DIY.org is a safe online community for kids who love to make and learn (and for parents or educators who want to stay in the loop). Young makers can do challenges, watch tutorials, share knowledge, and earn patches in all sorts of skills: beekeeper, baker, detective, fort builder, gardener, gamer, papercrafter, solar engineer, and so many more. 

For more information, read an interview, watch the DIY Anthem, and visit the site…

Ships in bottles. Storytelling. Bottled History. We loved this one: 

Ray Gascoigne has been around boats his whole life, as a shipwright, a merchant sailor, and now as a ship builder on the smallest dry dock there is: a bottle. This short film, by Smith Journal and Melbourne-based production studio Commoner, picks through the wood chips to tell the story of a craft honed over 60 years, and the man behind it…

Related watching: An interview with Irving Harper.

via Boing Boing.

Type designer, illustrator and artist Seb Lester writes, “BlackLetter was used throughout Europe from about 1150 until the end of the 17th century. One of my current preoccupations is developing a set of modern BlackLetter capitals that are highly legible, in BlackLetter terms, and yet retain the richness and beauty inherent in this ancient category of letterform. From time to time I will film clips like this to record my progress.”

via This Is Colossal.

Cateura, Paraguay’s residents live on top of a landfill that gets 1,500 tons of solid waste each day, exposing the impoverished communities to unhealthy conditions. Most of the town works in the dump as recyclers, including many of the young people. 

When local teacher Favio Chavez decided to teach the town’s children to play music using his own instruments, he soon had more students than instruments. The solution? He started teaching the students on instruments upcycled from trash and the Recycled Orchestra was born.

This trailer for the 2014 documentary, Landfill Harmonic, introduces the story of this youth orchestra and their community’s inspiring resourcefulness. The filmmakers also hope to bring attention to Cateura’s need for improved living conditions. You can follow them here: @landfillharmoni and facebook.com/landfillharmonicmovie

via Shareable.

Portuguese toy designer Marco Fernandes reuses parts from computers, televisions, DVD players, stereos, old toys and other old electronics to build unique robot toys, all by improvising with what he has. The R³bots light up and come with a display case created from jars, old lamps, plastic boxes and other assorted parts.

The entire R³bots series is here on Behance where Marco writes, “reuse, recycle and customize instead of mass production.”

via Laughing Squid.

In the archives: art from found beach plastic.