder’s new book “Made by Hand.”

What immediately stood out about this DIY approach -- which also includes pickling experiments to make sauerkraut (“great with eggs”) and a machine to make the homemade yogurt Frauenfelder eats with fruit and nuts twice a day -- is its function over form.

“I think it’s great that people make these bizarre robots, or windmill or Burning Man style sculptures, but ... I wanted to make things that would be part of my life -- coffee, yogurt, that sort of thing. I wanted to try to make some things by hand that I would normally just go out and buy,” Frauenfelder said in the interview.

“With this book I wanted to do things that would enrich our lives and would be possible to do and still work and write and spend time with my family.”

As for the attached temperature control device on his espresso machine that helps him brew the perfect shot (the same one is used by NASA), well, that would definitely enrich my life. Read Brand X’s full interview with Frauenfelder or see more of his DIY projects.

-- Kelsey Ramos

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