Darbin Orvar

Building & Making on Youtube

Darbin Orvar - Girl in a Shop

My adventures in building, diy, construction, testing and finishing.

Making a Mini Japanese Toolbox (out of 2x4s)

I was in the mood to get out in the shop and build something simple. For a while I'd been thinking it would be fun to dust off the hand tools and I happened to have some resawed 2x4s on hand. 2x4s obviously aren't fancy, however there is something appealing about the cleanness of the wood and the straightness of the grain. In terms of the project, there's been one type of box I've been wanting to make lately, so this seemed like a perfect opportunity - a mini Japanese toolbox.

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Making Spinning Tops

The spinning top journey has been a fun one! They are now stocked in the shoppe if you’d like to pick one up, and I have a video ready all about the process thus far. When we first started playing around with the idea of making the tops, the project was centered around just that. Making different designs, cutting in different woods etc… Since then, we’ve tried out a lot of different concepts, ventured into making dishes and perfectly sized keepsake boxes,

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Making Classic Wax Pots

Some projects or concepts just speak to you right away. The wax pot was one of those for me If you’re not familiar, a wax pot (aka a greasepot) is an old fashioned object that the woodworker kept on the bench or in their apron. It’s a small wooden box filled with some sort of lubricant - either wax polish or tallow.

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Spinning Tops: The Beginning

So for the last couple of weeks, I've been working on a concept that started out quite simple, and has evolved from there into many different aspects. What is it? It's a spinning top. You know the classic toy that kids have played with for ages (quite a few adults too I may add.) It's been a rather fun object to work on, and I'm not done yet. But, let me share what's been going on with this project and where I am right now.

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YouTube Livestreams

Lately I've been getting into hosting livestreams on YouTube about different maker-related subjects. It's been a fun opportunity to connect with people and to explore ideas and projects in a more relaxed way.

Here are the latest ones:

Building an Articulated LED Task Lamp

This project is all about building a useful task lamp with led strip lights that are really easy to work with. In this build I use baltic birch plywood but any wood will be fine. Below are some links to the products I either used to make this project or tools that were very helpful.

Parts Used in this Build

Women in Woodworking (3rd Podcast)

Itunes: https://itun.es/i6Sx4jF

Sound Cloud: https://soundcloud.com/darbinorvar

RSS Feed: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:153407357/sounds.rss

In many ways, ever since I began woodworking seriously I have been wondering why there weren't more women involved in making things. I mean woodworking, but also building anything with metal, cnc and engineering too. 

I don't think it is a surprise to anyone that women are not generally associated with woodworking. I mean there are examples, but for the most part women are bunched in with the softer crafts like sewing, cooking and home décor. If instagram is any indication though, there are a lot of women giving woodworking and design a new life that is both nuanced and practical.

I think the focus here in my mind is where are things going from here. I try not to pay too much attention to the past, I am future-oriented and am really excited to see where the new-found freedom in building, engineering and design goes. I come from one basic perspective, people behave based on what is around themselves. If you expose men and women, boys and girls to building many will be interested, if we do not then they are unlikely to think about it as a way to express themselves.

I don't agree that we should accept the concept of gender-based behaviors as they are assumed to relate to woodworking and building. I believe things are learned, learned through our environments, and our environments are vast and complicated. Lets agree there is no “building gene”, and that lots of people would benefit from the experience and pleasure of building and woodworking, if only it was presented in a way to attract more interest.

It seems like we often impose barriers to subjects on ourselves or others all the time. Many of these preferences are because of a wrong perspective, like that certain people can do math, and some cannot. Other subjects just seem more male, which can bar women from thinking about them as an option as well. It is more likely that these environments we either create ourselves or adopt from our families are just wrong. I believe that if you want to be a good example and encourage others to learn to express themselves in woodworking, making or even science you must watch out how you yourself believe about these subjects. You are really more of an influence on others than you realize.