✏️ double hit + supersize + goals
ISSUE #137
MAKING
Chris and I played with the Riso this week, printing color versions of his Retrobotics drawings. We took cues from Natalie Andrewson’s Dreaming in Color and experimented with overlaying and combining colors and gradients.
The results were okay—we weren’t disappointed, but we weren’t wowed either. Chris had the idea to double-hit the yellow and pink to see if we could boost the saturation. It worked pretty well!
Overall, we learned a lot from this session that we can apply to the setup and printing of the next round.
pictured: side-by-side Riso experiments, (left) single- and (right) double-hit
LOVING
Big storm blows through, fells the top of your giant oak tree.
What does one do?
You turn lemons into lead.
That’s exactly what John and Amy Higgins did when a storm lopped off the crown of their 180-year-old oak tree. Instead of cutting it down, they commissioned wood sculptor Curtis Ingvoldstad to transform the remaining trunk into a 20-foot-tall yellow No. 2 pencil.
And because pencils get dull—especially giant ones left out in the elements—there’s now an annual sharpening celebration. Four years running.
This brought a smile to my face. I think you’ll love it too.
Anyone up for a road trip to Minneapolis in 2026?
🍋✏️
WATCH
Annual giant pencil sharpening celebration →
READ
Why a Minneapolis neighborhood sharpens a giant pencil every year →
photo credit: Minnesota Public Radio, MPR News
THINKING
I’m not looking for a job. I’m not waiting to be hired. I’m not leaving it to luck.
I’m making the connections. I’m connecting the dots.
I am actively and intentionally creating my calling: a career I never want to retire from, and a life I don’t need a vacation from.
This is the work: building Makeist into something that’s not just a business, but a life.
I love all of this but especially the robot drawing. 🤖