My childhood home was dad’s own little workshop. Our little 400 square foot, two story shacks of a house always smelled like wet paint and curing resin. He likes to experiment with things, and doing everything with his own hands since it has to be “just as he likes it”. I would watch him sculpt busts, make molds and cast his own statues, all in the span of a Sunday afternoon. Seeing things come to live from scratch was fascinating.
It may be a cliché of an origin story, but I suppose that’s where I caught the bug. Building things is my favorite part of the creative process. Building something with your own hands can be such a refreshing and relaxing experience. I am also a compulsive hobbies collector. Up until now I have tried woodworking and woodcarving, crocheting and embroidery, 3D printing, laser cutting, resin making, drawing, hydroponics gardening, cooking and baking, Dungeons and Dragons, and homebrewing. All of these have one thing in common, and that is they all allow me to make something. They are inspired by my environment, and are influenced by other hobbies.
One of the projects that I’m proud of is an interactive button box which is my own version of Google’s Anypixel project. It is a back-lit 7×7 button matrix, fully programmable in Javascript and encased in laser-cut plywood. The buttons are Cherry arcade buttons and they give the whole thing such a tactile feel!
Another one is a set of lucky money envelopes for Lunar New Year. I made them out of a hand-carved stamp and laser-cut red paper. They are then filled with Vietnamese bank notes and sent to loved ones in hope of a wonderful new year.
The last picture is of my handmade coffee table, made from pine and 1/2” plywood. I was inspired by pallet furniture, but, not wanting chemically treated plywood in my apartment, I set out to build one in the same vein.
Aside from making things, I also co-founded a brewery in Hanoi, Vietnam in hope of bringing craft beer to my fellow countrymen. We incorporate local ingredients as part of our product which gives it a blend of local and international flavors, but that’s just a marketing blurb. I’m proud of it just because our beer names are bilingual puns.
You can find more stuff that I make at @batnamdraws, and the brewery at Overmorrow Brewing Co.