Tinkering and Maker Culture on the Rise

Allow me to exercise one of my new-found writing talents harvested from @FakeAPStylebook: Big Ups to the Wall Street Journal's Andy Jordan for pointing me to this article by Justin Lahart.  Mr. Lahart eloquently describes the blossoming Maker movement.  When you spend your days at work and devote your evenings to your various projects it's easy to miss the size of the trend.

Mr. Lahart has interviewed luminaries from many (US) hackerspaces, clubs, and universities and provides us with a forest-level view of what many of us might think is a small niche.

For the local slant and for some more on the rise of the tinkerer class read Marc Maximov's article in The Independent published back in September.  Mr. Maximov goes beyond the somewhat vanilla content in Mr. Lahart's article and attempts to determine the all-important why of the movement.

"It's been suggested that the developed world's modern, passive lifestyle—in which we're fixated on computer screens and tethered to our desks—squelches our instinctual drive to make things with our hands and contributes to depression." Maximov

Maximov also cites Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford as someone urging the case for working with your hands: something real.  Crawford's book digs far deeper and does an excellent job of reasoning that, essentially, to know you must do.

These People "Get It" Business Profile: Spoonflower

Spoonflower - These People "Get It"Just in the few weeks that I've been working on the MakerFaire:NC project I've already met and virtually met dozens of fascinating people and businesses!  The word is definetly spreading quick around North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia! Woot!

One of the businesses I've discovered by virtue of my role here is Mebane, NC's Spoonflower.  The outfit has been featured all over the web and print publications including Craft, ReadyMade, the New York Times, Make, and more.  It's a bit of a miracle that I hadn't heard of them before now.

Spoonflower prints custom fabric on demand for anybody from any design you create or offer for sale on their site.  They're a community too so, like industry stalwart Etsy, you can sell your designs and products right from their own way-cool site.  The community feeling really comes across in their contests and theme projects. Go check 'em out and print yourself some awesome customized bed sheets or what-have-you.

What is a Fab Lab?

This short video attempts to define what a Fab Lab is.  Spaces like Fab Lab, NYC Resistor TechShop, and Hacker Spaces worldwide all share the same DIY & Maker spirit.