DIY: Canvas & Sticks Teepee

What is your dream house? A unit at Sentosa Cove? A landed property at Sixth Ave? These houses simply do not appeal to the dreamer me. I like all things rustic- impractical you may say, hippie you may stereotype, but it is usually the simplest, uncomplicated things that charm me.

It was a warm and fuzzy moment when Galen presented me with this teepee for my birthday.

1. He remembered I exclaimed “I want to stay in a teepee!” when we passed by an exhibition on indigenous Africans at a shopping mall; 2. It is handmade.

What’s there not to love about this teepee (and the boy)?

DIY Teepee Supplies:

1. 5 wooden sticks, or twigs

2. Twine, or rope

3. Canvas, or any cloth

4. Circular base (Galen used a rattan pot holder)

5. Scissors

6. Adhesive (optional)

DIY Teepee Steps:

Structure

1. Arrange the 5 wooden sticks

2. Secure tightly with twine

3. Poke the 5 wooden sticks through the circular base

4. Use the adhesive to secure the individual sticks at the base if necessary

Canvas

1. Cut a circle, with the diameter being the same length as the stick

2. Cut a smaller circle in the centre of the big circle

3. Cut a slit as the opening of the teepee

4. Cut little pieces as mats for the inside of the teepee

Drap the canvas over the structure, throw in the canvas mats and tadah! Your dream house!

Here is Galen’s birthday gift to me, next to my birthday gift to Galen. I would not call it a tradition that we have would make gifts for each other, but it is simply just part of us. It is perhaps our way of telling each other that we are in the same universe, where simplicity is charm.