What Are You Gifting in 2015.... ?

[Melonblue]

Wow Lucky,

That looks fantastic.

I always wondered what a brand would look like on a ginger. My skin is heavily freckled and scars go electric purple in the cold and bright white in the heat.

Kinda like my very own hyper colour

Did you have any trouble with it healing in that environment?

[Jovankat]

Oh wow that does looks great!

[lucky420]

Wow Lucky,

That looks fantastic.

I always wondered what a brand would look like on a ginger. My skin is heavily freckled and scars go electric purple in the cold and bright white in the heat.

Kinda like my very own hyper colour

Did you have any trouble with it healing in that environment?

It took quite a while to really heal and scar. While on playa it I left it uncovered. I think I neosporined it. It got yellow/green in the burn tracks and felt stingy while at BM. The healing was more bothersome/painful than the actual branding.

My daughters a ginger and she had it done to. Hers didn't keloid as well she did her inner forearm. Quite a few campmates ended up getting this done. Mine really did turn out the best, whew.

Thanks jovancat

[Hope-a-Lope]

made a branding iron at work today , tried it out on my leather glove . Going to make some keychains and some necklaces

Fantastic! For use on skin as well?

[Ratty]

Tatonka, That is a great iron. I love the potential of such a tool. Brand a leather pouch, belt, shoes. Dip it in paint and decorate everything. Ink it for temporary tattoos. Good job!!

[tatonka]

thanks Ratty Hope a lope, Drawingablank has one for skin , mine has that flat plate behind it that also gets hot. As you press it into a skin surface the sides can make contact also , so I have to not push to hard while it burns in. Im makeing abunch of leather keyrings with it for 2015 .

[Ratty]

Want one!!! I bought some leather belts and the thrift that are a series of round leather discs. I've been stamping them with my heavy metal letter stamps. I guess there is no end to the things we do to fill the void between burns.

[smiffman]

" I guess there is no end to the things we do to fill the void between burns.

Well said..............still coming down.........

[caro.]

sigh.. i don't know. i was thinking about doing IV fluid thursday for thrashed camp members in need of that pick-me-up before the weekend. i like figuring out necklaces too, among other things. i had some really pretty brass and silver colored camel necklaces that were a pretty big hit this past year. what could one put on a necklace for 'carnival of mirrors' that would be appreciated? a reasonable number of the camel necklaces i gifted are still out there being worn in defaultia, which is pretty flattering. i like the idea of finding something that can cross over to default world and be that little reminder of good times had. there are so many others who make awesome man pendants that i could never compete with. jealous of you badass folks and wish i was that creative!

[caro.]

i used to gift a lot of my time year-round to doing the theme camp app and camp planning and events, which brought me immense joy. sometimes just stepping up to fill an observed need is one of the best gifts to give. feeling pretty glum lately since some ex-relationship badness has caused the loss of that role, and the solid possibility that i'll have to camp elsewhere for a year or two. sigh.

[theCryptofishist]

i used to gift a lot of my time year-round to doing the theme camp app and camp planning and events, which brought me immense joy. sometimes just stepping up to fill an observed need is one of the best gifts to give. feeling pretty glum lately since some ex-relationship badness has caused the loss of that role, and the solid possibility that i'll have to camp elsewhere for a year or two. sigh.

Indeed. Politics at the burn are like politics anywhere.

[Bagelfather]

We waterjet these man pendant bottle openers out of Titanium plate and then flame paint them to get the pretty colors.

I was thinking something similar, but not as metal cutting talented as I need to be, where it was the head that was the opener. Your design is simpler.

[Bagelfather]

I have many gifts that I give each year. The main one is that for the past four years I have had a mobile massage table on the playa. The first two years it was pushed around (a lot of labor) and the last two with the help of a friend we built a towing rig so I can haul it via a bike. The shade structure usually holds up through most of the event, but that will go through another revision to see if we can make it work better.

The other is I make necklaces. Each one is hand crafted using paints and wood burner. Each one is unique and they are different each year. They are not year specific because each one needs to find the right home. Some hang around for a few years between burns until the right owner is found. It is truly the playa provides with these. Here are some I made for the 2014 burn.

[Ratty]

Bagelfather those are lovely. Something out of the ordinary. It must be fun when you find the perfect person to fit the gift.

[Brightly]

I've been brainstorming ways for me to participate taking into account my physical limitations (that whole self reliance thing) and I think that for my first Burning Man gifting is going to be one big way for me to get out there and take part. I have a list going and I was hoping to share it and see what's good, what sucks, what's a potential MOOP hazard...

Here it goes...

1. Tubes of sunblock (I work for a dermatologist who said that he will order me a couple cases of samples to give out)
2. Frozen grapes (I'm going to use dry ice to freeze them and put them in ziploc bags and write a message on the bags encouraging people to use the bag for moop collection)
3. CD's with some awesome songs for people to jam to on the drive home
4. Foot soak stations at our campsite with some nice lemon soaks to help battle playa foot (my hubby and I are all set on the grey water disposal set up as well as sanitizing the soak basins)
5. Morning Coffee and Tea station (bring a mug, borrow/take one of mine and help yourself).
6. I like the idea someone posted earlier of hair washing, especially since I have the hookup for OGX/Organix products.
7. Cold pickles (keep those electrolytes up)
8. 3 gallon garden sprayer + cool water + some lemon juice and mint = portable spray station to cool folks off with that won't cause any grey water drippage on the playa
9. My handmade paracord bracelets (break a guy line? Need an extra? Just unravel the bracelet and you'll have an extra length of strong, nylon rope)

That's all I have for now...

Thoughts?

[AntiM]

Gifting or serving food and beverages can easily cross the line over what is or is not allowed without a permit. Be sure you know the rules.

[Brightly]

Will do! Thanks!

[Ratty]

This is your first burn. Pick 2 or 3 things. The easiest ones. Preferably ones you can take along like gifting sunscreen. Gifting is a small, tiny, miniscule part of the burn. You are going to be very busy having fun and staying comfortable.

Forget the CDs, (it will be accepted but probably not used), and the foot soaking, (It's way too much trouble to get my boots off). Forget the coffee, grapes and pickles . That requires a license.

Go with the sunblock, garden sprayer and bracelets. This isn't a contest to see who gives the most/best gift. Keep it simple the first time. Everything gets complicated out there.

A big gift is help setting up a camp. People arrive dead tired. Lend a hand.

[Simon of the Playa]

food, drugs, liquor and sex.

the usual.

[Brightly]

Ratty, great advice! thank you!

[FlyingMonkey]

We waterjet these man pendant bottle openers out of Titanium plate and then flame paint them to get the pretty colors.

I totally love something that looks so good & can be used the other 51 weeks of the year. Awesome!

[FlyingMonkey]

BEER, the gift of BEER (humming beer song I just made up)

Last year I took 4 kegs of home brew & shared it with anyone willing to give it a try. My beer bike failed on day 2 so I was not as mobile as I wanted to be. (back to the drawing board on that).

I'm not overly outgoing by nature but I have found that walking/biking around with interesting home brew & asking people if they want to try it is a really great way to make new friends. My Java Stout & Chipotle Smoked Porter were well received last year.

This year I'm bringing beer bike 2.0 (hopefully the streets are less beat up). I downloaded ice cream truck music reminiscent of the Blue Bell ice cream trucks that I grew up with that I will loop on a modest sound system as & cruse the playa neighbor hoods.

[Bagelfather]

The most common gift is this one. My friend Nicole was kind and made the shade cloth and my friend Gravity Mike helped to make the rigging. In the past years I had pushed it (really difficult to get around), but for the past two years I have been able to tow it by bike. I am working on rebuilding the rig as it is over engineered and I know I can cut down on the weight and make it easier to haul out there.

2015 will be year 5 of my mobile massage table and I'm hoping I can get it to work so the shade structure holds up for the entire burn.

[Flash56]

I imagine there is no such thing as a "bad" gift but it seems to me that usefull items would b more apriciated than non, I plan on gifting rolls of T.P. And electrolyte drinks. Am I on the right track or does it really matter ?

[lucky420]

Rolls of one ply tp are pretty good. Lots of times people head to the portos w/out tp only to find none in the portos. I usually take my own and f the porto I'm using doesn't have any I gift some of my tp to anybody waiting in line.

The drinks are good too.

Yes tp! Yes electrolytes!

[RosieTahoe]

I make my own lip balm using almost all organic ingredients (I also add a bit more wax than normal so they don't melt at all in the heat). I order lip balm containers that have tops with lanyard holes and then I cut up t-shirts to make the strings to hang them on (so the strings are soft in the heat!). I label them as "burning balm" and put the year, the man, and ingredients on there. I've been doing this as my gift for the last two burns and they have gone over so well that the only change I've made year to year is to make more! I've gotten some awesome feedback from people, and also those who say they continue using it in the default world, and this makes me so freaking happy

My biggest issue has been having them on hand to give out all the time...I've tried hanging them on my hat, hanging them on my left wrist, and choking myself by putting a ton of them around my neck. I often end up with them in my backpack, but I usually leave that with my bike so then I don't always have access to them in a serendipitous moment. What do you wise eplayan gifters normally do to deal with this issue?

[Ratty]

You could leave the t-shirt yarn rolled up in a ball. That way it won't tangle. Carry tiny , sharp manicure scissors, (stuck in the ball for safety). This way you can cut short for attaching to packs and long for necklaces. The whole thing will fit in a small bag for carrying around. By the way, I LOVE your lip balm. Plus, you could keep one of each in the bag ready to hand out.

[RosieTahoe]

Ratty that's an awesome idea! I never thought about how cool it would be to be able to vary the length of the string in the moment, I just figured if I made it necklace length people could still make it shorter if they wanted. I also normally make the t-shirt yarn in a few different colors, but only have one color on a particular day, so I could let people choose their string color! I think you may have just upped my lip balm game

And thank you for loving my lip balm, that means so much coming from you!

[Ratty]

Let me be a Know-It-All here for a minute. T-shirt yarn. Start with a t-shirt that has NO seams on the sides. Wash it. (You can't do this later). Cut off the bottom edge. Now start cutting to whatever thickness you want. After a few inches stretch it to see how it is going to look and test it for strength. Keep cutting the body of the shirt in a spiral till you get to the armpits. Stretch it and wrap it into a ball. Whew! I just had to give a tutorial. It's great for knitting, crochet, macrame, necklace/lanyard string or just decorations.

[RosieTahoe]

One followup question then...I normally cut with the grain of the t-shirt so it stretches better...I think that is normally vertically up the t-shirt...does the t-shirt "yarn" still look okay when you cut against the grain? Or do you just try to find t-shirts that have a horizontal grain?