@chickengrylls‘ #makevember manifesto / hashtag has been an excellent experience. I’ve made maybe five nice things and a lot of nonsense, and a lot of useless junk, but that’s fine – I’ve learned a lot, mostly about servos and other motors. There’s been tons of inspiration too (check out these beautiful automata, some characterful paper sculptures, Richard’s unsuitable materials, my initial inspiration’s set of themes on a tape, and loads more). A lovely aspect was all the nice people and beautiful and silly things emerging out of the swamp of Twitter.

Of my own makes, my favourites were this walking creature, with feet made of crocodile clips (I was amazed it worked); a saw-toothed vertical traveller, such a simple little thing; this fast robot (I was delighted when it actually worked); some silly stilts; and (from October) this blimp / submarine pair.

I did lots of fails too – e.g. a stencil, a raspberry blower. Also lots of partial fails that got scaled back – AutoBez 1, 2, and 3; Earth-moon; a poor-quality under-water camera. And some days I just ran out of inspiration and made something crap.

Why’s it so fun? Well there’s the part about being more observant, looking at materials around you constantly to think about what to make, though that’s faded a little. As I’ve got better I’ve had more successes and when you actually make something that works, that’s amazing. I’ve loved seeing what everyone else is making, however good or less-good, whether they spent ages or five minutes on it. It feels very purposeful too, having something you have to do every day.

Downsides: I’ve spent far too long on some of these. I was very pleased with both Croc Nest, and Morse, but both of them took ages. The house is covered in bits of electronics and things I “might need” despite spending some effort tidying, but clearly not enough (and I need to have things to hand and to eye for inspiration). Oh, and I’m addicted to Twitter again. That’s it really. Small price to pay.