From Duct Tape to Victory Part II

In my last post, I described how from my first introduction to duct tape crafts at WOW, duct tape has taken on a surprisingly large role in our household.  Our latest adventures:

Duct tape boat IV was constructed this summer, with PVC pipe and duct tape.  It didn’t represent any major innovations in design, but was an incremental improvement over our prior designs.  Sinking the boat in the pool became a frequent activity.  My son even made some design adjustments so it would sink faster.

Then, we watched an episode of Mythbusters, where they made a bridge out of duct tape.  You guessed it.  We constructed a duct tape suspension bridge (hung from ropes) across our pool this summer. 

Now, you would think that knowing how to build boats out of duct tape for a 13 year old to paddle across your pool (and under your suspension bridge) wouldn’t be a terribly useful body of knowledge.  Think again!  A nearby town runs a summer cardboard canoe race.  My son and his friends (with help from my husband)  designed a boat out of cardboard (which looked remarkably similar to our duct tape boats), and covered the bottom with packing tape, which kept the water out.  With cardboard boats sinking all around, their boat finished the course in the fastest time.  My husband (a mechanical engineer) proudly declared that it was the best designed boat in the contest, and at the end of the race was in good enough shape that it could have raced again.  So, once again, learning duct tape crafts at WOW led to victory (and both times for my son).

I was looking for another family project this summer.  My kids really like watching youtube videos.  The really good ones are funny and very creative.  Well, that route wasn’t going to work for us.  But, we do know how to make cool things from duct tape.  So, we looked at youtube instructional videos for duct tape crafts, and decided that the world needs a better video on how to make a duct tape coin purse.  If you’d like to see our first foray into video production, check out:     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A6diKBDRXM

I’m teaching duct tape at WOW in October.  So, if you would like an in-person instructor who brings all the supplies, cool samples, and can answer your questions, come to WOW.  You never know where it will lead!

-Louisa