Handmade Fiction
Handmade Fiction is a project that surprises people with free, limited-edition, handcrafted gifts. I take something that exists only within fiction and make it real and then buy copies of the works that inspired each item and re-sell them online at a financial loss, without any indication that they include a prop.
Freer's Phoneless Cord
Limited to 10 sets — Infinite Jest, Page 638, by David Foster Wallace: “Freer’s from Inland Maryland, originally, his family’s riches nouveaux, a family Amway business that hit big in the B.S. ’90s with his now-deceased father’s invention of a pet-rockish novelty that was ubiquitous in stockings for two straight pre-millennial xmases — the so-called phoneless cord. Stice dimly recalls his old man getting a phoneless cord in his stocking, ostentatiously packaged, on Ortho’s first recallable xmas, back in Partridge KS, the old man cocking an eyebrow and the bride laughing and slapping her big knee. Nobody now much even gets the remembered gag, though, so few things needing cords anymore. But Freer’s old man had invested his windfall shrewdly.”
The Last Man On Earth - Phil/Tandy's Friends
Limited to 5 sets - Phil / Tandy ‘s Friends: From the TV series The Last Man on Earth by Will Forte, these are a variety of sports balls that Phil / Tandy Miller has drawn faces on out of loneliness after watching Cast Away starring Tom Hanks and Wilson. The balls are considered Phil / Tandy's only friends because he believes no one else on Earth is alive. I found lighted domes that fit the size of a baseball and picked 5 of the many different friends that would fit into the same size dome; Kevin, the Tennis Ball; Anton, the Golf Ball; Diego, the Birdie; Marshall, the Baseball; and Trevor, The Wiffle Ball. Then drew faces on them to best mimic the art style from the show. I then packaged the sets up with season 1 of the DVD in a custom made box filled with black crinkle packaging filler, along with the domes, batteries, and the balls wrapped with ribbon and a wax seal, plus a card detailing the project. Then I put the DVDs on-line for re-sale for $10 and free shipping, without indicating that the buyer would receive anything other than the DVD they ordered.