--> The Trash Panda DIY Manifesto

TAKE JOY IN JUNK.

We live amongst a veritable ocean of consumer kipple. There is pride and joy to be had forming that junk to your will and making it serve a function of your choosing. Might as well take it.

FUCK PINECONE BIRDFEEDERS.

Trash Panda DIY is about taking crap and making it useful. Don't use trash to make more trash.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED GUIDELINE OF LEAST EFFORT.

Life is hard enough as it is. Trash Panda is not here to put more on your plate. This DIY is about putting in the least amount of time and effort in order to get something useful out. Instead of Occam's Razor, think of it as Trash Panda's Lever.

REUSE AS THOU WILT.

Make what you will from the vast materials that consumer society provides. Use it as your canvas. If authorial intent is dead, then you can tell the original producer to fuck right off and make whatever you want from those consumer goods building blocks.

USE WHAT'S AT HAND.

As fun as it is to go hunting for materials, the whole point of TPDIY is to make use of the shit you already have lying around. Trash Panda wants you to to use the crap that you’ve got plenty of, not feel compelled to hunt for rare and exciting crap.

STAY FERAL.

If you're like me, you're less of a feral shuffle cat and more of an indoor/outdoor cat whose big adventure was getting stuck in the neighbor’s garage overnight that one time. You can still escape captivity and domestication, at least for a little while. All you need is to be willing to get dirty and look weird.

MAY THE SCAVENGERS INHERIT THE EARTH.

Trash Panda is here for making stuff and having a good time. But maybe making useful things from junk will help us get along in this great dumpster fire that we call the modern world. The crows and the rats and the actual raccoons seem to be having a fine time of it, so let’s just jump right on that scavenger band wagon.

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Image credit: Raccoon_getting_in_trouble - 12/19/10 - photo by Steve from washington, dc, usa, Cropping by Trash Panda DIY

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Dumpster Fire, Forest Fire, Easy DIY Air Purifier

It has been a YEAR. Trash Panda hopes you've been staying sane and safe. Well, as much as you can be in the year of our Everlasting Dumpster Fire 2020 ( Update July 2021: And the year of our Great Anxiety 2021). Speaking of fires - today's post is about how to make a cheap & effective DIY air purifier. Depending on the rating of the filter you use, it’s good for wildfire smoke, allergens, or even viruses. Parts needed: + 20"x20" box fan + Furnace air filter, preferably 20"x20" and with a rating of MERV 13 or higher (more on this later) + Tape or bungee cord Tape or use a bungee cord to attach the filter on the back/air intake of the box fan and make sure to have the little arrow on the side of the filter facing towards the fan. That's it. Just use enough tape to keep the filter on there, and try not to cover too much of the filter area with tape. You can screw on little metal brackets on the side of the fan to create a more permanent wa

Trash Panda Likes It Hot: DIY American-Style Kotatsu

It’s been a fucking difficult year. And now it's the holidays and it's cold out and it's still not safe to spend time inside with loved ones who're outside of your pandemic pod. If you don't have a firepit or one of those expensive outdoor propane heaters how the fuck are you supposed to make this work? Enter the Trash Panda Kotatsu. Ok, so in Japan they've got these cool coffee table looking things with a heavy blanket skirt and a special heating unit attached up underneath. You sit on a cushion, put your legs underneath and snuggle up there to keep warm during the winter. These snuggly table friends are called kotatsu. Actual kotatsu don't really work for American outdoor winter gathering purposes during COVID because: They're real short. Like just over a foot tall. They're meant for sitting around on the ground or on a cushion. Nobody wants to do that outside during the winter because the ground is cold and wet. Also most Americans are so used

Trash Panda for the Holidays: Catalog Christmas Cards

In this season of mass consumption, Trash Panda likes to festively push back against the terrible capitalist machine.* I do this by creating alternative narratives for the shiny photos in holiday catalogues and turning them into collage Christmas cards. It's nice because: Wow are there a lot of holiday catalogues laying around Hurray, let's make something fun out of media that's trying to sell shit to us Catalogs, post-its, scissors, markers, sticky labels, pretty paper, glue sticks, GO I like to make figuring out the card captions a group activity with some of my more inventive friends since I find it easier and more fun to make alternative picture narratives collaboratively. Your mileage may vary.** Here is a curated selection from the last ten years of me making these weird-ass things: ============ * Far be it from Trash Panda to shit all over Christmas - this raccoon loves the winter holidays. But unrestrained late-stage capitalism can kick rocks along with 2020. So,

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