Make a City Storyteller's Backpack

This instructable is part of the City Storyteller series.
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A City Storyteller may need a unique backpack in her pursuit to collect and tell stories about her city.
This backpack have 3 possible functions:
1) To provide storage during gathering of stories.
2) To provide a storage for the props to be used during a performance. It can be a prop itself.
3) To differentiate a City Storyteller from a rambling madman.

Materials needed
- a doll cabinet/wadrobe/cupboard/box
- the supporting aluminium frame of old hiking bags
- about 2 metres of twine/rope
- drill set
- different colors of paint (if necessary for decoration purposes.)
- other objects that you may feel necessary when you are building it.

I recommend scavenging for the materials at your nearest second-hand shop or dump area. You can also make all the parts by yourself. Old or hand-made objects has a certain story-like quality that new objects lack.

Duration
A leisurely 1 hour.
(not including the scavenging time and waiting-for-paint-to-dry time)

Step 1 Sketch and Scavenging

For this instructable, I am reusing old objects.

Sketch
I created a brief sketch of what the backpack may look like. It helps to have a loose plan.
To take note while sketching your backpack:
What do you think it will be used as? eg. it needs to change into the evil wizard in your epic knight story. For my backpack, I need it to be a storage area and stool for me to sit on when I am performing.

Scavenging
Visiting second-hand shops and dump areas in your city can be as pleasurable as shopping at boutiques. Finding the right objects may take some time. Do not put pressure on yourself to find the perfect objects. Improvisations can create wonderful things too.

Most likely you will also start getting other stuffs that you don't need - like the bronze lion-head that will never fit into your minimalist living room. This is where your sketch comes in useful. It helps you to focus on the work at hand.

Never the same
You can never find the exact things that I have. That is the fun part. Your backpack can never be the same as anyone else.

For me, I found a red/gold toy wardrobe and and an old hiking backpack. I also took some pieces of wood which i think may come in useful.

Comments

[faizzohri]

thanks for the comments Anoniempje, j_l_larson, nagutron. :) before anyone think i am a wandering storyteller, i will like to say i that i am design student. i make up weird stories (like devil babies attacking spaceships etc..), but only among friends. this is part of a project (rather conceptual) of making storytelling a part of everyday life again. there are a lot of talented storytellers (real ones) that only share their stories at specialty festivals and libraries, mainly for a children audience. I want these people to go out on the streets and work their imaginations on their city. I feel it will be incredible if this becomes big culturally in the "developed" world. That is part of the motivation for this project. i will love to work with real experienced storytellers. (maybe i should start telling stories myself too hhaha)

[Anoniempje]

Awesome idea. I love stories and story telling. To bed I'm to yellow to pursue things like that. I have too much I want... Keep it up, Cultureman!

[RaisedByRobots]

very cool! This encourages me to pursue an idea about backpacks that I've been musing about.

[nagutron]

I'd love to hear some stories from your backpack adventures. In my imagination, they consist of puppet shows conducted from right within the backpack itself :)