You know those cartoon scenes where someone gets so hungry that they start seeing everything around them as food? Sometimes I wonder if that’s what happens when Bonnie Burton looks around, only instead of food, it’s Star Wars stuff.
That wooden spoon? It’s Figrin D’an. White washcloths? Wampas. Dreidel? Droidel.
Admiral Sackbar gets a raw deal. Image: John Booth
Burton’s latest project, The Star Wars Craft Book, comes out today loaded with the sorts of things she’s had fun spotlighting at StarWars.com for a few years now.
Adopting the author’s oft-stated philosophy of use-what-you’ve-got, my daughter and I made an Admiral Ackbar-inspired hand puppet, which is by far one of the easiest projects, but also one which illustrates Bonnie’s great eye for seeing Star Wars shapes in everyday objects. Paper bag puppet = obvious. Stuffing an extra sack and turning it into a Mon Calamari head = vision.
The crafts range from the most basic (find some rocks and paint Star Wars faces on them!) to “I want this, but I really want someone else to make it for me” (papier–mâché acklay trophy head).
My Star Wars-loving nephew was super-intrigued by the possibilities within: he and his younger brother immediately wanted to take on those washcloth Wampas and just about any craft involving Chewbacca. But his first “must-do” (or, in this case, “Dad-must-do”) was the Tooka Doll. Now, my youngest brother is an intelligent and handy guy, but he passes on this warning: if you have an aversion to sewing, you’ll either be avoiding some of the bigger projects in this book entirely, or you’ll be spending a lot of time on the learning curve.
Still, they managed to stitch and stuff two Tookas, and they’re looking forward to several other non-needle-and-thread projects.
Two tookas. Image: Adam Booth
The Star Wars Craft Book offers a nice mix of projects from relative scratch, like those Tookas, and things to make from found objects like baby food jars, apples and old socks. Some of the crafts are done easily enough over the course of a rainy afternoon, and others will involve more time and commitment to pull off.
In any case, what Burton’s managed to put in this book is something more than a list of crafts: She’s included a good dose of the inspiration that obviously drives her. The day after making that Ackbar puppet, I passed a silver pop can at the side of the road on the way to work, and for a brief moment, all I saw was the makings of a desktop astromech droid.
Disclosure: GeekDad received an advance copy of The Star Wars Craft Book for this review.
Related posts:
Girls Against Girls: Figuring It Out With Bonnie Burton
GeekDad Review: Draw Star Wars: The Clone Wars
