A makerspace is a community space for the communal use of tools, materials, and machines, like lasercutters, 3D printers, wood shop machines, and more. Some makerspaces have a staff, who lead workshops and run the machines; other makerspaces run on memberships, where you reserve time to use the machines yourself.
As the makerspace movement picks up speed, universities and libraries have stepped in to host makerspaces, giving the public access to the normally inaccessible lasercutters. They are the perfect tool for a community space, because lasercutters are both complex machines capable of intense detail and rapid reproduction, and also utilize a straightforward process. With a little guidance, complete beginners can start, customize, cut, and leave with a finished product in only an hour or two. To make something from scratch using other types of digital fabrication, like 3D printing, requires experience in 3D modeling software, and can take between 5 and 30 hours to actually print.
A lasercutter reads .svg files (Scalable Vector Graphics). You can produce and customize these files in a vector-based software, like Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape, a free, browser-based, alternative. The lasercutter then works with a different software that read the vector file and translates it into a series of coordinates. On the lasercutter, you adjust the power level and pace of the laser, as well as the positioning and focusing the laserhead.
My background in lasercutting starts with my first college internship, at a startup in Cambridge called danger!awesome. They were a community makerspace where you could send projects in to be lasercut or 3D printed. You could also become a member and, with a little training, use the machines yourself. There was a community space, and a retail shop, and weekly workshops and STEAM classes for middle and high school students. In its heyday, it was quite the spot.
They actually got their start by working with the band Ok Go (one of my favorite bands of all time) to lasercut over 4000 slices of toast to create a stop-motion music video for their song “Last Leaf” (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkYfB1C0Zgc).
Unfortunately, there were management issues and problems with communication, and within four months of me starting, the company completely dissolved. I don’t regret my time there at all, however. I connected with incredible makers, some of whom are still my friends, and I learned a lot about what to do—and what not to do—to run a startup. Your workers are the heart of the company, and their involvement is key in its success.
Right as the startup failed, my university’s art+design building created a large makerspace. I quickly became involved in the space, and became a laser monitor. I ran student jobs on the laser cutters, and helped them format and troubleshoot their designs. Here is where I discovered my love for helping people learn to lasercut; when I showed students how easy and limitless lasercutting could be, their eyes lit up and I could see the gears in their brains whirring. A lot of students became regulars, and it spurred their own personal art projects.
Starting in the fall of 2016, I was a laser monitor every semester until my graduation in spring of 2018. During 2017 and 2018, I became the head laser monitor, and created a workflow system to help students learn and troubleshoot their own files.
My second professional internship was in 2017, when I spent six months running the 3D printing studio inside the library on my university’s campus. I was in charge of the multiple 3D printers and the lasercutter, as well as scheduling student appointments and running student lasercutting or printing jobs. This was a huge improvement over my previous internship, and I quickly learned the professional side of running a studio.
Scheduling, troubleshooting, and adapting a wide variety of students’ projects, many of whom were inexperienced or unsure, showed me the human side of lasercutting. It’s not enough to know the machines; you have to understand how people think, and how they design files, as well as how to fix their problems. Lasercutting doesn’t afford multiple chances; if you mess up someone’s material on a bad run, they might not have more material, or another opportunity to cut something. I formed my own systems and shortcuts for checking files, and eventually created a guidebook for future studio managers, and for professors who sent students to the studio.
After ending the six-month internship, I worked with other makers and engineering students to create Makers Club, a student group on Northeastern University's campus that connected students with different types of making, and access to makerspaces. We taught weekly workshops on everything from lasercutting your own jewelry, to jam-making, to learn Adobe Illustrator, and we took field trips to glassblowing studios and (unofficially) breweries. The club has since grown exponentially, and is quite the presence on campus. I’m extremely proud to have had a hand in growing the maker movement on our campus, and to help students realize that making is for everyone.
After graduating and moving back to Denver, I spent the fall of 2018 expanding my product line (explore it all HERE). I was lucky enough to be able to use the local library’s makerspace and lasercutter; only four branches in the city had makerspaces, and only my neighborhood branch had a lasercutter. I quickly became a fixture at the makerspace, and in the fall of 2019, I was chosen to be a Maker in Residence. You can learn more about that experience HERE.
