Think you don’t know how to make things? Once you’ve met Wiley Sherer, the resident jack-of-all-trades at the TACtile Textile Art Center, that outlook will change forever. Every Friday from 5 to 7 p.m., Sherer hosts DYIFri, a free, drop-in workshop series with changing projects created from ordinary materials.
Sherer says she owes her driven creative streak to Asperger’s Syndrome, a disorder that often causes people who are affected to show exceptional talent in a narrowly specific area. “I’m always randomly working on stuff,” she says as we chat on the phone. “Right now I’m using scrap necktie silk, and I’m making myself a hat.” But that doesn’t mean other folks can’t join in and enjoy the fruits of her singular manias. And there are many: Sherer has devised a whole slew of easy projects that emphasize practicality and frugality rather than the higher concerns of art. “I’m making useful stuff for less than you could buy it for at a store, often out of things you would normally be throwing away,” she explains.
Weekly DIYFri projects include soda-can camp stoves that really work; gum-wrapper purses; “dead tech” jewelry made from the parts of old gadgets; junk-mail origami: and Fused Plastic Sewing, which transforms plastic shopping bags into handsome belt pouches. There is no fee to participate, though Sherer does request a $5 donation from those who think they can afford it. Mostly, you just bring your open mind. You’ve got one of those, haven’t you?
TACtile is at 7777 East Hampden Avenue in Tamarac Square; for details, go to www.tactilearts.org.
Fridays, 5-7 p.m., 2009
