Last month I was in Phoenix for work and our day off I made a trip to Taliesin West.  On our tour one of the items that stood out most was a set of plywood chairs.  At the time plywood was a relatively new material.  The chair designed by Frank Lloyd Wright was made from a single sheet of plywood.  Obviously I designed my own version the minute I got back to the hotel that night. 

It was a fun exercise and I highly recommend.  On my list of constraints was all the parts would need to fit on a single sheet of plywood and it would need to be assembled with out glue or screws.  So far I just have a 1/6 scale model made to test the concept but the finished size is designed to be 48 inches tall.  If you want to see the rest of my photos from the tour for your own inspiration there is a gallery at the link below. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/XSHxen5H8rgrx5jAA

A couple weeks ago the makerspace breezed right by a big milestone.  It has been 10 years since our first open meeting at our Lenox location.  10 years ago the doors to the Lenox building were opened to the public for the first time.  Our Makerspace started in a founding members Tom’s garage then moved to the first location on Chase avenue.  At the time we were moving into the Lenox building we had just 40 members.  Over the course of that first year membership tripled to 150.  For me it was a super exciting time to see the Maker community take shape. 

A group of the members shortly after moving to the Lenox location

Our mission for the past decade as set forth in out by laws is to:

A. Build and maintain spaces suitable for technical and social collaboration  

B. Collaboration on all forms of technology, culture, and craft if new and interesting ways. 

C. Freely share its research and discoveries, using what is learned to teach others.

D. Recruit and develop talented members dedicated to these purposes.

I am so grateful to be a member of our community of curiosity and look forward to the next decade.   I would encourage you all to scroll back in time using this blog and take a look at some of the amazing projects make at our makerspace.  Below is a link to the fist blog post from the then new building.

We’re Back!

This past November, members of Milwaukee Makerspace launched Steel Tigerlilies, an introductory metal art workshop by and for women. Our goal was to get participants trained on equipment ranging from cutting and grinding tools to welding machines and get them comfortable working in the metal shop environment. Some came with prior experience while others had never picked up these tools before. The group practiced their new skills by building a tree from scrap metal, currently in progress at the Norwich Makers Village.

We also hope to gain more female trainers in the long term at the Makerspace metal shop. We’ll be adding details to the members’ message board for future build dates, so stay tuned! 

If you’re a member interested in participating in a future workshop, please contact Hapto or Jen Janviere.

The learning continues every Monday.  If you have be thinking about learning Fusion 360 come and join us for free classes.  Each week at 7pm we have a new project after class the recording go up on youtube.  Sometimes my computer even records audio…  The inperson experience is the way to go so you can ask questions and get feed back on your own projects.

The Pottery area got a Clay Mixer!  A clay mixer is a piece of equipment that will allow us to make clay from powdered ingredients.  With this 850lb tool we can make custom clay mixtures, increase experimentation, and lower the amount of work for members and area champions reclaiming clay.  It will also lower the cost of clay in our studio.  Come and see it in person at our Norwich location!