This was a much-awaited workshop for all of us. Over the three days, we covered different aspects of making. Starting, as always, with the big picture as it brings a focus on the community and allows each makerspace to be conceptualized differently. Since we were with a special group of individuals,(which was evident from the design challenge) we went out into the community and picked up a few real world problems to solve. The resulting ideas and pitches were amazing and showed a great passion for the community. We also had our hosts Amanda and Michelle share all the wonderful work they have been doing at the Library.
The visit to Grow Benzie was truly inspiring and we thank Josh for making it so memorable. With facilities like the incubator kitchen, greenhouses and sewing rooms, we see that the place has the potential to become a real catalyst for growth in this community. We look forward to hearing more!
Our time in Benzonia was heartwarming and we learned a lot from the participants. A big shout out to Sheryl for joining us (once again) and adding to all the tools for exploration. And having been on the road all summer, we must thank Amanda and Jimmy for making us feel truly at home.
Thank you so much for a wonderful event. We explored many topics together, spent a lot of time actually getting our hands on the activities we might incorporate into our maker practice, and got to see some great sights together. Special thanks to the Coopersville High School for providing the meeting space for our event, Ryan Schoenborn for sharing his expertise and experience running an after-school STEM club, GVSU for sending some interesting tech and sharing their stories about maintaining a creative technology space inside a larger organization (and alongside many other responsibilities), and of course the Coopersville Area District Library for applying and inviting us to their area.
The time we spent at Coopersville, either in the workshop or the public event, we felt very connected and community-driven. People generally seemed to understand the connection that being a maker has to both the traditions of the area (seeing the woodworking area as a place to express that creative, purposeful energy, for example) and the needs of the community (which we felt in our conversations with the community at our very well attended MakerFest).
Shelly attended our Houghton Lake workshop and added so much excitement to our days! With a grant from the Missaukee Area Community Foundation, she’s launching a makerspace at her school, Northern Michigan Christian School.
The project was recently featured in the Cadillac News and features the quote above. You can access it via free registration or by opting to watch an ad prior to accessing the entire article.
To register for the June 20 – 22 Pickford workshop or any of our other workshops, or to learn about our eight free, family-friendly MakerFest events around the state of Michigan this summer, please click here.
We held two events in Ann Arbor this past weekend, and boy, are we gratified but tired!
On Saturday, May 14, we did a repeat of the workshop we did in Benton Harbor. This was a wonderful chance for local maker educators, librarians, classroom teachers, and more to gather together to think about the big picture of making.
One of the big comments that stood out for me was the school librarian who said, “I let them putter at first, but then I realized one group of kids had been making a bridge for months, and that bridge was going nowhere!” (paraphrase) She then went on to explain that by moving from open tinkering to challenges that had many potential outcomes, the students enjoyed the greater focus, and she saw them growing their skills and accomplishing projects. {Note added at the end of the summer: we realized we retold a variation of this anecdote throughout the state — thank you!}
We loved how one participant deconstructed a pink feather into this mask’s facial hair
We also tried an experiment based on feedback we got in Benton Harbor. We had been asked there about whether Oriental Trading Company kits — kits that many librarians and educators purchase to create all-look-alike projects like door hangers, picture frames, or crafty animals out of materials like popsicle sticks, pom-poms, and craft foam — “counted” as making. {Note added at the end of the summer: This issue of what “counts” came up much more in the lower and more populated parts of the state than they did in more northern and/or rural communities.}
So we tried a Hack Your Oriental Trading Company project: take those same materials but don’t predetermine the outcome. We saw a lot of wild designs, but ultimately, because some of the parts were pre-stamped with animal faces, we also saw a lot of norming toward animal creations .. hmmm … that didn’t quite turn out like we thought it would!
A sample hacking of an Oriental Trading Company-type kit
The next day, we headed over to the Ann Arbor District Library’s Secret Lab for an afternoon conversation of Maker Provocations, co-sponsored by Nick Tobier and Brightmoor Makerspace. We set aside this event as our only “not for beginners” event of the summer and asked three provocateurs to share their perspectives and a challenge with us:
Addie Matteson, Noblesville Public Schools, Noblesville, IN, who talked about the importance of play and playful design in making. She challenged us to create Dash robots that could imitate our favorite movie characters!
Justin Schell, Shapiro Design Lab, University of Michigan Library, Ann Arbor, MI, who talked about the importance of the senses and sensory design as a component of making. He then set us loose in the Ann Arbor District Library to soak in the senses, which led to a powerful discussion of the role the library places in our daily lives.
Pete Pasque, Skyline High School, Ann Arbor, MI, who encouraged the University folks in the audience to think about how making can make school more engaging for teens and urged us to bring his students into our maker projects.
Justin working on Addie’s Dash robot challenge
At the conclusion, Nick reminded us of artist Richard Serra’s Verb List (1967-1968), a handwritten list of words hanging in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, to imagine what verbs we use when we talk about making. He then gave each of us a piece of paper to create our one-word maker verb manifesto.
Sample maker manifesto page, featuring the word “break” stamped with rubber stamps across a fold in a piece of 12×12″ scrapbook paper
A side note: we set out Wiki Stix – pieces of cotton string dipped in wax that can be used as repositionable sculpturing tools – at the start to keep early birds’ hands busy, and we all ended up reveling in the sensory pleasure of the waxy materials in our hands. Making is self-soothing!
Sample work created with Wiki Stix
It was a powerful day to watch people of diverse backgrounds come together to think about the broader themes of making, not specific tools or materials. Thank you to all who participated!
We had such a good time (and felt like it was such a luxury!) to host Making Maker Learners at the U-M School of Information today. Thank you to everyone who came out for this one-day workshop despite the rain and (gulp!) hail!
We’ll post more links later, but for now, here is a start:
The Making in Michigan Libries project hits the road on Wednesday, May 4, from 2:30 – 4:30pm, partnering with the Houghton Lake Public Library to help residents modify and create charms for a Mother’s Day key chain. Hope to see you there!
I’m so excited to have been invited to be a part of the Ultimate Upcycle Challenge: Planted! A sustainable design project created to raise awareness and funds for Habitat for Humanity Southern Alberta, the Ultimate Upcycle Challenge: Planted challenged nine local influencers to each upcycle pre-loved items from the Calgary ReStore into a unique planter, using only a mystery box of Rust-Oleum Consumer Brands Canada products and a $50 design budget. Each entry will be exhibited and then auctioned off at the Calgary Home + Garden Show, happening February 25-28, 2016 at BMO Centre & Corral Stampede Park. 100 per cent of auction proceeds directly benefit the Habitat for Humanity Southern Alberta and its local affordable build projects.
As I talked about this with some of my colleagues preparing for the Making in Michigan Libraries summer professional development road trip, we thought this kind of challenge — perhaps with a smaller budget — would be a lot of fun for public libraries to engage in. For a zero-budget approach, everyone could be asked to bring a paper grocery bag of discarded materials, and the library could facilitate a swap. You could partner with a local hardware or big box store, or with a thrift shop that regularly has to discard unsold items, and suddenly, you can scale this project even larger. And like the example above, projects could be auctioned off, with proceeds benefiting future maker programming, a circulating tools or maker kit library, or more.
What do you think?
Kristin Fontichiaro
Image: “Window display in a UK charity shop” by ProfDEH on Wikimedia Commons. CC-BY-SA-3.0.
