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Last late summer, I was in the market for a new bed. I have been sleeping on a very thick and sturdy futon that I have owned for the last 12 years. Before that, it had a long life as a bed for a friend who was coming out in San Francisco. (Who is now wanting to become a Catholic monk, but that’s another story). So, even if it is suitably thick, firm, and good for another decade, I think it’s time for a new bed.

The problem arose when in the maze that is Ikea in Utah; I was overwhelmed with choices, all of which I didn’t like. I could find a mattress I liked, a slat set I liked, box springs I liked, but all the beds were…well, if you’ve been there you’ve seen the homage to Swedish design that left me with lots of light or black wood designs that were all very low to the ground. I am ready for a grown-up bed, preferably one as high as a fancy hotel bed, with high thread count sheets to match. Luckily, my frustration was met with a suggestion from Sam: “Well, we could make our own bed.” I hadn’t considered this. I assumed it took knowledge only a carpenter with a pencil permanently mounted behind the ear could do. But turns out, beds can be made by people with an eye for measurement and knowledge of where to get high quality fasteners. (check and check).

Of course, after purchasing the slats and mattress, strapping them to the top of our solar trailer and bringing it back through the winds of Wyoming to home; the proposed September/October project is still in design phase. But here is what has been done so far:

• Picked out a baltic birch plywood that has “a large number of thin, void-free plys”


• Picked out and tested a dark stain


• Drawn up some preliminary designs, inspired by this box:


• Determined a bed height desired of 28-29 inches


• Used Sketch-Up and Illustrator to determine the cut pattern for the different pieces of the bed


• Tested these preliminary designs on the CNC Router “Findy”, to ensure a depth that allows the light wood to show through the stain but doesn’t weaken the wood

We’re not done, obviously, but we need to finish determining the pattern and putting it into software, since the order of assembly goes: stain, cut pattern, cut pieces, sand, polish, and assemble. But hopefully it is finished in next month or two, and I get my new bed. Project time…

It has been unusually rainy the past two months, which means that the lettuce and spinach in the garden didn’t bolt quite as quickly as most years. All the better to eat salads like the one here: multiple kinds of heirloom lettuce, topped with a nasturtium flower. Nasturtiums are edible flowers, with a spicy flavor. I have a large bush of them, meaning I’m not using even half of what’s there, unfortunately. But there are many bounties of the garden that I do get to take full advantage of: sugar snap peas, herbs of all kinds, collard greens, rainbow chard, onions, radishes, tomatoes (the walls of water from the smart and generous gardener Cynthia made a huge difference – we had ripe tomatoes weeks before most people we’ve talked to), and of course the crop that is like pure gold: basil. This recipe is my standby for pesto I can eat for weeks, it’s so good. Luckily, that is exactly what I’ve been doing after the first cutting – and there are probably two more batches out of what is still growing in the garden. This was exactly the plan for this year: 1 1/2 rows of basil, planted a couple weeks apart in both seed and seedlings, ensuring a summer full of pesto. It is that rare occasion where I got exactly what I wanted. And when I carry the bags full of the basil home on my bike, I cackle like a toothless miner, ready to trade in my gold for a good meal and a good time at the saloon.

Next on tap for the non-alky spot in the warehouse’s kegerator? Hibiscus soda!

I love root beer, but the ingredients are expensive, and I’m still on the fence about adding caramel color to make it more appealing to the masses. So what other sodas can be kegged? Numerous ones – though I’m not a straight-up cola fan, and am generally not into fruit sodas either. However, our other brewer on the premises suggested a hibiscus soda – not unlike a common Mexican summer drink, oaxaca or sweet waters – made with jamaica (hibiscus), lime, cucumber, strawberries, or other summery ingredients. After checking out several recipes, I opted for the simplest: dried hibiscus blossoms, sugar and water. The test batch, completed Tuesday night came out with great color and flavor – even working with a recipe that listed “sugar: amount to taste”. I already liked hibiscus in herbal tea – this just brings it to an evening drink with the carbonation. It also competes with the trendy pomegranate drinks, since hibiscus is also high in Vitamin C.

The keg is carbonating for several days with 4 gallons of water – on Monday, I’ll make up what is essentially the hibiscus soda syrup in one gallon of water to be added to the keg and carbonated for an additional 3-4 days. That makes it ready to go for 4th of July weekend – and the following weekend’s art show. Here’s the basic recipe in case you feel like trying it – the non-keg, quick’n’dirty way to carbonate is to make it with half the water and top up with club soda:

Hibiscus Soda

2 quarts water

1 cup dried hibiscus blossoms (at groceries stores in the West, or in Mexican markets)

1/2 cup sugar

Boil the hibiscus blossoms in the water for ~4 minutes. Let steep another 10-15 minutes and strain. Add the sugar and mix thoroughly. Carbonate and pour over ice. Makes 2 quarts (duh).

The new garden is going pretty well – with lots of bare spots as I think carefully about what to fill up the remaining space with. There’s a section for herbs that includes some Iranian varieties gifted by a fellow gardener (because who would refuse Iranian tarragon?), peas twisting around the fence, a scattering of greens that is fighting off some determined insects, basil that can’t grow fast enough for my taste, potatoes, onions, brussel sprouts and nasturtiums doing quite well, and multiple types of peppers and tomatoes that are fighting the irritating flea beetles. Sometimes organic gardening rules feel like a serious handicap, although usually it feels like cutting out additional work.

This is mainly true as we consider whether to raise beans. Since the green bean in black bean sauce recipe has been perfected (to be posted soon), it’s a nice fantasy to imagine bringing home healthy green beans and garlic from the garden to be mixed with black bean sauce, other seasonings and served over Texmati rice (my stomach is growling already). But if there is one thing I am being warned away from planting, it’s beans. Specifically, the bean beetle (I suspect it is the Mexican Bean Beetle described here) is a terrible scourge – serious enough that some gardeners propose that everyone make a pact to not raise beans for one year, just to discourage the insect. Others recommend an intensive plan of covering the plants in a tent of red tulle (red, I am told, lasts longer in the UV rays than white tulle. No other colors were discussed.) that you must quickly and covertly enter when harvesting beans. Stories of dive bombing beetles, of beautiful beans that disappeared overnight, of a garden plot turned practically brown with the thick layer of bugs all have me thinking I may have to give up on beans in this plot.

My only hope at this point is a friend’s suggestion: why not find a beetle-resistant variety of bean? I suppose we’re not too picky: just something with the texture and general taste of a fresh green bean. But the internet isn’t yielding any answers – most research into producing beetle-resistant beans has been limited to soybean crops. But if I could find a good resistant bean, I’d be all set – though I’d probably try the red tulle plan too just to be sure.

In the meantime, spinach, the garden’s first crop in most years is ready to eat! After this weekend, we’ll be able to start having summer salads and use herbs too. I can’t wait to see the crazy brussel sprout stalks shoot up, and tomato flowers forming. A drip irrigation system is in the plans and if I can keep up with the volunteer sunflowers and other weeds there will be much to enjoy out of the garden this year. Having sunlight kicks ass.

There’s been a lot of action at the warehouse/Big Project lately. In 25 days, we erected a loft approx. 800 sq ft in size, including stairs and railings (well, most of the railings). We bought furniture, put up art, created a bar, and put out a spread worthy of the Queen. OK, so the Queen never showed for our NYE Open House. But it was still a pretty fantastic event, with about 150 people attending, demonstrations of the plasma cutter, fire performance, homebrew, good music, and champagne. We were extremely lucky that we were seen as a hot new event – and that those who attended were generous with donations to help cover our expenses and the cost of constructing a loft (wood = not cheap, even if our labor was “free”). Even the clean-up wasn’t too bad! All that being said, I think all of us are glad that we’re better known in the community and that everything went off without a hitch. Now it’s time to get to use our spaces as we intended – for projects we didn’t have space for before. Well, at least, after we paint the loft and stairs and put down grip tape on the steps and finish the railings and maybe improve the bathroom…

See that? That is the new Big Project. Despite whatever we did or did not learn from running a fire performance LLC, we decided to take on the larger project of organizing a group of people who want “project space”, and making that space possible. What you see to the left is the original bare bones set-up. While it looks a lot more like a workshop this week, it still has a long way to go: we have to balance our budget, we have to get rid of five pallets of cardboard, five exterior doors (old tenants love to leave behind junk), build a loft, and solve issues about what is expected of everyone so there is a strong culture of respect. Luckily, so far we have a truly excellent group of people. I was starting to give up on this city having people who are this high quality, but I’m glad to be proven wrong. Now if only we could find a taker for all those doors…in the meantime, I’ll try to post updates as the space comes together. The Big Project will hopefully allow me to brew root beer for incorporation into the multi-tap kegerator, do tie-dye without risking other people’s floors, and Sam and me to build our other Big Project: a paper incinerator that is also an art piece that is also easy to use and transport, that also meets particulate matter standards, etc. Hmm.

These wheeled structures are carrying 3 solar panels connected to 4 seriously sturdy batteries, an inverter, and some other stuff to create power for 40 people, nonstop, for 10 days. It could go longer, no problem, but eventually you want a shower. Bravo to Sam, Lohr, and that friendly red truck, Tuff Cherry, for making it all possible.

There’s a tradition in my family. One that depending on one’s age, or experience of the past year, each member either dreads or looks forward to. When a birthday rolls around, the family member being celebrated gets to pick a dessert they’d like for their birthday “cake”. However, they get NO say in what the cake looks like.

This is an important distinction, because ever since I can remember, the birthday dessert is sculpted, decorated, or manipulated into representing a significant aspect of whatever the given person has gone through for the last year. Some years it’s been a joke, about someone being obsessed with a new sport (a replica of a frisbee golf “hole” filled with chocolate chip cookie “discs”), or deciding a new career path (when I wanted to grow up to be president, it was a perfectly iced presidential seal), or when someone became politically involved in a local topic (complete with picketing lego people around a factory). These examples don’t even begin to cover the creative territory my mom can handle…but suffice it to say there are a great number of interesting scenarios that have been played out on top of desserts in my family.

So saying, when my brother got back from his latest fire fighting trip, he had a pretty good idea of what his birthday dessert might look like. After picking a favorite blueberry crumb cake, he figured it’d be something about his mad chainsawing skills, which have kept him and his crews safe for years now. But it was his descriptions of the scenery that stuck with the rest of us: fighting fires along the Pacific Coast, on steep coastal slopes that made chainsaw work dangerous, and under constant attack from poison oak. In fact, my poor brother came back from his three week stint covered in disgusting looking wounds and rashes from the poison oak, and tales of the necessary prednisone shots that tend to make a group of gruff, overworked and under-rested firefighters a little aggressive. I suppose we were all glad that these risks weren’t as fatal as the fire itself can be, but we did wish that he was given better protection from the issues he did face.

This cake, however, topped a lot of previous efforts. It recreated the steep slope, with the crumbs standing in for the rough dirt and rocks. Instead of candles, my mom covered it with toothpicks, and carefully topped them with foliage made of crepe paper, making it a realistic depiction of a forest that WAS INDEED HIGHLY FLAMMABLE. She even cut up green gummi bears and scattered them around to look like poison oak. When presented with this bizarre cake, which went up quite like a California wildfire when it was lit, we prodded him to do what he does best; to put the fire out, fast. That he did, though bits of ash were still floating down when the cake was cut. Luckily for us, he put out yet another fire, and even more importantly, his weeks of firefighting gave him the healthy appetite required for the clean up.

About this time, spinach bolts, sugar snap plants turn yellow, and tomatoes finally start to show promise. And luckily, even our shady plot is doing the same – a few things refused to come up, but for the most part it has kept my gardening needs and tastebuds fulfilled. It is pretty funny to find a new volunteer sunflower each week – I can only guess the last caretakers loved their sunflowers through the end of the season. They’re tenacious, and take no prisoners when it comes to battling for sunlight. That means most of them have ended up in the compost pile, though I left a couple just for the hell of it.

I should point out, that the cilantro planted at Sam’s request (I completely dislike cilantro) has gone to seed without being used. (Strike that for next year’s plot!) It’s a weird sort of power to be the primary gardener and meal determiner, without having to be the cook. However, I’ll harvest a little coriander (the seeds of the cilantro plant), as they wouldn’t hurt for the occasional recipe that uses the spice.

The tomatoes are starting to turn red, though all the fruits are much smaller than at other plots in the garden. While I am tempted to blame this solely on the lack of sun, neighbors with walls-of-water have tomato plants and fruits of tremendous size. That may need to be a change for next year – Colorado’s shorter growing season requires more gardener intervention of garden conditions.

The shade, however, dominates the plot – meaning that we are getting the most of (and most out of) the greens I planted in huge amounts. We still have plenty of collard greens, but most of the rainbow chard and all of the spinach was recently used in our Spanakopita:

Spanakopita

2 lbs. fresh spinach leaves

½ cup chopped fresh parsley

½ cup chopped fresh dill

2 cups finely chopped green onions

1 ½ tsp. fine grey sea salt

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 cups chopped onion

¼ tsp. coarse ground black pepper

½ lb. feta cheese, crumbled (traditionally made from sheeps milk, goat is also good)

14 filo leaves (usually sold frozen, thaw thoroughly!)

¾ cup clarified butter (ghee), melted

1. Wash and clean the spinach. Discard the stems. Drain and cut the leaves into shreds.


2. Combine the spinach, parsley, dill, green onions, and grey sea salt in a bowl. Let stand for 15 minutes, then press out all of the liquid.


3. Heat the extra-virgin olive oil in a skillet and sauté the 3 cups of chopped onions until soft and transparent. Add the spinach mixture from step 2 and sauté for a few more minutes. Add the feta cheese and black pepper.


4. Place each of 7 filo leaves in a buttered 10” x 17” x 2” baking pan, brushing each leaf with melted clarified butter. Add the spinach mixture from step 3, spread into a thick layer then add remaining filo leaves, again brushing each leaf with melted clarified butter. Cut into 3” x 3” pieces with a sharp knife.


5. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown. From greysalt.com

I should note a couple variations on this recipe…for one, we use regular kosher salt – and the washing, tearing, and salting of the greens takes a significant period of time. It’s OK to change the amount of dill, green onion, and use regular butter instead of ghee. However, finding a cooperative filo dough is a challenge. We have yet to find one that works well, although we crudely work with it before it is thoroughly thawed. (It probably would work better if you moved the filo dough to the top shelf of the fridge in the morning, and to the counter at the start of cooking). Be patient with it, and liberal with the butter – it doesn’t want to fold nicely into the dish like you might expect of other doughs.

After some cajoling, we both managed to get back to STL for a few days to see friends. Friends who turned out in force! It was a nice present to have friends who let us stay with them and borrow their vehicles (wow, how easy that made it), and of course many friends whom we saw, ate cheap, great food with (oh Mai Lee…how I miss you, and your #126), shopped with, and visited old neighborhoods with.

Perhaps one of the most rewarding aspects was that so many of our friends in this city think a great deal about what MAKES a good city, a good neighborhood, a good block. Sam and I are thinking a great deal about this too after reading the majority of a very dense but altogether sensible book called A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander. Sitting in at close to 1200 pages, I think we should be forgiven for jumping over a few pages, but by and large, this tome on design of all types and sizes of spaces written in the 1970s has a ton of good ideas that seem common sense but don’t automatically spring to mind. Like, what kinds of neighborhoods inspire the residents to walk instead of drive? Some say they want a jumbomart to get everything in one place, but large numbers of people find a corner grocery to be useful for most of their needs. How big should a town square be in order to be more inviting for a variety of people? How do you even design housing to encourage a diversity of ages, socio-economic class, and family types to move in? These questions are thought about a lot when you don’t consider your own city to be ideal, and the residents of STL certainly are hard on theirs. But many of our friends are improving their city actively through day jobs or weekend projects: from working with local arts and youth organizations to renovating a house in a neighborhood that needs a lot of work, from building a rooftop garden at work to becoming a teacher or building a sculpture for a public event, we’re lucky to know so many people who think so much about how to make their city a better place to be. And stranger still, most of these people flow effortlessly between white collar and blue collar jobs – and mingle with a combination of both in their neighborhoods and friend groups. Few cities in the U.S. really achieve this.

That’s actually two concepts, but I still appreciate both. And it’s exciting for us to see all the things our friends have accomplished since we moved – even if it’s buying a ‘76 camper named a “scamp” or plotting hijinks for their upcoming wedding. In the meantime, we’ll try to improve the city we live in now, even if most of the residents here have a much higher opinion of their city and don’t believe it needs help, change or any more people in it. It takes time, naturally, to tap in to the improvement elements in a city.

For a long time, I’ve enjoyed learning about where our food comes from and which ways of obtaining it are good for us, and good for the environment. I really dislike taking single words like “organic”, “natural”, or even “fresh” at face value to reassure my choices and dismiss my responsibility to know what I’m eating. (An unfortunately popular technique especially in this city). Usually there are few or confusing regulations on using these words, so I find that keeping up on current research and reading full labels and ingredient lists gives me a more accurate picture of what’s the better choice. (Some of the most fascinating stuff if you’re interested comes from Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dillema and this blog on nutrition and individual foods: http://fanaticcook.blogspot.com/)

Side note: actually, that blog is even more broad. It’s also about cooking, news from the FDA and USDA, and other changes in the American nutritional scene. I suggest everyone check it out, as the blogger has much experience with the study of nutrition, and before that, a career in engineering. The writing covers a lot of territory without it being too dense. I don’t always agree, but it certainly allows one to make better informed decisions about food.

All of this leads up to what I did this weekend. My family has a long standing tradition of giving away food for the holiday. Nothing strange about that, across the country people give cookies, pastries, cheeses, wine and a number of other foods to friends and neighbors at this time of year. What’s weird is the effort my parents have put into producing a food item that they can give an entire story to and even now take great pride in the process, repeating the story at the drop of a hat. For all their effort, they give an American food standard: wheat bread.

It’s uncommon to know the full path of a single food product, and even here I can’t tell you backstory about the honey, yeast or salt in the bread. I can tell you, however, exactly the origin of the main ingredient, wheat flour.

One of my uncles is a farmer whose primary crop is wheat (by volume…it’s very difficult to make a profit on wheat without being an industrial sized farm, so heifers are the more necessary ‘crop’). Most every year, my dad goes down to help him bring in the winter wheat crop, and brings back a big box of unprocessed wheat grain. Once back at my parents house, he grinds the wheat in his own hand-turned grinder. My mom takes the wheat and turns it into bread, which is then delivered hot and fragrant one weekend in December to friends and neighbors.

This year, I’m nearby, so I was quickly recruited for this year’s process. My mom has a problem with her arm currently that makes it pretty painful to complete manual labor like kneading. Therefore, the bread making became a two person process – she combined ingredients in the mixer, and turned it out into a bigger pile of flour in a bowl where I took over kneading the bread. After letting the bread rise, I rolled each batch out, separated it into quarters, and rolled each up into pretty loaves to rise again and bake to a golden surface.

There are a few inconsistencies here. Those who know me are probably suspicious at this point that I would spend any time, much less a full day involving 8 batches or 32 loaves of bread-making in the kitchen. WHY would I be so involved in this process? OK, I admit, the first reason was guilt. It’s been years since I helped with this, and there is nothing wrong with my arms, so why wouldn’t I help with the labor intensive parts? Secondly, though, it’s important to walk the talk. I don’t know where every food I eat comes from, but helping others to have a relatively healthy food item that we do know a lot about is a good thing. Thirdly, now’s a good of a time as any to learn the techniques inherent in making homemade bread. It certainly wasn’t explicit in the recipe, so hands-on learning helped me create muscle and sensory memory of what the bread feels/smells/looks like at each stage if done right. And fourthly, it made me more popular with both family for helping out and neighbors for delivering two of the loaves that warm up a snowy winter night.

One of the most enjoyable part of my recent travels was developing my new hobby, helping others embrace the mohawk. Of course you already know that mohawks, besides being an attractive and hassle-free (should you choose a short version) hair style, attract many members of the opposite/same sex, and clearly state your intention to not belong to the crowd, but yet, kinda belong to the crowd…the cool crowd, not “The Man” crowd, of course.

I cut my first mohawk in May, on a whim with borrowed materials. My friend crouched over a trashcan to catch his hair, and I used a water fire extinguisher to clean him off. All considered, it turned out great (see below). It goes without saying that shortly after receiving his new haircut, he met a girl, they fell in love, and they are flying back and forth in a long-distance relationship even now. True story.

I took with me on my travels all the needed materials to cut more mohawks: clippers and guards, sheets to protect the client and the ground, a chair, hair clips, germ-killing solution, broom and dustpan, and self-made guides so each person can choose 1 inch, 1.5 inch, 2 inch, or the ridiculous 3 inch wide ‘hawk. (I do this for free, so should you feel the need for a ‘hawk, let me know.) I made up clever signs illustrating several happy mohawk-wearers, and waited. Luckily, my selected spot was near a very social bar, filled with friends who eagerly directed curious mohawk seekers my direction. Over two days, I cut 6 mohawks, and 1 bihawk (under protest – it is NOT a mohawk!). I wish I had pictures to show you, but so far most of the pictures were taken on cameras not my own, so it’ll have to wait until I have shots of said artwork. I had two happy helpers at different times as well, which just illustrates how much fun mohawk-cutting is as a hobby.

Funnily enough, Sam was gone for all of this time, and didn’t get to see my handiwork, though several of my clients stopped by to see me later that week, shyly pleased with the many compliments they had received since changing their hairstyle. Since Sam seemed a little skeptical that I could have gotten so much experience under my belt so quickly, I set up an appointment for a friend in Colorado once we returned. His mohawk is displayed to the right, and he is the envy of all his co-workers:

Of course, once Sam got home, it was his turn.

I love my new hobby.

I just finished building a new longboard deck. I had cut and shaped the deck several months ago, and then it proceeded to sit lonesome and unused until the other day when I started work on it again.

The deck is made from two sheets of 6mm Baltic Birch plywood laminated together, for a total of 10 plies of hardwood birch. The laminating is done by taking two planks, about 50” by 12”, and gluing them together with a layer of Titebond III glue. While they are gluing, you clamp them together in such a way as to induce a shape. In my case, I made a bunch of clamps out of 2×4s with bolts on the ends. They slip over the glued planks, and bolt down. By slipping bits of wood spacers and shims under the clamps in various places, I induced a shape. In this case, a little bit of concave (the deck curves up a bit at the edges, hotdog style), and a bit of a kick tail. No camber (an arched middle of the deck, like my last one).

When the deck is dry, you pull it out of the clamps, and cut it to the correct shape, routing down the edges, and sanding it smooth. Then you mark and drill the holes according to your template. I drew up the template in Adobe Illustrator, and printed it out on many sheets of paper so I had a life-size pattern to work from.

Next, I needed to apply a layer of fiberglass to the bottom for stiffness. I used 6oz S-Glass, which is a special fiberglass formulation for strength. I used the less-toxic Epoxy resin with it, instead of the traditional Polyester resin used in boat making. I had intended to use a vacuum bag to secure the fiberglass, which is a large bag like those ‘food saver’ bags that allows you to squish the fiberglass onto the deck with the force of air pressure. Unfortunately, my vacuum bag lost its seal, and I couldn’t repair it in time. Once the epoxy resin is mixed and layed down, you don’t have a choice, you must proceed.

So, I was forced to proceed using traditional clamps and weights to smooth the fiberglass. It turned out less smooth than I was hoping, but thats OK. I also used the opportunity to apply graphics. I printed out designs on rice paper, and then laminated them under the fiberglass. Rice paper turns transparent when it is soaked with the epoxy resin, so it looks like I printed right onto the deck. The top of the deck got a coat of resin as well, mixed with silica sand, so it would have texture and grip. I added a graphic to the top as well.

After a good wetsanding, I put down a final coat of exterior polyurethane for UV protection. Then, I began the grueling 48 hour wait to allow everything to harden up before assembly.

The trucks are Original, which use a very unique mechanism involving two rigid saddle-shaped bushings to create an unbelievable turning radius, and a very unique feeling of control. They take a bit of getting used to, but are really incredible trucks. The wheels are big 76mm Gumballs, they present a lot of urethane to the ground, and are very large, so they roll over anything. Plus, they are bright green.

The deck rides very nicely. It is a bit flexy, but has some snap to it too. The trucks carve very deeply, and as you turn, the deck gets lower, and your weight compresses the deck, changing the truck angle, and making them turn tighter. Hence, it feels like it ‘dives’ into turns, which is a fun feeling. Longboard enthusiasts say that when you’ve got three decks, you’ve got a ‘quiver’. I’ve got another set of plywood blanks in the basement, so soon enough, I’ll have a quiver of my own.

The little guy is the Bodhidharma, the Buddhist monk who founded the Zen school of Buddhism during the 6th century in China. In Japan, they make little dolls of him called Daruma Dolls. They are round little things, with no arms or legs, and his trademark eyebrows. When you buy the doll, it has no eyes drawn in. You fill in one eye when you make a wish, or a resolution for personal improvement. When it comes true, you fill in the other eye. My Daruma has only one eye filled in, because I’ve got a lot of wishes, and I don’t expect them to be fulfilled any time soon.

The calligraphy is by Hakuin Ekaku, a very influential monk in Japan who founded the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism, and is considered to be the monk who made Zen what it is today. The calligraphy reads, “Zen points directly to the heart; see into your nature, and become Buddha.” It sounds cheesy, but it’s true. You don’t need other people to make you spiritually enlightened, it’s already inside you, you just need to see it.

I’ve been enjoying the website Instructables.com which offers users the ability to create how-tos on nearly any topic, and then share them, and comment and rate one another’s instructables. The website is created and sponsored by Squid Labs, who are reputable people. It is a simple, but effective interface, and I’ve translated two of my recipes, Thai Iced Tea, and Vietnamese Iced Coffee, into instructables.

There are also some great instructables from the Graffiti Research Labs, such as their famous LED Throwies, and their useful High Writer.

It’s a unique setup, and a fun way to share, and learn, interesting ways of doing things. Enjoy!

Today I finished a project I’d been working on for a while. My own messenger bag! For several years I owned a Timbuk2 bag that I really enjoyed. It worked great, was custom made, and served me well. Unfortunately, one night it was stolen from the back seat of a friend’s car through a smashed window. The bag was the most valuable part of that theft, since it had very little in it at the time, a pair of pliers that I miss now and again, and an old book I was reading.

It’s been about two years since that happened, and I still have not replaced the bag. I use a cheap Swiss Army laptop bag for my regular bag duties, and it functions, but pretty badly. It does not have the cross-wise stability strap necessary for a true cycling bag, and its internal compartments are terribly laid out. Not only that, its falling apart, wretched thing.

After comparing brands endlessly I found myself in a rut. I wanted a nice new bag, but I didn’t know who to buy from.. I could have it custom made from the ground up by Bagaboo in Hungary (nice bags), I could buy it off the shelf from Chrome, I could patronize Canada and get a PAC. The above are all great bags, but not exactly what I wanted, and not for what I wanted to pay.

Then I had a revelation, I decided to make my own!

I hit up a fabric store and found, in the remnant pile, several yards of black, grey and white camo vinyl, of the type used to upholster furniture. Its incredibly heavy duty waterproof material, and because no one in their right mind would upholster a couch with camoflauge, it was incredibly cheap.

The vinyl would be the liner, but I needed an outer layer. I did not feel like paying 12.00$ a yard for Cordura, which would have been the fabric of choice. I decided to go ‘old school’ and use some unbleached heavy canvas I had lying around. For color I ‘crystal wash’ dyed it with Procyon MX cotton dye.

I got some strap material and a few buckles at REI. Then I discovered that the company that makes most of these buckles, ITW-Nexus has a free sample program, and if you say you are a company, they will actually send you 15 free samples of their buckles, you pick what you want! I got most of my buckles free this way. They are very high quality buckles.

I designed my pattern in CAD, and then printed out a life-size copy using Adobe Illustrator. I taped together the many 11×17 sheets that came forth from the printer, and cut out my stencil. I cut out the pattern from the vinyl, and then from the canvas.

It is key to note that at this point I made a mistake. I dyed my canvas after cutting it, and during the washing process, it shrunk a bit. This messed up my pattern a bit, and caused me some trouble down the road. I should have dyed the whole piece of canvas, and then cut my pattern out afterwards.

I took my two pieces, and glued them together with 3M spray adhesive. I left the main flap unglued, however. I started by sewing the 2” D-rings into place. I reinforced the joints with the least graceful of all seamstering equipment, the pop riveter.

Then I began the process of sewing the main bag stitches. I was using a heavy duty upholstery thread, and a big fat needle meant for sewing leather. My friend’s mid-size Bernina had no trouble getting through the vinyl and canvas. I double stitched where I could. I began to suffer from the first of my shrunken canvas problems, as well. It was hard to get the canvas into all the seams, and so there are places where only the vinyl is sewn, and little loose flaps of canvas can pop out. It isn’t bad, but its unfortunate.

On one corner of the bag I looped a small piece of webbing with a 1” D-ring on it through the seam. This D-Ring would secure the cross strap that makes a crappy bag into a cyclist’s bag.

Once I had the main stitches in place, I began to add hardware. I was using 1” webbing for the auxilliary hardware, and so added two side release buckles, and ladder-locs for compression straps. The compression straps have been secured in place with more rivets. Because I had not yet glued down the main flap canvas, I was able to peel it back, and do all this sewing on the flap blind. That is, the items are sewn only to the vinyl, and the stitches disappear under the outer canvas layer when pulled down.

I added two large strips of velcro to the flap and the front of the bag. It is very beefy stuff, and had to be securely sewed in place, despite its adhesive backing.

I added a few more rivets here and there for good measure, and attacked the cosmetics. I used bias tape to sew a border onto the edges of the main pouch. Then I glued the main flap to its liner, and then ran a seam of bias tape along that edge as well.

To top it off, I took a 25 tooth cog from an unused cassette, polished it up, and riveted it to the flap of the bag with three pop rivets.

What is left to do? I’m going to fashion a set of interior pockets for holding pens and keys and stuff, and I need to get some more webbing for the cross strap, though all the hardware is in place. The main strap currently consists of 2” seatbelt style webbing with a cam buckle. The cross strap hardware slides up and down the main strap for easy adjustment, and comes with its own side release buckle. However, this strap is subject to lots of change. The strap is in many ways the most intricate part of this type of bag, and it warrants experimentation. This is why I didn’t sew the strap directly to the bag, opting instead to use D-Rings and snap hooks for easy strap interchangability. I’ll probably be stealing a cue from Chrome and using an old seatbelt buckle, once I can get myself down to the junk yard.

I need to find a suitable seam sealer for the interior seams to waterproof it, and I need to find a good cotton waterproofing compound for the outer layer.

Once I find a suitable carabeiner, I’ll be attaching it to the flap for a top handle.

What did I do wrong, or what would I do differently next time? I made the bag way too big. It’s huge. Giant. Bigger than I need, for sure. But it has good fit, so its OK. The next iteration will probably be much smaller. I’ll dye my canvas before cutting it next time. I’ll probably sew on more of my hardware before sewing the main stitches. It is awkward to move that whole big bag shape around while trying to stitch on a buckle.

However, I’m very happy with myself. See below for some photos, as well as an image of the pattern I used. You can emulate it if you desire.

The overall bag is about 23” x 13” x 9”, and I’m estimating practical capacity at 2700 cubic inches, or 44 liters. That is a big dang bag. When using the pattern, simple scale it until the bag is the size you want. You’ll need to adjust the size of the seam allowances and strap attachments if you vary the size too much.