Meet the Makers Archives - Maker Faire Milwaukee

Tell us about yourself.
My business name pretty much sums me up – A Creative Medley – what that really means is “I can never quite decide what I want to make on any given day and that covers a lot of options” On a day to day basis, you’ll find me with my kids – technically homeschooling, but not necessarily at home. In between math lessons and driving to the next activity, my mind is tossing around how to make my next new kind of design possible. I create the designs that people load onto their computerized embroidery machine to stitch a project.

What are you presenting at Maker Faire Milwaukee?
“In the hoop” embroidery is kind of an odd term, because really, all computerized embroidery is done using a hoop that attaches to the arm of the embroidery bed. “In the hoop” is a subset of embroidery. These are 3-D projects that are made entirely on the embroidery machine, rather than using embroidery to embellish something that is already made. Instead of just putting a name on a stocking or a baby bib, I make the entire stocking or bib on the embroidery machine. Most projects require hand sewing a small hole closed at the very end, but otherwise do not involve a regular sewing machine or hand sewing. The entire process is completed “in the hoop”

What is something you’ve made that you are most proud of, and why?
The embroidery digitizing industry is full of very creative and clever people, so it is hard to create something that is truly original. I created a line of stuffed animals that have an egg shaped body and can be completely folded into an egg and then opened to show the full animal. I literally had the idea rolling around for years, but couldn’t figure out how to do it entirely on the embroidery machine. The day I figured out how I could make it all work was incredibly exciting.

Why do you consider yourself a Maker?
I love the term Maker because it is so self-defined. I never thought I could be an artist because I couldn’t draw or paint. I loved crafts as a kid – making friendship bracelets or potholders – but at the time I didn’t realize that it was part of who I am. As an adult I discovered quilting, so I was a quilter, then I started sewing, so I was a seamstress, as I added more hobbies (too many to count!) the labels piled up, but what it all boils down to is “I am a Maker” I make stuff, I have to, it is who I am.

Tell us about one of your failed projects.
Some of the failures end up being the most entertaining. Converting a line drawing into a 3D object sometimes makes “unique” looking projects. I have quite a collection of mutant stuffed animals that had to go back for some design tweaking.

What tips or advice would you give to someone who wants to become a Maker?
My guess is, if you want to be a Maker, you probably already are one. My now 13 year old daughter came away from last year’s Maker Faire in Milwaukee and told me “I want to be a Maker.” She already liked making clay creations and drawing and had dabbled in knitting a bit. To me, the only thing she had to do to be a Maker was to decide that she is. My advice would be to look around your environment – what excites you, makes you want to learn more? You probably have the tools for some kind of creating on hand already if you look carefully. The Maker Faire is an incredible resource to connect with people who make things you haven’t tried yet. Odds are, if they are presenting, they are happy to share and help others learn more about getting started.

Tell us about yourself.
My name is Scott Fradkin. I’m a team lead and developer for a consulting company based in Sun Prairie named Flexion. I teach Scratch programming to kids in my local school district. I also volunteer by leading free programming workshops for a program called Kids GET IT which was created by a local Madison company named Adorable. I create music under my own name and the pseudonym 17.2m and post the occasional live coding videos to YouTube. I also like to give talks and workshops about live coding music, links to which can be found on my website. Getting kids and adults excited about programming is what I like to do and music is a fun way to create that excitement. I’m very slowly creating an application called Snap Music that can be used to teach young kids how to program and create music at the same time.

What are you presenting at Maker Faire Milwaukee?
I will be giving a talk about live coding in general and I will show a few different live coding environments including my Snap Music project. I will also be leading two workshops. One workshop on creating music with Sonic Pi and another on creating music with TidalCycles.

What inspires you to make?
I listen to a lot of music which gives me many ideas of strange music that I want to make. The power of live coding languages allows me to express those ideas. Through my use of Sonic Pi and teaching Sonic Pi workshops, I was inspired to create Snap Music to bring the joy of music and programming to even younger kids.

What is something you’ve made that you are most proud of, and why?
It’s a work in progress, but Snap Music has so much potential. I’m happy to create something that may be able to get kids interested in both making music and coding. I’ve enjoyed making something that will hopefully have a positive effect on the world.

Why do you consider yourself a Maker?
For the longest time I never really considered myself a Maker. I’ve come to realize that even though I’m not making physical or tangible things, the music I create and the applications I write are just as much Making as anything else.

If you plan on attending one of Scott’s workshops (Making Music with Sonic Pi or Making Music with TidalCycles) bring your own laptop so you can follow along and get the most out of it. You can also download and install Sonic Pi and TidalCycles if you want to start exploring on your own.

Tell us about yourself.
Kevin: I create new electronic musical instruments for tablets, phones, and laptops. In 2010 I started developing apps for iOS devices under the name Bit Shape. I like biking around Milwaukee.
Becky: I am a recent graduate from UWM with a BFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and Technology. I focus on using technology as a medium for making art in the Milwaukee community. I have been working with Kevin on different creative coding projects for the last few years. I like gardening and adventuring.

What are you presenting at Maker Faire Milwaukee?
‘the things of shapes’ is an interactive audio / video installation where 3D graphics react to an electronic soundtrack. We created a graphics engine that produces sound, used that engine to create the music, and then made the graphics react to the music. Participants will be able to control the visuals using a motion sensor.

What inspires you to make?
Kevin: I get a thrill creating instruments that people use in their own work, especially tools they haven’t seen before. For me, using new tools helps open up different pathways of creativity, and I hope my users get the same benefit.
Becky: Boredom.

Why do you consider yourself a Maker?
Becky: I consider myself a Maker because the name is based on a verb. Unlike ‘Artist’ or ‘Musician’ which are statuses or positions, ‘Maker’ is still seen as an action. I want to be known for my work and actions not the status that goes with it.

What tips or advice would you give to someone who wants to become a Maker?Kevin: Your next project should always be slightly outside of your skill range.
Becky: Everyone has to start somewhere; a rocket scientist wasn’t born a rocket scientist. You can always change who you are and what you know.

Tell us about one of your failed projects.
Kevin: Every time I build and run my code it’s a failure. There are bugs, it’s not designed right, or I see improvements to make. I’m a failure-driven developer.

If you could make one thing that would improve the world, what would it be?
Becky: An education program that shows people that there is no subject that is superior over another and focuses on teaching rather than equipment or tests.

Tell us about your Power Racing Series team.
ASME at Valparaiso University is dedicated to innovative design in order to help prepare responsible and constructive engineers.

What are you presenting at Maker Faire Milwaukee?
ASME at Valparaiso University has constructed a Power Racing Series vehicle to compete in the Power Racing Series race at Maker Faire Milwaukee.

What inspires you to make?
ASME at Valparaiso is inspired to make for the purpose of preparing responsible and constructive engineers.

What tips or advice would you give to someone who wants to become a Maker?
Honestly, everyone can invent. Thomas Edison is said to have failed more than a thousand times before successfully inventing a viable lightbulb. Just keep trying. You’ll get there someday.

Tell us about yourself.
Well, I come from a blended family and have five younger sisters. I grew up in rural southern Colorado but went to college in Chicago where I earned my Bachelor of Arts from SAIC in 2000. Currently, I reside in Milwaukee. By day I’m a commercial photographer specializing mostly in product photography. In the evenings and on weekends I design and build custom lamps and light fixtures. I’ve been at it about three or four years and work under the name W Luminaries.

What are you presenting at Maker Faire Milwaukee?
I’m very pleased to be presenting handmade accent lamps made from my preferred materials: wood, metal (raw brass and polished nickel) and glass.

What inspires you to make?
The people whose work I greatly admire–too numerous to list here–definitely motivate me. But maybe it’s a lifestyle choice? I guess I’ve always just made things starting from a very young age. There’s a certain satisfaction that I get from both organizing and materializing these crazy ideas I have in my head. Simply put, I’m a relentless tinkerer with an artistic bent. I just keep wondering, dreaming and building. It’s what I’ve always done in one form or another.

What tips or advice would you give to someone who wants to become a Maker?
Don’t be afraid to steal ideas but you better be sure to make them your own. I’ve learned it’s better to be an extension of the work you revere rather than a direct imitation. Oh, and relax. Frustration is the antitheses of creativity. At least for me it is.

Tell us about one of your failed projects.
Now that’s a tough one! With so many examples of failure under my belt it’s hard to choose just one. I’ve tried so many things in my life: fiction writing, song writing, acting, sculpture, drawing, painting, photography–the list goes on and on. I’ve been moderately successful to down right bad at these many disciplines. The ones I have a real and unforced affinity for I continue to work at. Along the way I’ve come to appreciate the complete process, or bigger picture of what I’m doing. Why dwell on failure when it’s an inevitable part of the creative process? Somethings work well, others not as well. Yeah, it bugs me a little when I don’t foresee the short comings of this or that design. But on the flip side I’m all ready on to the next idea or motification. This is how I get along, really. I just try to keep moving myself forward. And I have to say that all those little failures have moved me faster towards my little successes. Of which I’m grateful.

Tell us about yourself.
I am a mechanical engineer and I like to tinker in various areas of engineering and manufacturing in my free time. I find a wide variety of manufacturing methods interesting and I have spent some time working to reproduce a few of these methods in my home shop. Sometimes I buy the needed equipment and other times I make the equipment myself. Some of the manufacturing processes that I have performed in my home shop include welding, metal casting, electric discharge machining (EDM), CNC machining, 3D printing and plastic injection molding.

What are you presenting at Maker Faire Milwaukee?
I will be showing my homemade injection molding machine, homemade arc welder and some samples of items cut using software that I wrote for generating and modifying g-code input files for CNC machines.

What inspires you to make?
When I see an interesting process I like to consider whether or not I would be able to replicate it. I am all the more interested if I have a practical use for the end product. However, not having a practical use for something does not prevent me from taking on a project. Sometimes the project needs to be built before its uses can be fully identified. When I was building my homemade lathe, I was often asked what I was going to use the lathe for. At the time I did not have a defined use for the lathe. I tried to explain that the lathe itself was the project. I still don’t have a specific use for the lathe, but it gets used occasionally for various projects.

What is something you’ve made that you are most proud of, and why?
I am usually most proud of things that I have made recently or that have a long lineage of projects that build upon each other to result in an item. Recently, I made a couple of new Aluminum molds for injection molding at Maker Faire Milwaukee. Both of these molds are shaped like Makey, the maker faire robot. One is a spinning top and the other is a key-chain or zipper pull. These molds and the resulting injection molded items fit both my recently made and lineage criteria. The molds were made using g-code generated by F-Engrave (CNC software that I wrote) and I inject the plastic into the mold using my homemade injection molding machine that was partially built using my homemade Gingery Lathe. The lathe was cast from Aluminum in my home foundry, the crucible I use for casting the Aluminum was made from scrap angle iron that I welded together using my homemade arc welder.

Tell us about one of your failed projects.
One manufacturing process that I have not yet been able to reproduce is friction stir welding of plastic. Friction stir welding is a process in which a spinning metal bit is pushed through a material creating a welded joint. The friction resulting from the spinning bit in contact with the base material causes the two pieces of base material to flow together resulting in a solid joint between the two parts. In my experiments so far I have had results ranging from very weak joints to molten plastic flying across the shop. Up until this point, I would not classify these results as success.

What tips or advice would you give to someone who wants to become a Maker?
I think Jimmy Diresta has given the best advice on this topic in the past. Jimmy suggests making something every day. It doesn’t matter what you make or what you make it out of. If all you have is paper make something with paper. Whenever you make anything you will develop new skills or refine the skills you already have. There are no barriers to making. You just need to work with what you have available.
(Jimmy talked about becoming a maker in the MakingIt podcast, Episode 083 at time: 23:40)

Tell us about yourself.
My name is Matt Goode and I am a senior in Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State University. When not in class, I dedicate all my free time to PrISUm, Iowa State University’s solar car team. It has always been my dream to build a vehicle from a blank sheet of paper, and through partaking and leading this club I am happy to report that we have done it. I hope to build electric vehicles for the everyone someday.

What are you presenting at Maker Faire Milwaukee?
PrISUm is showcasing Pheaton 2, the team’s 13th solar powered vehicle. The lightweight carbon fiber exterior and mechanical systems were handcrafted by Iowa State University students during the fall of 2015. Every aspect of the vehicle was designed, manufactured, and tested in the Midwest. The Phaeton 2 competed in the eight-day, 1,800-mile 2016 American Solar Challenge race from Ohio to South Dakota. The International Solarcar Federation awarded the team their Achievement Award, which led to the production of remote-controlled scale models of Phaeton 2, the only car to ever hold this honor. The models will be sold throughout the world to promote solar racing and the concept of “Brain Sports.”

What inspires you to make?
PrISUm’s mission is to build a practical solar car that changes the paradigm of transportation. In doing so, we strive to inspire future generations to pursue their passions through education.

What tips or advice would you give to someone who wants to become a Maker?
Never give up. Inventing is hard, and making your dreams come true is even harder. If you keep trying you will succeed greatness!

Tell us about one of your failed projects.
Building a vehicle from scratch is quite difficult. When first assembled, the suspension was improperly manufactured, the battery pack would not turn on, and the vehicle’s motor would not spin once given power. Overall, members spent over two years and thousands upon thousands of hours into Phaeton 2 to make it operational and race across the United States. During the race, the car fell off the road and into a ditch. The body was severely damaged and an axle/wheel was damaged in the accident. Members were able to fix the car and make it operational within 30 minutes.

If you could make one thing that would improve the world, what would it be?
PrISUm hopes to change people’s idea of what a car should be. Our new vehicle, Penumbra, has 4 seats and a rear hatch to store grocery items. This will be the world’s first solar utility vehicle, and we hope to make people think differently about what a vehicle can do for you. Once completed, the car will travel to all 99 counties in the state of Iowa, demonstrating the ease of use and feasibility of electric/solar electric vehicles.

Tell us about yourself.
I’m 29 years old, and I’ve been a cosplayer since High School, though back then I didn’t do as much as I do now. I didn’t do too much sewing, in fact my first cosplay was made up of mostly bits and pieces from Goodwill. Then I started learning how to sew, first with a few Kimonos, then with some simple outfits. I still pieced together things from Goodwill, and it wasn’t until I had graduated college that I really took off on making cosplays and costumes. I even made a medieval outfit with a gathered skirt for a wedding I was in, and it turned out fantastic. I’ve been getting better and making improvements with my accessory work and fabric work, even though sometimes I tend to not get my own measurements exactly right even when I use a pattern. I love to create, and cosplay has been a great way to meet people that are just as nerdy and dedicated to crafting as I am. I’ve made so many more friends in the community and I’m so happy for it.

What are you presenting at Maker Faire Milwaukee?
I am presenting some of my cosplays as well as probably bringing in a new cosplay to sew and assemble so people can see how its done. I have a lot of outfits spanning a lot of video games and anime and my list is ever growing. I try to plan outfits that I can be comfortable in, or will function in both hot and cold climates. My current cosplay that I have recently nearly completed, is Lady Three from the game Drakengard 3, and I will either be wearing her or at least bringing in her armor to show people what Worbla can do. She so far is my greatest success as I have worked really hard to make the outfit spectacular.

What inspires you to make?
Bringing a character to life or designing an outfit is fun and frustrating. For me, I have a long list of outfits I want to do but not as much sometimes of an idea for how to do them. I sometimes feel like my skills aren’t on par with some others out there so I get afraid to do certain outfits. However in the past two years at least I’ve been inspired to take some risks with outfits that just simply called to me, and that’s brought me out of my comfort zone making things I never thought I would make. Seeing video games or shows I really like, characters that have amazing or crazy personalities or that I can relate to. A lot of the characters I cosplay are a little twisted but I like it that way, and I like doing characters that are a little obscure.

What is something you’ve made that you are most proud of, and why?
There’s a lot of outfits I’ve made but I have to say one of my best ones is a dress I had sewn together based off the main character from a game called Fatal Frame IV. I had cut the pieces out so gingerly, and spent over six hours sewing everything together, the trim, the lace and then getting all my accessories in place. I have a few antique cameras I actually use as props for this outfit and one other as well and it just came together so well. More recently my outfit that I made armor for out of Worbla, a thermoplastic material you shape with heat, has turned out fantastic as well and I really feel like my skills have grown considerably since that dress.

Why do you consider yourself a Maker?
I love to make outfits, costumes, cosplay. I consider myself a maker because each outfit I create and put together I give the character I’ll be portraying a life outside of their normal medium. I can spend hours creating a costume, and that can include finding a pattern, getting materials, gathering ideas and reference pictures.

Tell us about one of your failed projects.
I had some scissor blades I had originally made out of smooth foam. I drew up a pattern and cut them out. Then after I had glued them I was going to paint them and figured spray paint would make it quick and easy. I get set up and suddenly the spray paint is melting the foam as I started trying to use it.

What tips or advice would you give to someone who wants to become a Maker?
Never stop creating. Never stop learning, and be open to accepting help and criticism.

Tell us about your group.
Vrakas Labs (or V/Labs) is our “brand” for all of the projects our family works on. For as long as we can remember, we’ve been inventing – air cannons and electric go-karts, Arduino projects, drones, rockets, custom computers, circuit boards, furniture and wood projects, welding projects — whatever looks cool! We now have enough gear to get most projects off the ground and we continue to look for new projects and new learning opportunities. Tim is a high school senior, aiming for a degree in electrical engineering. Ben is a sophomore, a LEGO master, CAD design guru, and hardcore Gamer. Andy is a middle school teacher, and enthusiastic amateur.

What are you presenting at Maker Faire Milwaukee?
This year we’re featuring a custom liquid-cooled PC, a DIY electric bike, presenting some 3D printing design ideas, and a vintage prop reproduction any hardcore Trekkie will recognize. We also will have a variety of DIY camera gear, and a custom gimbal system.

What inspires you to make?
There are an infinity of cool things that you can be the creator of, and it’s up to you to decide what it is you want to create. You never know when you will be the inventor of the best thing since sliced bread.

What tips or advice would you give to someone who wants to become a Maker?
Focus on projects that are equal parts fun and challenge. Show off your skills while learning new ones. Also, collaborate on projects with other people. Swapping skills and working together can be a lot of fun.

If you could make one thing that would improve the world, what would it be?
I would make it easier for students and learners to develop their skills. Everyone should have access to a makerspace where they can personally work to solve the problems in their life.

Tell us about yourself.
I have a strong sense of wonder and like to understand things. And when one is curious about things, one tends to investigate them. I therefore spend a fair amount of time reading, poking things, and asking questions. I also reuse paper towels, dance oddly, and look at the sky a lot. Sometimes all at once.

What are you presenting at Maker Faire Milwaukee?
I am looking forward to demonstrating how to make fossilized snowflakes, and to showing a selection of some that I’ve photographed and made into little picture blocks.

What inspires you to make?
Science as art is an enjoyable motivator for me.

What is something you’ve made that you are most proud of, and why?
I made my washing machine work again for six dollars after I did an internet search for “washing machine” and “horrible noise”.

Why do you consider yourself a Maker?
Seems to me that we are all Makers.

Tell us about one of your failed projects.
If one looks at any given project as an experiment, then there is no failure. But philosophy aside, it was a failed attempt at a science project that set me on to fossilizing snowflakes… I tried to preserve some snowflakes one winter, following some supposedly-easy instructions, and everything just turned into sticky mush. Repeatedly. I found it highly irritating and I felt challenged. So I did a little more research, and did many many hours of trial-and-error experimentation and data collection until I started getting results I was happy with. I’m still experimenting; in fact, every attempt is an experiment. That’s part of the fun.

For more info check out the 2016 profile page for Out Snowflaking.