YouTubed: Entertaining DIY with Threadbanger

I love to watch DIY videos on YouTube. Occasionally, I'll actually do the project myself, but that's not why I watch Threadbanger. Which is not to say I wouldn't make the things they do on their channel, but more about how entertaining they are. Rob & Corinne are irreverent, quirky, & just plain funny to watch.

Threadbanger has been going for several years now & Rob & Corinne have gone through many DIY projects & honed their vlogging style over the years. I love the series that they are currently doing: Man vs. Pin/Corinne vs. Pin. In it, each of them try out projects--suggested by fans--as seen on Pinterest.

As you might expect, hilarity ensues, when trying to make glasses out of beer bottles, lava lamps, marshmallow shot glasses, doily lamp shades, etc. Not all of the projects are entertaining failures, some of them actually work out well. But it's really the ones that fail miserably that I'm there to see. Who doesn't want to expose the occasionally fraudulent DIY claims you find floating around Pinterest?

A quick word of warning before you watch--Rob & Corinne do swear, though it's bleeped, & there are the occasional drug use references or penis jokes & the odd injury dripping with theatre blood, so you might not want to watch this with little kids.

Here's one of my favourite videos by Threadbanger:

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YouTubed: Kirsten Dirksen Documentaries

YouTube is a great source of DIY project advice, as I've written about in my last posts on my favourite YouTube channels here & here. Another genre that YouTube is full of is independent documentaries.

Kirsten Dirksen is one of the best ones out there, documenting some fascinating places & people. The theme of self reliance & DIY runs through her films, with many a creative genius featured who has built &/or designed their own home, ship, or garden, sometimes in the most unlikely of places. Though she lives in Barcelona, she's been documenting the tiny house movement in the US since before it was a 'thing', as well as focussing on alternative transportation, like her recent video on electric skateboards.

These documentaries are bite-sized--often ten to twenty minutes long. They straddle the perfect line between the high budget epic docs you might see on TV, & the gonzo shaky phone camera stuff shot by lucky bystanders. The questions asked are insightful & the films are edited with a nice flow, using decent quality cameras--unsurprising, as Dirksen used to produce shows for various American networks. Her interviews always feel very relaxed & natural because it's not a film crew--it's just her & sometimes her partner, occasionally their children, visiting someone & getting it on film.

I highly recommend watching a few of her films--they're pretty kid-friendly as well. I'm not the only one who's discovered her, as she has nearly a quarter million subscribers on YouTube & over 94 million views of her videos.

The following video shows you short clips of some of the interesting people she's met & incredible projects she's filmed.

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YouTubed: Bookbinding & Crafting with SeaLemon

I love watching DIY videos on YouTube, but I often get frustrated at how amateur many of the vloggers are. It's not so much about the quality of the video, although that can be really annoying, it's more about their skill at making whatever it is they're showing you how to make. SeaLemon is a shining light in a sea of mediocre DIY videos. Her videos are well edited & she is pleasant to watch & listen to. The bookbinding projects & other crafts she carefully explains are beautiful & high quality.

I'm not the only one who thinks so--SeaLemon has well over 200,000 YouTube subscribers & quite a social media following. A graphic designer, SeaLemon occasionally collaborates with other crafty vloggers & has introduced me to a few others that I also watch.

Her DIY tutorials include many things you could give as gifts, like journals, desk organizers, hot drinks in a jar. She also has some great videos how-tos on creating different patterns on paper, making gift bags, & stamping. The materials she uses are easy to find & the techniques she explains aren't too difficult but really do turn out some professional looking results. Her passion is making books, like the tutorial for a Moleskine style notebook I've embedded below. Enjoy!

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