Reflections on Making Carstock, OSB, U-bolts, 2025

In my past four years at Pratt, I learned the most from watching my friends make. This book accumulates and shares part of this knowledge, for anyone interested in making.

I created a prompt to encourage friends to make an object for a personal ritual using only found, natural materials. I hoped for each maker to create intuitively and embrace their individual process.

This resulted in the making of 51 objects, from corn husk baskets to sheet metal book stands. Everyone responded to a short reflection about their ritual, chosen materials, approach to making, and gave advice to anyone new to making things.

Design prompt, handed out to participants.

Reflection, answered by Eisele.

The best part, aside from learning about my friends processes and seeing what they made, was taking pictures of them in their workspaces.

The book is meant to be easy to read and come back to, as it is somewhat of a guide book for anyone new to making. All information is arranged systematically, based on the object, ritual, and the person who created it!

The book was also continued in an Instagram page, and a different version is being made for the Pratt Institute Production Labs