Tinkerable Things: Toilet Paper Tubes

As we head into another fall of online workshops and tinkering classes. Here at Wonderful Idea Co. we want to take some time to focus on classic recyclable materials that you can find around your home and use for flexible, open-ended and personally meaningful projects.

So, in honor of the National Toilet Paper Tube Day on August 26th, we’re kicking off the ”Tinkerable Things” workshop series with a tribute to the derder. These unsung heroes of the bathroom can be used for a wide variety of projects including marble machine tunnels, wind tube UFOs and handmade kaleidoscopes.

For this hands-on tinkering workshop, suitable for the whole family, we’re so excited to be joined by guest artists Noga Elhassid of Moving Toys Workshop who will show examples and demonstrate tips and tricks for building moving sculptures using cardboard cylinders.

All online participants will get the chance to start working on their own creations and get feedback from facilitators and peers about possible next steps!

As a little preparation before the workshop, I wanted to share a few more inspirations for us from other makers and artists who take the humble toilet paper tube to new heights.

I loved seeing a blog post by Tinkering Studio educator Steph Muscat showing a construction set using TP tubes and the little three legged tables that come inside pizza box. It makes me think there should be a word for two unrelated materials that unexpectedly fit together for a tinkering use like these two elements.

Another group that has been exploring the possibilities for tinkering with paper tubes is Artencurs in Barcelona. One of their projects that I love is building cities outside with different sized tubes as a way to explore ideas like sustainability, structural engineering, and light and shadow play.

Of course derders are a great material for wall-mounted marble runs as shown in this example project from tinkerlab. Earlier in the pandemic I also integrated some tubes into a digital marble machine for a MAKE campus experiment.

In terms of artists who use toilet paper tubes there are a few that I’ve been following online! I love Darrell Wakeham’s collection of art projects using everyday materials. He really gives us new ways to look at the toilet paper tube. As well, for a precise and delicate project, I’m really into toilet paper tubes with little real-world cities constructed inside from Anastassia Elias.

And as well it’s really fun to see the ways that toilet paper tubes can be used for collaborative public art and experimental architecture designs. Seeing projects like these make me want to devote an entire roll (or at least a really big box) to saving old tubes for some large-scale prototyping.

Hope that you can join WICO and Moving Toy Workshop for the celebration of toilet paper tubes workshop on August 28th and share your ideas for taking this tinkerable material to a new level.