I’m trying to recall my very first “maker” experiments as a kid that went beyond paper and glue and remembered that I used to make a lot of random crap with... broomstick stalks! They made great dowels and pins.
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Two kinds were common in India in the 80s, a grass stalk kind for dry dusting (phool jhadu or flower broom) with chopstick-sized smooth straight stems and a coconut stalk kind for wet scrubby cleaning (nariyal jhadu or coconut broom) with sharp thin skewer like stalks.
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As a kid I’d constantly be stealing stalks from brooms, making them loose/fall apart. My mom would yell at me for that. But the thicker kind made great axles for cardboard cars etc. The thin, flexible coconut stalk kind made decent kite ribs, rig frames etc.
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During summer vacations visiting my grandparents, who had 4 coconut trees, we’d actually make the latter brooms. You strip the leaf part off and make mats and baskets with them. The center stalk makes brooms.
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This kind of improv making is way more fun than typical official kits/craft supplies
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pvc pipes + ball valves, with an adapter for water spigots. every branch we'd climb in the backyard tree had its own running water supply lol
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Once, when my house was being re-roofed, I talked the guys into giving me some melted tar in an empty Milo tin. I built tiny fires to melt it and used it as glue to build stuff out of sticks for months. Then I accidentally caught it on fire. That was a mess.
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Inner tubes of bicycle tyres.
Making your own cricket ball from scratch is a great joy.
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