DIY Hero

Who Am I, and why should I be the DIY Hero?

Hi, my name is Andrew "Articulus" Harvey, from Nelson, BC, Canada. I grew up always learning new skills and taking on DIY projects to keep my hands busy, and stave off childhood boredom. Coming from a family that was by no means rich, we had to learn to do a lot of things ourselves. From harvesting some of our own food, to chopping our own wood in the winter, to learning how to cook and mend clothing... we had a great head start in life of how to do many things ourselves, and do them well.

My Mother was a huge influence in my life, by taking me on several adventures with her to learn many traditional crafting and survival skills throughout Canada and the USA. There at these camps I learned to scrape and tan my own leather hides, carve my own staffs, sticks and bows, how to fire pottery, skin a rabbit, build pshelters, fabricate useful tools....etc. But most of all, I learned how to enjoy contributing those skills to a community of wonderful people. I have since carried many of these skills over into my regular lifestyle, along with the same mentality that enabled those skilled to be carried forward. Since then, the tools on my tool belt grow in number, and the burden of carrying them all is getting heavy!

For a more complete overview of the DIY skills I have worked on over the years, take a browse through the skill specific tabs here in this section. From film making, to music compsition and recording, to costume and clothing crafting to creating custom websites and social media designs, the skills I have to showcase are quite numerous, and varied. And if you are convinced that I am the true DIY Hero, and deserve a break to help bring these skills to the world, then cast your vote and keep your fingers crossed, and together we can make some dreams come true!

Since highschool, I had always enjoyed creating and working on films. As the high art of our time, I just cannot keep my hands off of it! When film making combines so many of my other talents and skills like music, costuming, or crafting props and tools, it was an obvious conclusion to arrive at film making to act as the ultimate canvas to paint on.

Many of my early films from highschool and shortly after are lost into the sands of time, however I have a full archive of all the film work I've done since 2015 when I launched a local fan film series entitled the Djedi Academy - which aimed to reach out to those struggling with poverty and addictions, and giving them a creative outlet to work with.

This page represents the custom presentation I was able to put together on my own time to give my audiences more information about me. This website as a whole represents my own DIY Social Media Sharing Website called the Djemini Network. Using a third party building called NING, I was able to pay a very reasonable monthly fee to create, design, modify and manage my very own social networking website with most of the modern bells and whistles.

If you like, you can sign up now to start building a customized online presence to put all of your digital assets into one place! Build a members list of fans, followers or regular clients and share photos, videos, articles, polls, MP3's and more, all with comment threads included with all content! 

Since the days long gone of Hi5, Nexopia, ICQ or MySpace, I've been here since the very beginning of the social media frenzy that has ushered in the modern world. Now with Facebook having been the dominant service provider, I have built and managed many key groups and discussion boards over the years.

One I would feature is a very successful and highly elite Cosplay group themed around the characters and style from the Star Wars universe. This group, Star Wars Cosplayers, represents my effort to bring together many different DIY artists and crafters who share a common love for Star Wars.

Another social media effort I would like to feature was my involvement with the success of the Internet sensation documentary films known as Zeitgeist: Addendum and Zeitgeist: Moving Forward. Along with graphic design, creating promotional videos and helping with group orientation & task management, I also spearheaded one of the Official Zeitgeist Facebook Groups, that still operates passively to this day.

When I was about 4 years old, I can remember my Father sitting me down at the upright grand we had parked in our living room, and he showed me my first few chords. This, in having no cable TV or any video game consoles, the piano quickly became my go to when I was looking to keep myself entertained. Soon I found out I had a talent to be able to hear a song from somewhere, then be able to figure it out on the piano, one note at a time.

As my skills and knowledge advanced, I quickly picked up playing drums starting with bongo drums around bons fres. And when it became clear I could keep a solid beat, my Mother got me my first drum set. I beat on that drumset and drove my Father crazy for many years on end, and soon began to pick up other intruments... some basic guitar, bass, penny whistle and also synth / keyboards as an extension of what I learned on piano.

Going into highschool Jazz Band class at Rossland Secondary School, I learned the basics of how to read charts, and some rudamentary music theory to quantify what my earns already knew. As more boredom struck hard, I began to find other musicians to play with, and start jamming with. Before long, I was being asked to come play in bands, and hosting local open mics at the bars, all before I turned 18. Then as my computer skills caught up with the rest of me, I began to learn about digital recording, and went on to record my friends and I making some noise and having some fun. Soon we started to get more serious about it, and started writing songs, and trying to record them track at a time. Before long, I had recorded a fully original album of my own before I turned 20.

In total, I put in about 10 years of my focus and talent into the local music scene, and helped many other young artists to pick up music, and keep on going with it. At my hight I was running my own recording studio. Then as the industry shifted, and live DJ's took over the paid music work in the area, things dried up. Before long I couldn't pay the rent, and ended up homeless. After finaly settling into a new place after drifting for a year, I returned to find that all of my studio gear and belongings had been stolen from my storage locker. However, despite this unfortunate end to a glorious run, I still have all the talents and skills and gained along the way, to help inspire others to never give up on their dreams. 

Below is a playlist of some of the cream from the musical crops I had grown over the years. It includes a few originals and remixes that I've arrangened and mixed on my own, DIY style! I hope you enjoy the selection!

After learning some basic leather stitching techniques growing up, the rest was just learning how different layers and patterns fit together. After some dabbling in YouTube tutorials and a bunch of practice, I've become quite confident in being able to craft full leather vests, wallets, watch bands, purses, pouches, kilts, capes and just about anything else!

I had started working on leather after I found that it was the most durable material to use while ruffing it out living in a tent at the time. All my leather patches never fel apart, so eventually I got around to making all of my own clothes our of high quality buffalo leather and green velvet as art of my public personna.

Once more and more people began to see my all original work, and asked me where I got my clothes, they were always somewhat stunned when I told them I made or modified them myself. So after getting so much positive feedback, I've enjoyed inspiring and teaching others how to craft or repair their own cloths and costumes for Holloween or Festival season.

Over the years, I've branding my crafting skills under the artist name "Articulus" and I describe my crafting as "Intentional Design" for its focus on re-using thrift materials to create new and inspiring costumes for film, and clothing for the brave. You can check out the rest of my crafting work in my focussed group, Articulus Intentional Design.