- Melissa Sprenne
- Wednesday, May 04, 2022
Our MakerSpace at Ballentine is a room filled with interesting tools for you to use! More than that, it is a space where we want to encourage people to gather, learn, create, and share. Currently, we teach classes in our MakerSpace on specific techniques and conduct programs concerning science, crafts, and art. We also open it every Monday morning for folks of all ages to enjoy.
We want to welcome you to explore our Ballentine MakerSpace!
But, first, what is a MakerSpace?
According to lexico.com, it is "a place in which people with shared interests can gather to work on projects while sharing ideas, equipment, and knowledge."
Makerspaces.com says, "A makerspace is a collaborative work space inside a school, library or separate public/private facility for making, learning, exploring and sharing that uses high tech to no tech tools."
At its core, though, a MakerSpace is a place where you make stuff.
A MakerSpace can be something as simple as a cart in a classroom that is loaded with cardboard shapes, markers, straws, tape, and toothpicks or Legos, K'nex, and Plus-Plus blocks. It can be an industrial space that includes machinery for manipulating wood, metal, plastic, and other materials - things like 3D printers, hand and power tools, laser cutters, and welders. It can be a room filled with art materials - yarn, beads, wood burning tools, soldering irons, and more.
What's most important, in my opinion, are the connections between people and their ideas that happen in these spaces. And that you are making a thing - something you can hold and be able to say, "I made this!"
"Making is fundamental to what it means to be human. We must make, create and express ourselves to feel whole. There is something unique about making physical things. These things are like little pieces of us and seem to embody portions of our souls"
Mark Hatch, The Maker Movement Manifesto
What kind of MakerSpace is at Ballentine?
Our MakerSpace was originally conceived as a visual and fiber arts studio. As the interests, abilities, and skills of our staff evolve, so does our MakerSpace. We have jewelry makers, photographers, seamstresses, bakers, decorators, crafters, knitters, painters, biologists, gardeners, and more who also work at Ballentine and enjoy sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm with our customers.
Our MakerSpace also evolves as we learn more about what our customers want to learn and do. Please! We want to know what you think. We want to know what you want to make. We want to make this a space you love to visit!
Creativity is an end in itself. It more than just a commodity that you trade or a skillset that you use. It’s part of what makes life epic. There’s something almost magical that happens when you get lost in your creative work and get lost in a state of creative flow only to step back at the end with the sense of accomplishment at what you created. Creativity is valuable, not just for a future job, but for the deeply human drive to make and build and tinker. It’s part of what makes us human. John Spencer
So, how do you use Ballentine's MakerSpace?
Come visit! Our MakerSpace is open on Monday mornings. You can check out the Events page on our website for more information about Monday Morning Makers (all ages) as well as all of our other programming.
During these open times, you can work on our project of the week OR you can use our tools to work on your own project. If you want to work on a personal project, please bring all consumable materials you need.
Okay! Now, what tools are available to you?
Here's a partial list of the tools and equipment available for use in Ballentine's MakerSpace:
- Sharp things: regular sharp scissors, blunt kids' scissors, duct tape scissors, paper-edging scissors, fabric scissors, rotary cutting tools, paper cutter
- Tools: hammers, coarse and fine files, pliers, wire strippers, sandpaper
- Jewelry supplies: needle nose pliers, blunt pliers, cutters, ring sizers, ring mandrels, kumihimo discs
- Sewing/fabric crafting: needles in various sizes, safety pins, straight pins, sewing machines, irons, needle felting kits, crochet hooks and knitting needles, embroidery hoops
- Fine arts: graphite drawing pencils, pastels, colored pencils, kneaded rubber erasers, fine point brushes, watercolor brushes, kids' brushes, mandala drawing sets, compasses, protractors, rulers, sponges, a large variety of stamps, small and large easels
- Technology: micro:Bits, handheld microscopes, soldering kits, ceramic tweezers (good for working with electronics)
- Machines: Silhouette, Sizzix, 1" button maker
- Crafting supplies: wood burning kits, glue guns, heat guns, X-acto knives, hair dryers, magnifying lamps, modeling clay kits, leatherworking kits
- Other: binoculars, calligraphy kits