LIBRARY AS MAKERSPACE

Whenever we change reels on the Ultimaker 2 there is a good stretch of filament that is ribbed and must be discarded. My coworker Larissa made bracelets out of them! The clasp is printed in clear filament.   You can print these in bulk (10 minutes to print a single but you could print multiples at once) and focus a class just on making charms for them. A note about charms: using jump rings makes the bracelet easier to wear with the charms as demonstrated with the octopus vs the Pokeball and dinosaur. Plus you don't have to worry about the size of the plastic printed ring in Tinkercad too much.  These are 9mm jump rings that come apart with simple pliers.  Of course by having them loose, they will all dangle to the bottom but some 3D printed beads/spacers and jump ring size experimentation will do the trick.  Although the PLA claims to be biodegradable who knows how long that would take. This is wonderful recycling project just in time for Earth Day....

We have a rambunctious crowd of 5-7 graders for our Tinkering Tuesdays in March so we decided to do a month of movie making with our green screen. Using a green screen is really easy these days. We used iMovie and it was a simple click of a button to replace the screen behind the actors with an image found on the internet after everything had been filmed. Here is a very good tutorial.  Some green screen tips: 1. Make sure green screen is ironed (or unwrinkled somehow and tight). We used binder clips to attach the green screen to our privacy sectional screen but it wasn't ideal. It may causes creases in the background. This was very noticeable during our black campfire scene. 2. Make sure no one wears green or blue or they will look ghostly (unless that is the look you are going for). Fun fact: Lego bases are the exact color of the green screen. She meant to do that. 3. Do not hit the green screen during filming or it will ripple (although it would make a cool ocea...

I love stories of patrons or staff who use our equipment to make something truly creative and original. We had two of those instances this week: Our first comes from our talented staff member, Karen, who runs a monthly knitting night at the library. She draws a big crowd as individuals work on solo projects, share their skills and troubleshoot with each other.  These knitting nights have brought out some spinners and loom enthusiasts that have shared their talent as well. Using these new skills, Karen made her own sweater.  It doesn't stop there though. Over the past year we have increased our collection of unusual items for circulation to include a polymer clay kit which Karen used to make her own designer button for her creation. I told her she could have her own couture business! Read more about this and other projects on her knitting blog.  The second project came from a pair of siblings who won 1st place in the Pembroke Science Fair with the 3D printing help...