I haven’t even completed my first month as part of the Maker Jawn team and already I’ve learned so much. The kids have taught me about everything from manga and Minecraft, to patience and prototyping. I’ve been learning from my coworkers too; the Maker Jawn team has been meeting on Tuesday mornings for Tinkering Tuesdays.

On my first Tinkering Tuesday, we dove into e-textiles. Fueled by the prompt “Outfit of the Future” and some upbeat electronica, we collaborated on different pieces to create one crazy outfit. And what do you know, I even got to model it for everyone!

 

 

 the mess before the masterpiece

 

 

 Coco and Jojo fitting future-skirts; outfit sketches on Smartboard

 

 

me and Hannah, collboratively crafting to Kraftwerk

 

Ben and I, dressed for the future

 

 

In the most recent Tinkering Tuesday, we zoomed back to the present to learn about 3D printing from the recently graduated BK. He taught us about how 3D printers print in layers, and had us ponder how this might affect our designs.

 

 

 

After printing a  square-shaped Play-Doh cutter, BK introduced Autodesk’s 123Design, the program we’ll be using to design our 3D printed objects. We decided to go for a star-shaped Play-Doh cutter.

        

 

It took some tinkering, but we got the shape designed just right, and managed to print one. I can’t wait to see what else we can with make e-textiles and 3D printing this summer with the help of the awesome kids we work with every day.