Category: Crafts

Purim Costumes

January 9, 2018 /

Every other year or so, my wife and I make Purim costumes for our children. My wife machine sews much better than I do, but I’m the intrepid (foolhardy?) hacker who isn’t afraid to cobble something together without a pattern. Here are some of my designs, modeled by my children. I’ve masked out their faces, to protect the innocent. You can click on any image to enlarge it.

Lip Gloss Lipstick

One of my daughters once asked me to dress her up as lip gloss. Clueless guy that I was, I figured that was another name for lipstick. (She meant the stuff that’s long and thin, like a pencil.) I don’t know if it’s apparent from the photo, but the black “tube” has little shiny dots all over it, and the fabric I used for the tip of the “lipstick” has silver “gemstones” all over it.

Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments

That same year (was it something in the water?), my son decided to dress up as Mount Sinai. That was a much simpler costume to design, and the furry “grass” fabric proved to be a great investment – you’ll see more of it a few costumes down.

Bag of Groceries, front and back

The next year, our oldest daughter wanted to be a bag of groceries. Time to buy batting! One or another of our kids wore this costume at least three different years.

Two Fish and a Fisherman

A few years later, my wife picked up a two-piece vinyl rain outfit at the thrift shop. The younger children were all doing their own things, but the two of the older kids decided to join me as a fisherman and his catch. If the fish on the pole look familiar, it’s because I featured them on an earlier post. Helpful hint: Use a low-temp glue gun for styrofoam eyes, not high-temp.

[4/7 of] A Set of Pencils

One year, the kids decided that everyone should dress up as pencils. That meant seven matching costumes, in seven sizes! I used three different t-shirt patterns (adult, child, and toddler) as my starting points. There’s batting inside the ferrules, which helps the costumes hold their tubular shapes. The bottom of each costume is split in back, so that the wearer can comfortably walk and sit down. My wife ended up doing most of the actual sewing for the caps – she could finish them more nicely, and I didn’t have time.

Two Monsters and Rainbow Dash, front and back

Horned Monster, with real bird skull necklace

Another year, the kids wanted new costumes, but I knew I wouldn’t have time for anything intricate. I told them I’d make each of them a long, sleeveless hoodie (a closed-up tube, essentially) out of whatever fabric they wanted, and that we’d work together to customize and accessorize. (Recognize the green fabric?) Almost all of the kids ended up as monsters, with different tails, horns, ears, wings, and glue-gunned appliqués. One decided to dress up as Rainbow Dash.

 

Esrog Boxes

December 6, 2017 /
photo of four esrog boxes
(L-R) 2007 prototype; 2008 camp project; 2016 camp project; 1995? camp project

Esrog boxes are a woodworking project I’ve turned to a few times over the years. They take a whole summer to make, and, unlike other projects like bread boards and lamps, it doesn’t matter if a camper’s older sibling has already made one – as soon as a boy is old enough, he can use one of his own. Wooden boxes must, by necessity, be larger than the fancy silver ones, because a thin sheet of metal is much stronger and resilient than an equivalent thickness of wood – and the internal volume of the box must be large enough to hold a decent-sized esrog. That makes designing a modestly-sized wooden esrog box a challenge.

My first design for an esrog box dates back to the mid-nineties, when I worked at Camp Shivte Yisrael, in the Catskills. If anything, it was too easy for campers to cut out, and it was a little tricky to assemble without clamping. It was also really big. (I sometimes call it my “esrog trunk.”) However, it was easy to inscribe and decorate, and it would be very easy to mass-produce. The corners are standard cove molding. (The ornamentation was done before varnishing, using oil color pencils from Walnut Hollow Farm.)

Esrog Box 1.0, decorative detail (esrog)
Esrog Box 1.0, hinged lid
Esrog Box 1.0, decorative detail (lulav)
Esrog Box 1.0, from above

Esrog Box 2 was designed for Camp Ashreinu, a day camp. The first prototype had a horizontal, clamshell design, with a braided leather carrying strap and a solid brass pitam. IIRC, it looked like it might be a little tricky for the campers to pull off, and the hinged lids wobbled a bit. I redesigned it with a vertical alignment. The lid lifts right off; when on, it’s held in place by two rare-earth magnets. (I love using rare-earth magnets in craft projects!)

Esrog Box 2.0
Esrog Box 2.0, open
Esrog Box 2.5
Esrog Box 2.5, open

Esrog Box 3 was also designed for Camp Ashreinu. It cuts a much smaller profile, similar to that of the cardboard boxes esrogim ship in. (If I were to do it again, I’d make it half an inch longer.) Each layer was made from a precut blank – the boys hollowed out the insides. A lip, glued to the lid, allows the lid to fit snugly into the sides of the box, and rare-earth magnets keep the lid from popping off. This time, I came up with a new twist: Instead of printing the usual paper patterns, which have to be pinned onto the wood in just the right position and traced with carbon paper, I designed 3D-printed plastic stencils, which snapped onto the wood blanks.

Esrog Box 3
Esrog Box 3 – campers’ finished projects
Esrog Box 3, open (with partially dried esrog)

Wooden Table Lamp

December 5, 2017 /

This was the Camp Ashreinu woodwork project in 2011. It was built around an IKEA lamp and lampshade, and a hidden message appears when you turn it on! Full details of the build, including a glimpse at the original camp woodwork shop, can be found at IKEAhackers.

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