Credit to Michael Fajardo, mfajardo on Flickr

Yesterday I saw Halloween decorations in Walmart.

Look, I know it’s September, but in the rush to reach the awesomeness that is Halloween, we’re skipping over one of the best fall holidays of all – Oktoberfest! This humble holiday features over two weeks of booze and bacchanalia, only to have been usurped by one night of cosplay. Well, to that we say “Nay!” This year, the Midsouth Makers is taking back Oktober, and to get things started off right, we’re going to brew our very own beer!

This Sunday at 2:30pm at the Space, member Ben Eishen will be hosting an informal discussion and demonstration of basic beer brewing.  We’ll have some hot wings on hand, but feel free to bring any food or pre-brewed drinks you’d like to indulge in during the demonstration. This will be an 18+ event, so please leave your kids at home for this one.  Before you crack open a pumpkin this year, come by and crack open a cold one with the Midsouth Makers!

Good day, dear reader! Might I interest you in in a chance to cultivate your cultural side? Would you be interested in indulging in a bit of art?  If so, then indeed, the Midsouth gentle Makers will be hosting just the event for you!  At Noon on the 10^th day of September in the year 2011, it will be our pleasure to host a class on sculpture.  Those in possession of minds sharp enough to participate can look forward to the opportunity to construct an elegant luna moth, such as the one represented in the following depiction:

This will be an intermediate level class, but it should prove simple enough for any clever rapscallion who genuinely wishes to participate. We are charging a paltry $20 per person to partake in this opulent opportunity. This cost must be pre-paid prior to the occurrence of the class, because the cost will go towards the procurement of the appropriate materials. Those of keen mind can sign up at the following link: http://www.midsouthmakers.org/events/

We encourage our participants to provide any extra embellishments they might wish to use to distinguish their sculptures. Specifically, the discerning sculptor might want to bring some flat backed cabochons, or “glass beads” as the Plebeians say, that can withstand temperatures of at least 300°F to embellish their creation. Lastly, were you to be so fortunate as to possess sculpting tools already, such as an acrylic rolling pin or brayers, we would humbly ask that you bring these along with you to the class. We sincerely look forward to the honor of your presence!

Image by Brandi Dunn

Can you believe it’s October, already? Time to start getting into the Halloween spirit. And what better way to do that than with lots of spooky treats? That’s right, the Midsouth Makers are gonna have a Halloween themed bake sale! We’re gonna have lots of sweets – cookies, brownies, homemade marshmallows, a few whole cakes; there’s even a couple of sugar free goodies. But, wait! That’s not all! We’ll also have a few non-food items, such as hand sewn pumpkins and decorated paper bats.

Sounds like it’s gonna be loads of fun, doesn’t it? Well, the more people we have helping and coming to the bake sale, the more fun it will be. So, we will need all types of help – people passing out flyers, donations of many types (food, non-food, monetary), volunteers for the bake sale, someone taking pictures, people showing off projects to potential victims… I mean, potential customers. Costumes, especially homemade, are GREATLY encouraged.

Here’s the specifics – The bake sale will be held on Saturday, October 30. Set-up time will start at 9 am. The bake sale will go from 10 am to 1 pm. The location is Kevin and Brandi’s front yard, at 850 Avon in Memphis. Here is a file containing the sign up sheet, a set of guidelines for food donations/ingredients list and the flyer. If you have any questions or want to virtually ‘sign’ the sign up sheet, send it to board@midsouthmakers.org and it will be forwarded to Brandi.

Let’s make this an AWESOME bake sale! Be there or beware!

Relief Press Printing is the process of taking a medium, removing specific pieces of it so as to make it thinner in areas, and inking the raised portions of the medium to press onto a desired surface.  The purpose of this workshop is to demonstrate an easy way to create your own linoleum stamps, and more specifically how to apply this to T-Shirts. Through this you can take a linoleum block, carve out any design you wish, and print it onto any shirt that you would like. The cost to participate in this workshop is $20. Because of the cost of materials it is necessary for us to have a very clear number of how many people plan to participate so we are able to order enough supplies. For more information, check out our T-Shirt Printing Wiki.

If you would like to prepay to participate in the workshop, you can visit http://www.midsouthmakers.org/events/ and select your shirt size, and click Buy Now. We’d like to recommend that everyone interested pre pay so we’re able to have shirts and materials for those interested. If you’d rather pay cash feel free to talk to Daniel during any meeting.

Image provided by Mary

A couple of weeks ago I was looking at making my own wedding favors.  I stumbled onto two thing. 1: homemade soaps, 2: homemade bath salts.

I found some information from a few places and found that for soap making, there are 4 methods: Melt and pour-the easiest (but it’s compared to baking a cake using boxed ingredients versus cooking from scratch); cold process- mixing up your items from scratch, the lye, oils, ect; hot process- a similar variation of cold process; and rebatching- grinding up premade soap bars and adding in your own extra ingredients.   For the beginning of a new project I’d like to start with something a bit simpler, so I went with the melt and pour bases.   I found an inexpensive source for soap making supplies that had beginner kits (kits with small quantities of multiple items).  Within a week I received the supplies. I got a few different types of soap.  I got a few different oils for scent, and a few other items I thought might be a good idea.  I’ve always loved strawberry scented things, so I got some strawberry oil, seeds, and some pink soap dye to play with.

So on the next Friday, I was off work, thanks to pulling a 22 hour shift the night before. I started with making the strawberry soap.

First: I cut up a pound of Shea butter soap.  (A pound is a bit less than I thought it would be.  The mold I purchased holds exactly 2 pounds of soap and makes 8 total bars.  For my first batch I improvised with a Ziploc container lined with wax paper)

Second: I heated up my solid aluminum double boiler to melt the soap.  After the soap melted, I put a few drops of the strawberry oil in, I played with the amount until the smell was just right.  Then I used the soap dye and added it until the soap was a desirable color.  I also used strawberry seeds to add exfoliants to the soap.  Lesson learned: strawberry seeds float; they all ended up on what was to be the bottom of my soap.

Next I decided to make some lemony soap.  I used the goats milk soap and the honey soap.  Honey soap is a clear base, and goats milk is a solid base.  I melted the honey soap and used one scent on it – listea cubea. After the first layer had formed a shell on top, I melted down the milk soap and mixed a little yellow food color and verbena scent.  I am much more pleased with this attempt.

When looking online for small gifts I can use as favors at the wedding I found homemade bath salts…  To make them it’s surprisingly easy.  Pour in the salt of your choice- Epsom salt is the suggested.  Then you mix in your color- just 2-3 drops of food coloring.  Then mix in 2 tablespoons baking soda and the scent of your choice.  that’s it.  Simple.

I also accidentally found a body scrub that is only slightly more complicated.  It takes a whole 15 minutes to make a batch.  3 table spoons of: white sugar, turbinado sugar, 1 table spoon of glycerin, baking soda, and salt of your choice.  Then you add olive or almond oil to it until it’s about the consistency of a slushy. Last you add your scent, about 1-2 ml works perfect.  That’s it, and it works great!