Bounty Hunter!

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The sign says it all.

Bounty!

Vadim (one of FLC’s math professors) brought in a couple of broken toys, with the hope that someone in the makerspace would want to see if they could be fixed. We quickly cooked up a bounty program, with the reward being a custom Innovation Center t-shirt, to be designed by Rebekah (student and Innovation Center staff) and made using the vinyl cutter (one of the tools in the lab that gets the most use) and t-shirt press we have in the clean lab.  Jordan (student) took up the challenge. Using a multimeter and soldering iron, he quickly diagnosed and solved the problem, bringing the car back to life.

Bounty Hunter

Stoked to find simple ways for students to get involved in the space, solving real-world problems.

Success!

T-Shirt Pressin’

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Inspired by a DIY conference t-shirt making activity at the reMAKE Education conference a few years back, we recently ordered a t-shirt press and heat transfer vinyl, and they arrived this week.

T-Shirt Press

Innovation Center staff quickly worked out a production process, cutting some designs on the vinyl cutter and improving my shop apron by adding a Chibi and Chu Totoro!

Totoro Apron

Science Stickers!

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FLC’s Science Center runs a series of hands-on Friday science activities, and we decided to support their efforts by creating a collectible sticker for each activity. We based the sizing on the hexbin hexagonal sticker specification, and Rebekah (student) designed and cut a sheet of prototypes…

Rough Draft Hands-on Science Center Friday Stickers

…which were refined to create version 2.0 (Neuroscience: Brainwaves, Polygraphs, Action potentials, and Remote-Control your Classmates, UCD: College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences recruiting session, Cadaver Viewing, Cyanotyping, Essential Oil Extraction Using Steam Distillation, Infectious Diseases, Fun Science Activities Suitable for Home, The Innovation Center Makerspace, GIS and Geography)

Stickers!

We’ve moved into production, using our vinyl cutter to create the first batch (for Max Mahoney’s cyanotype activity).  Gotta catch ’em all!

Cyanotype Stickers

Social Justice Spring – Tearing Down the Wall

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Taylor and Zainub and Jeremy and CJ (students) and Diane Carlson (Sociology) and I collaborated on a display to accompany the culminating event of the college’s Social Justice Spring events.

Here Taylor and Zainub are creating a physical (and metaphorical) wall from felt and fabric…

Wall Making

We remixed Shepard Fairey’s “We the People” series, then used the vinyl cutter to create large stickers. Diane and I preparing a sticker for transfer…

Sticker Making

…and Diane and Jeremy laying out the words for the display.

Untitled

Here’s the wall, about to be torn down…

The Big Reveal

…and here’s the final result, beautifully back-lit:

All Three Panels

A great and powerful wrap-up for an important month-long series of activities. I’m proud of our college!

Vinyl Cutter = Sweet Signage

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A couple of days ago, in the midst of the x-carve build, a new vinyl cutter arrived.

Vinyl Cutter

I had seen a lab full of them at a recent visit to Portland Community College’s MakerSpace, and Gregg Meyer (coordinator of the space and all-around enthusiastic and generous person) mentioned that they were an inexpensive and useful bit of gear, and quite accessible to makers at all skill levels.

Cameo Vinyl Cutter

We needed a project to put the new machine through its paces, so we decided to label the experimental aquaponics system. The software that comes with the machine is pretty straightforward, and we were able to design and cut out some signage relatively quickly.  After cutting out the letters, we realized we didn’t have any transfer paper, so we made do with blue painter’s tape.

Preparing the Science Fish Sign

The transfer went off without a hitch!

Science Fish!