Learning to Fly.
Everybody sells the finished thing and hides the road to it. This is the road. Three things are being made here and not one of them exists yet. Not in a box, not in a photograph, not anywhere. Two are wood and one is wool, and the road is the same either way. Below is exactly where each one is standing today, including the parts that are stuck.
Every station on the road is a page of its own, and so is every thing to do. Open one and it ends. Nothing here goes on forever.
How heavy is that really: twelve nickels weigh exactly as much as Max's bulb is allowed to. Hold them in your hand, tape them to the top of a tube, and find out why sixty grams is the reason he is stuck.
Everything made goes down the same road.
A chair, a spoon, a rocket, a wooden airplane. Five stops, always in this order, always all five. Skip one and you find out later which one you skipped. Open any of them for what it means and one thing to do about it.
1Draw
How big is every single part?
2Source
Who can make it, and what will they charge?
3Make
What happens when you actually cut the wood?
4Check
Is it the size we said it would be?
5Ship
How does it get to a person?
For the grown-ups: those five are design engineering, sourcing, prototyping, inspection and fulfillment. Nothing on this page is a lesson plan we made up. The board below moves when a real gate clears on a real program, and it moves backwards too when something breaks.
Your shop card.
Do the thing at a station, then stamp it. 2 of 5 can be stamped today. The rest are not pretend-locked. They open when a real shop cuts a real piece of wood, and you will be able to tell from this page the week it happens.
- Drawnot stamped yet
- Sourcenot stamped yet
- Makenot open yetTwo prototypes built: T-01 + No. 001
- Checknot open yetFirst article: our bench, T1–T5
- Shipnot open yetFlight 001 departs the living room
The Jumbo
KidsA sculpted maple jumbo jet with a walnut nose. A toy, built to be handed down.
No. 001 under the tree, 2026-12-25
Max, the Shop Light
HomeAn articulated white-oak robot whose head is a working bulb. That's the joke.
Numbered run of 50
Larry
KidsA plush llama in the 1950s style: jointed, wool pile, built to be handed to a child and kept. Designed by a kid.
Rev D looks like the drawing; a first article is next
Standing at Draw
Design intent: a kid's llama, 1955 construction · waiting on Dan
What happens at DrawThings to do.
Every one of these is its own page and every one of them ends. Two come off the printer. None of them need anything you have to buy.
- Open
How heavy is that really?
About fifteen minutes.You need: Twelve nickels, A paper towel tube, Tape
- Open
From a tree to your doorstep.
About fifteen minutes.You need: One wooden thing, A pencil and paper
- Open
Design a bench.
About fifteen minutes.You need: A mouse, or a finger on a screen
- Open
Let the computer find the shape.
About five minutes.You need: A mouse, or a finger on a screen
- Open
A ruler made of things in your house.
About ten minutes.You need: A ruler, A credit card
- Open
Which wood dents first?
About fifteen minutes.You need: Five wooden things, Your own thumbnail
- Open
Train your millimeter eye.
About two minutes.You need: Nothing at all
- Open
Spot the mistake.
About ten minutes.You need: Your eyes
- Open
Eight hinges, and why.
About fifteen minutes.You need: The drawing, Your own arm
- Open
The measuring sheet.
Half an hour.You need: A printer, A ruler, Anything not squishyPrints
- Open
Draw your own, properly.
An afternoon.You need: A printer, A pencilPrints
- Open
Shop words.
Come back to it.You need: Nothing
Entries
Written when a station moves, and only when something happened worth reading.
The Fashion Files.
Most of what is above is wood. Next door is cloth. Why a sweater stretches and a shirt does not, how to count the threads in something you already own, and the real hundred and eight thread recipe for our own plaid with a grid to color it in on.
Go to the Fashion Files