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Throughout the we/customize project we’ve gotten caught up in the exchanging ideas and skills within and between social networks. There isn’t a focus on how we learn informally from the people who are close to us when we’re young. This has made it easy to overlook that many of our skills were planted by those willing to take time to teach us even when we didn’t realize that was what was happening because we were having fun.

This image is from a grandparent doing just that. He developed a project with his grandson that is fun at its root, but in the process of sharing his passion the grandfather is also teaching his abilities and aesthetic eye.

-Sean Olson

Ever made jewelry out of a hard drive? Deb Berl’s custom jewelry making project represents the Hacker Moms design for re-use community at the we/customize gallery studio space this weekend.
These Are The Breaks…

And the theme for this weekend’s we/customize Customizer-in-Residence series, “Design for Re-Use; Making Breakage Beautiful” with Daniela Rosner. 

What does it mean to make refuse poetic or remnants elegant? Join Daniela as she examines the interplay between technology, handcraft, and the creative communities around them. With guest artists Wendy Renz, Debra Berl, Miwa Ikemiya and Miriam Dym in rotation from the maker community she’ll lead us in a hands-on exploration of what can be done with redundant, discarded or “obsolete” materials. From disentegrating chairs spun into succulent garden beds and e-waste turned into elegant jewelry, Daniela will show how objects can have second and third lives.


Make this weekend your big break by bringing in broken things to transform into something alluring and new. We’re in and around the studio Friday, May 17th from 5 pm to 8 pm and again Saturday and Sunday, May 18th and 19th from 1 pm to 4 pm.  


—Oakland Rover
Jay Nelson makes amazing vehicles, submarine interiors and treehouses. You may have seen his structures at Mollusk Surf Shop, or Voyager in the Mission.

Scott Moulton

In Make-Do Objects, Collectors Find Beauty Beyond Repairimage

Great article in The New York Times about collectors focusing on reuse. Plus a nod to the ebbs and flows of our culture implicitly showing some of the history of the need to make do and maker culture.

-Sean Olson

Miriam Dym’s Logo Removal Service is in full swing at the we/customize Low Bay gallery. Come check out the art of simultaneous logo removal and creative replacement. 

—Jorge