Maker Lab Projects

During summer 2022 I had the pleasure of taking a course all about making, coding, and building, this is a collection of projects from that course

Project 1: journal

Materials: paper, wax thread, needles

Making this journal was a great introduction being a maker, to the Maker space class, and a good tester to my abilities as a maker. It tested my abilities to work with my hands on delicate work and follow directions. This was the project that had the most concrete instructions and bounds for the final product had to be a workable journal that we could write in. I struggled a bit with the threading aspects of the book, the thread on the journal is still not as tight as I would have liked but it does a serviceable job.

Project 2: self drawing machine

Materials: markers, making tape, paper, motor, balsa wood, hot glue, wires, battery, button, cardboard, wax thread, foam

I was heavily inspired by the self drawing machines that we saw videos of in class when designing this sculpture. I liked the the question of, "who is making the art, the person, the machine, or is it a combination of both?" I really wanted to create a sculpture that toyed with the "both" aspect where the user could tilt the sculpture to help guide and create the specific lines and markings on the paper. I am very proud of this piece. It came out in real life how I imagined it in my brain to be. There were some great problem solving moments, such as the buckling of the paper for which I used more paper to reinforced the straps!

Project 3: 3D designing

I have used Tinkercad many times before and consider myself to have a good feel for the program. Overall it is very user friendly but I still find difficulty in making intricate models and getting the details exactly how I want them. For this project I created a fancy rococo lady at the most fabulous party in the villa! I got this idea by remembering that when 3D printing it is easier to start with a big base and taper towards the top, so I started with the dome shape and went on from there. I am a bit disappointed I did not get the opportunity to print my object, I really did want to see if I created a piece that would print correctly. Seeing how an object prints is always a bit of the joy in 3D printing for me. "Did you do it? did you create a shape that does not need supports??"

Project 4: sewable circuits

Materials: LilyTiny, conductible thread, felt, LEDs, battery, switch

This was one of my favorite projects we did in the course and the one I am most excited about introducing to my students if possible, and that's saying something as my final advanced circuit did not end up working. I had grand ambitions with my original idea, I wanted it to be an image from the "Tell Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe, a beating heart beneath the floorboards! I was so excited, I found some red LEDs and there was a beating mode on the LilyTiny. Although when I finished sewing the circuit it did not turn on! I had done the stitching wrong and had not created a correct loop for the energy to flow through. I then created a quick simple circuit to understand the materials better. To me the sewable circuits with the LilyTiny are a much more accessible and fun form of circuitry than soldering and snap circuitry types.

Project 5: paper circuits

Materials: LEDs, Battery, Fabric conductive tape, conductive fabric, conductive thread, cardboard, construction paper, duct tape, paint

I really liked how open ended this project was. You gave us a variety of materials to make circuits from, the copper tape, the graphite, the conductible fabric, and the conductible fabric tape. This helped foster a sense of exploration first with the materials to really get in there and try out some awesome circuits for ourselves and get a feel for what was diffrent about each of the materials. From experimenting with all the materials I learned I like the conductible fabric and fabric tape the best. The copper tape was too finicky and the graphite did not produce a bright enough light. All these multimedia electronic works are inspired by my nature sound walk along the High Line. I created a robin, a plant, and a train. I am proud that each of these are diffrent materials and as such each of these varied in their construction. I really do like how diffrent they are from each other I was able to use many diffrent techniques to create these three works!

Project 6: musical instruments from nature

Materials: Makey Makey, alligator clips cardboard, conductive fabric, tinfoil, thread, marker

This was the only piece I worked on collaboratively in this class, and I will say that working with someone else is a very diffrent experience than working on a project alone. Working alone I get to make all the decisions and I can make the project exactly like how I imagined it in my minds eye. When working collaboratively you have to fuse your vision with the project with one of your peers. I had a very strong vision of what I thought we should create and I will say I feel that this is close to what I had imagined. I have not done a creative art project in a while so I found it difficult to make concessions about how things were to look, at the end of the day I had to remind myself it was just a prototype, and it still looks real damn good. Overall I did like the Makey Makey technology and when combined with scratch the projects that can be created it are endless. I did think the Makey Makey was very simple and was shocked what it could do.