This weekend Ames, Iowa is host to one of the most epic of Midwest music festivals, the Maximum Ames Music Festival. They use traditional and non traditional music venues and organize the hosting of local, national, and international music. It’s amazing.

This year a local artist and curator Lyndsay Nissen organized the placement of artists and artwork in all the max Ames venues. It’s a great showing for performing and visual arts in our community.

I was selected to be one of the artists, so inspired by the event, I opted to make a zine on how to make musical instruments with things easily acquired or found laying around the house.

The DIY Musical Instruments Zine features instructions on making a Straw Horn, Balloon Bassoon, and a Finger Piano. It’s a fun little publication and was distributed for free at Max Ames and then at the Iowa Music Store where the Roach Motel Zine Distro resides.

So no crafting this week with traditional craft supplies, but I did use up a bunch of random things making music with Lucy for this zine. It was a ton of fun.

You can grab your own copy as a PDF or print zine in the Craft Leftovers shop or on Etsy.

This zine is also part of the Craft Leftovers digital archive — the ongoing project where I share old patterns and zines each month over on Studio Letters. Paid subscribers get instant access to this one and everything else in the digital archive. Subscribe on Substack →

Until next time,
Kristin