Core77

When it came time to pick that college major, a large part of Industrial Design's appeal to me was that you got to build stuff with your hands. You start off with wood and tools, and a couple days later you've got a pile of sawdust and a chair sitting in the middle of it.

If you like working with your hands and you have a keen interest in the latest technology, check out Syuzi Pakhchyan's Fashioning Technology: A DIY Intro to Smart Crafting. While the words "crafting" and "hobby" summon images of macrame and ceramic ducks, Pakhchyan's book focuses on digital-era smart-crafting: "LED lights, conductive threads and yarns, electroluminescent inks and even fibre optics to turn out furniture, clothing, jewellery and art that is both handmade and hi-tech, steeped in tradition and ultra modern." The Globe and Mail has a review of the book here.