Make, Learn And Share – Achieve Your Creative FabLab And Makerspace Projects

Make Learn Share

Do you want to make something really awesome? Do you want to start learning or learn more about maker technologies including 3D printing, laser cutting and electronic prototyping? Do you want to share some of your own knowledge with others?

I have a tip, use the make learn and share idea and get to your local FabLab or Makerspace as soon as you can! Read this blog entry as well and go to the bottom of the page for some freebies!

Make, Learn And Share

If you haven’t been to a FabLab or a Makerspace check out my recent blog post you should get to one as soon as you can. At these places, we can “Make Almost Anything”. They are definitely NOT places where you will feel unwelcome. Before I had visited one myself, I felt they would be exclusive places for people with a lot of technical programming language experience and not really welcome someone from an art background. This is completely the opposite to what they actually are! From my experiences, they are very open places. One of the FabLab’s main beliefs which can also be applied to Makerspaces and the maker movement in general is that of  the words “Make, Learn And Share”

These three words are hardly revolutionary but when put into one sentence and are linked to the maker movement the possibilities seem endless. Also, if we think about the meaning of these words, they have actually been a part of humankind long before our modern era.

MAKE

Lions painting, Chauvet Cave (museum replica)

Think of making, people made fire, made cave paintings, Stonehenge, The Pyramids…

LEARN

This knowledge would have been learned either through self discovery or from other peers of the time, probably through forms of apprenticeships…

SHARE

This new knowledge would have in turn been shared to others, or goods made would have been shared in return for other goods or knowledge. The knowledge would then spread from person to person, community to community and eventually country to country. 

Of course this view of past ages is slightly utopian! People made weapons, learned how to kill and then shared how to do this to others too. Hopefully, weaponry and other destructive things will not be made at your local FabLab or Makerspace!

So this FabLab ethos is integral to our humanity. If you think about it, this phrase “make, learn and share” is something that not only for example helps a start-up company from a western country such as the U.K. or the U.S.A. to make a working prototype of their latest design without breaking the bank, it can also help communities in developing countries. 

William Kamkwamba’s wind power maker solution in Malawi

Think about a small village in Africa, with some maker tools a village like this can learn to become self reliant, through making sustainable solutions, learning from each other and the internet and then sharing how to sustain with nearby villages and the internet.  An early example of this can be found with William Kamkwamba . He made a windmill to power electrical some basic electrical appliances in his home and went on to other things. He taught himself from his local library, if he was near a FabLab or Maker space, one can only wonder what even more amazing things he would have made.

As well as this, those of you like myself who like to use FabLabs and Makerspaces for creative technologies, the Make, Learn and Share idea is just as important. We can make our creative projects there, we can learn from others there about how to use new creative techniques, materials and processes and we can share this knowledge to others looking to achieve their creative projects.

FabLabs And Makerspaces Centres For “Making, Learning And Sharing”

If you visit your local FabLab or Makerspace, you will find people from different backgrounds and skill sets in one physical place. I have completed various projects during my art residencies in FabLabs in Montreal and London. In both places I found exactly the same make, learn and share culture that allowed me to complete my creative projects and also to share my knowledge that I have about 3D graphics. If you think about it, this is an amazing arena where where people are making things from all these different disciplines and skills merge and can combine not from doing a Google hangout but by talking to people face to face. Making, learning and sharing ideas.

Amsterdam Fab Lab at The Waag Society

So if you go to make something. The great thing about this is that it is not a selfish thing. you also SHARE. This is a symbiotic relationship. It kind of reflects. If someone there does not share, people will tend not to share with him. It’s a tribal thing I guess!

I like to think it as more than that too. From my experiences, most will be helpful if you tell them your requirements. For example, if you know a lot about electronic prototyping with an Arduino, but you don’t know how to optimise a 3D print, you can swap know how.

This ethos will even sometimes restore your faith in humanity! If you have had a bad day, getting back into that local FabLab or Makerspace rekindles enthusiasms and you will meet people who want to make things, want to get on and achieve. Not by entering digits around on a screen or by “pen pushing” but by actually making real things! I believe this is what we need to start doing, making things again in order to start “The New Industrial Revolution” as Chris Anderson mentions in his book “Makers“.

So if you have a problem that you think can be solved through maker technologies such as 3D printing but you feel you need more skills, then head to your local FabLab or Makerspace and adopt the Make/Learn/Share core belief. At the same time, if you have a skill you can go in to offer to share your knowledge. I guarantee, it will be a rewarding experience for you.

Maker Technologies Will Change But Making, Learning And Sharing Will Probably Remain

From my experience in FabLabs / Makerspaces that they offer so much. However, the open environment of them is perhaps where the gold lies! You can go in with a problem or something that you want to make. You can learn and then share. 3d printing, laser cutting will evolve over the coming years. FabLabs and Makerspaces may change or eventually disappear.

However, as can be seen from history, Make Learn and Share will remain, it is a core principle of our human civilisation.

My Own Examples Of Making, Learning And Sharing…

Here are some ways that I have experienced making, learning and sharing within FabLabs and Makerspaces in 2015 –

MAKE

An art Installation I made at échoFab  FabLab Montreal here are links to the project. This project was an introduction for me to get complete access to a FabLab during an art residency for three weeks. The art piece was made using a range of maker technologies. The backlit screen was perspex cut and etched with an abstract traditional drawing I made earlier. LED lights at the base of this perspex in turn lit up the etched areas. In front of this, one of my 3D ant prints was placed along with a 3D “cloud” form made up of cardboard layers. The form was made in the 3D application, 3ds Max and then  outputted in 123DMake to the laser cutter. Thereafter, I had to glue each cardboard layer on top of each other and make the final form. I also wanted to use electronics using an Arduino and the lights would change depending on how close a person was to the artwork. As it was only a 3 week residency, I ran out of time at the end to do this.

Dymaxion Atlas FabLab London

The Dymaxion Buckminster Fuller Map installation made at FabLab London . Again, this was an art residency but for 6 weeks. This map was constructed by using large laser cuts. The laser-cutter in the FabLab London could not cut these large continents, I had to go to the Trotec centre for the South of England in Guildford to get this done. It was quite a thing to see such a large laser-cutter in action! As well as laser-cutting, I had to make joiners for the wall and also attachments to hang the continents securely on the wall. Lighting using LED and Arduinos were used to show the locations of the main FabLabs around the world.

Retro Valve Lightbox Display  (group project) artwork made at FabLab London . This was also made as part of my FabLab London art residency. I worked with Jack-Scott-Reeve, who was at the time an intern at the FabLab London and also a great engineer! I managed to convert an IKEA “Ribba” frame into a deeper box. The back of the box was again lit with an Arduino and LED set up. Etched perspex was used to symbolise an electrical spark and the valves were placed on top of that. 

LEARN

My First Laser Cut Etching Lines

In the year that I write this, 2015. I have learned a huge amount of maker technologies from my art residencies at the FabLabs. I did this by…

• Asking others in the FabLabs even when I felt that I was being annoying. If you don’t ask you don’t get! 
• Self learning, by testing processes and 3D prints and a lot of failed 3D prints. As I was doing art residencies, I didn’t have to pay for failed 3D prints which I admit, put me in a good position!
• Induction, to use the maker tools at the FabLabs, you have to be inducted as to how to use each machine. This might feel tedious at the time but is really valuable for when you are on your own with this frightening machinery!

SHARE

If you have been following my recent blog posts or YouTube channel. You will see that I share both my art voyage and also maker technologies and maker processes I have learned along the way.

Teaching 3d Blender Workshop In Montreal

I do paid workshops where I teach 3D graphics, art and how to use maker technologies for your creative projects. Sometimes I share these workshops for free. Head over to my tuition page for more information and sign up to my newsletter 

When I can, I also am managing to upload my projects onto the Instructables website. Check them out, sharing my complete process is rewarding especially when I see people making comments and saying thanks.

Also you can go to end of this page now to get some free models!

What You Can Do Now… 

Most importantly, the main thing you should do is go to a local FabLab or Makerspace and use the make, learn and share ethos.

Do a Google search for your nearest one, this useful map will show  your nearest FabLab too.

Make, Learn And Share Activites For You To Do Now! 

If doesn’t matter if you haven’t used a FabLab or Makerspace before. This is not the point.

• Write three columns on a piece of paper, marked Make / Learn / Share. Then think of three examples of when you made something, three of when you learned something, 3 of when you shared something….

• Think of a creative project you are working on now, ask yourself do you want to keep it to yourself? Or do you want to openly share the making voyage and how others can make it at the end? This is a serious aspect of the maker movement. If you decide you want to share it, record the process and then upload it to instructables with instructions.

• Write down the problems you face with your latest project then go into your local FabLab or Makerspace and see how you can solve these problems by learning new processes and learning from others.

• Learn something, make something from what you have learned, then share it or share it in a new way. Share it on-line on a podcast, youtube screencapture, your own blog…

Free 3D Meshes And Other Resources

I sometimes like to share my work so you can use it in your projects but remember to give me credits. This is another form of sharing. You can interactively view these models below. The first model is a spaceship from my Amazon Kindle book, How To Create Cities Of The Imagination. The second model is a Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion car I modelled from some sketches he made of this concept flying car. This was used in the London FabLab “Dymaxion Atlas” installation. As you can see, the car is split in two pieces, this is done on purpose as to optimise the print most efficiently, see my YouTube video about this.

Space Craft
by jamesfuture3d
on Sketchfab

BUCKY
by jamesfuture3d
on Sketchfab

I will send you these models for free. All you have to do is to e mail me at info@jamesabellart.com and let me know if you find this blog post and any other ones you have read here helpful and any ideas you have for how they could be improved. Also, if you want to sign up for my newsletter use the form below or request it in the e mail. Unless you request this, I will not sign you up to my newsletter without my consent. Feel free to comments or ask questions.  I can give you a paid consultation via Skype as well. Contact on the e mail above for more information. I hope that you found this blog entry useful, I try hard to make, learn and share and I hope you can join me on this journey too!

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