When I'm building a tiny paper automaton, a cardboard puppet or a fabric-wrapped wooden prop, the wrong glue can turn a playful afternoon into an exercise in frustration. Over the years I've learned to run a few quick tests before committing to a full build — they take five to ten minutes, use...
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DIY Projects
I love the way a well-made prop can tell a story before anyone reads a single...
Behind-the-Scenes
I like small challenges. They force you to make decisions quickly, to invent...
Tutorials
I love telling very small stories that do double duty: they charm the viewer...
Tutorials
I love the way ordinary things carry invisible stories: a chipped porcelain...
I love telling very small stories that do double duty: they charm the viewer and quietly teach a making technique. A three-panel visual fable is perfect for that. It’s short enough to keep a single, satisfying narrative beat but long enough to...
I love the way ordinary things carry invisible stories: a chipped porcelain button, a length of brass tubing, a toy soldier missing an arm. Turning these found fragments into a sculptural narrative is one of my favorite creative games. It’s equal...
I often get asked how a small idea — a doodle in the corner of my sketchbook — becomes a little mechanical prop that actually moves. Designing tiny paper-and-cardboard mechanisms is one of my favourite ways to combine storytelling and craft: you...
I have a soft spot for things that transform the ordinary into something a little magical — a cereal box becomes a stage, a bit of wire becomes a puppet armature, and a bedside lamp turns into a spotlight. This shadow puppet theater is one of...
I often get asked how to translate a studio tutorial—one that I designed for a quiet, curious afternoon in my own workspace—into something that works for a classroom full of makers ranging from seven to seventeen. Over the years of running...
I love making small paintings that feel expansive — pieces that, at arm’s length, glow with the same presence you’d expect from a larger canvas. There’s a little sleight-of-hand to it: you don’t need more surface area to create depth,...
I have a soft spot for experiments that misbehave. There’s a distinct kind of magic that comes out of a failed attempt — a smudge that looks like a map, a torn edge that suggests a silhouette, a mechanism that squeaks in a way that feels...
I love tiny devices that make an idea feel like a small miracle. A pocket-sized thaumatrope is exactly that: two simple images that seem to animate when spun. It’s one of the oldest optical toys — Victorian parlour entertainment — and it’s a...
I love the challenge of telling a whole tiny story in a very small space — a single-minute sequence that still manages to surprise, amuse or linger. Over the years I’ve turned many of these micro-narratives into postcards: compact, tactile...
I love a simple trick that looks like magic, and this little paper automaton — a flipping bird that needs no glue — is one of my favourite quick projects to teach and to make when I want an instant charm hit from humble materials. It’s the...