Ken Merrill’s first encounter with a surfboard did not go well. He was at Eastham’s Coast Guard Beach, on a borrowed board. “I got sandbagged a few times,” he says. […]
Home / Making
Inspiration for the crafty, projects for the practical, spaces for dreamers.
Browse all Home / Making stories below or dive into a topic:
LIVING SMALL
Fixing Up a ‘Mini,’ the Kitchen Comes First
Three good moves make for a bright and workable space
Her 600-square-foot house is not technically a “tiny house,” says Hannah Oakland. “But it’s a mini. I like to say it’s a house where expectation management comes into play.” The […]
MEET THE MAKERS
How Do You Want Your Kaftan? ‘Flowy’ or ‘Extra Flowy’?
Friends create a design to go from beach to dance floor and home again
Eric Bomyea and Iryna Teixeira, who had met years earlier when they were working at the same marketing agency, were podded together in Quincy during the early months of the […]
MEET THE MAKER
With His Plates, Michael Ceraldi Leaves It to the Materials
For this chef, ‘making ceramics is a lot like cooking’
Before he sends a plate to the dining room, Michael Ceraldi makes sure it looks beautiful. If you have been to his Wellfleet restaurant, Ceraldi, you know his idea of […]
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE
Act Now If You Want a Passive House
How one energy-efficient home in Wellfleet produces more power than it uses
If you haven’t heard the term passive house, Bob Higgins-Steele would like a word with you. As a member of the Truro Climate Action Committee, he is trying to spread […]
RESTOCKING
Swap Shop Finds
Minimalists can now unload, and that means offbeat decorations for the rest of us
The Outer Cape’s swap shops are re-opening, and that’s welcome news for those whose anti-materialist leanings went unsatisfied during these long months of isolation. De-acquisitioning that odd lamp (still working), […]
EARLY SHIFT
A Stop at the Wellfleet Flea Market
Where characters and collectors keep coming back for — or with — more
It’s just after 8 a.m. on Sunday morning and the Wellfleet Flea Market has opened its gates to customers. Vendors are still setting up as a box truck pulls into […]
LATE SHIFT
When a Flea Market Find Is a New Direction
Old friends reflect on second acts, begun on the drive-in blacktop
“I love murdering people,” says Donna Walo Clancy in her Boston accent, letting out a slight giggle, twirling her ponytail with her left hand, wearing an apron. She is taking […]
PLANTCRAFT
Gardening by the Moon
Look to the sky before you dig in the dirt
I’ve been paying attention recently to an old gardening proverb that goes like this: “With the waxing of the Moon, the Earth exhales. With the waning of the Moon, the […]
MORE IS MORE
For Collectors, There Are No Rules About What Brings Joy
Animals’ bones, vintage porn, and anything with octopuses are local objects of desire
PROVINCETOWN — Tiny bottles, dried flowers, and pipe stems. Embroidered handkerchiefs, Pez dispensers, or art exclusively representing snails — the potential collections built from digging in thrift stores, scouring the […]
DOVETAIL JOINT
Step Inside Alex Brewer’s Magical ‘Dunegrass Tavern’
A timeless space for music and friends, built from generations of salvaged wood
The musician and carpenter Alex Brewer has deep family roots in Wellfleet. His great-great-grandmother was Ada Freeman, daughter of Capt. Richard Rich Freeman, the first president of Wellfleet’s Mercantile Wharf. […]
TREAD ON ME
It’s Time to Put Out Your (Repurposed) Welcome Mat
It started with a trip to the transfer station
“We are a family of repurposers,” says Alicia Morgan. That’s how she explains the accidental beginnings of their doormat business. Alicia had studied interior decorating and was working freelance in […]
MEET THE MAKER
Vintage Clothing, Deconstructed, Acts Up With Style and Grace
A nonconformist’s take on who should wear what to the wedding
Maureen Leavenworth takes a pantsuit (black with white lapels that puff up from the coat like unfurled scrolls) off a rack in her Orleans bridal shop and, using her hands, […]
MEET THE MAKER
A New Season for Treasured Techniques and Tools
Flo Mauclère stitches together a leatherwork tradition and a personal style
When Victor Powell handed her the reins of his 50-year-old Provincetown leather shop, Florence Mauclère felt “gratefulness and immense pride,” and, because the moment wasn’t one she’d actually anticipated, there […]
WASTE NOT
At Home in Jay Critchley’s Cesspool
Converting your old soak pit into a rental unit, experts warn, is a no-go
PROVINCETOWN — In 1997, Jay Critchley uncovered a backyard manhole, peered into a cesspool, and “discovered a new world.” He had always known about his property’s cesspit, a pre-Title 5 […]