Maker Profile-Lenore Ramm

This week the second maker profile for Makerspace May is Lenore Ramm. She is one of the founding members of Splat Space as well as one of the first people from Splat Space that I ever talked to. She is an incredibly multi-talented person, with a pretty wicked sense of humor (plus, like me, she loves purple). I’ve always enjoyed hearing about all the stuff that she is getting up to, so of course I wanted to share!

1. Who are you?

I’m Lenore!

2. Are you an artist/geek/maker/hacker or mixture of all of those descriptions?

All of the above. I grew up aspiring to be a full-time artist and then decided to get my bachelor’s in computer science instead. I work in IT at one of the local universities so by day I’m programming and maintaining systems for the Identity Management team and after work I’m usually at least thinking about something more artistic. I primarily make (and sell) jewelry, draw/paint, sew and crochet. In my spare time, I’m also involved with other technical organizations, such as Triangle Linux Users Group, and last night I was elected to their steering committee.

Phalaenopsis Orchid with Spots

Orchid painting by Lenore Ramm

3. How are you involved with Splat Space?

I became involved with Splat Space at the very first interest meeting in the summer of 2010 and became one of the founding members that paid a little extra at the beginning so we had enough money. I was the PR officer for one year and the secretary for another. I haven’t been as active in the last couple of years, but that varies depending on how busy I am.

4. What’s on your worktable/bench/desk right now? What’s holding your interest?

I think my entire house is my workbench at the moment (and I need to do something about that!). I have one whole room that’s a dedicated art studio, but every room contains art supplies, yarn and fabric of some sort. I have tables designated specifically for making jewelry, painting and sewing and a desk covered with decorative paper.

My interests are always really scattered. I’m hoping to finish a baby quilt for a co-worker’s infant son before he graduates from college, I want to finally try out some water soluble oil paints, I want to get some jewelry ready to take to a store in Durham, I’d like to design some greeting cards and I’d like to play with some modular origami. In addition, ideas for fabrics designs to upload to Spoonflower are always swimming in my head. I recently took a course in clay hand-building at the Carrboro Arts Center, so I’d like to do more of that soon, too. What I would love to do is learn to solder sterling silver with a torch.

 

Necklace by Lenore Ramm

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Lenore’s Dragon

5. Any favorite projects for favorite epic failures you’d be willing to share?

None of my failures have been truly epic, but I encourage everyone when clipping off soldered electronic component leads to not leave them under your work surface when you are testing out your completed projects. As far as favorite projects, I’m tickled pink with the dragon that I carved out a block of clay during the class at the Arts Center. A little over a year ago, I was very happy with a “postage stamp” quilt that I made for my parents during a class at Spoonflower. Years later, I still love many of the botanical illustrations that I did when I was in my late teens and early 20s.

Thank you so much Lenore! If you’d like to check out Lenore’s Etsy shop with her lovely jewelry, her shop is called Eronel Designs.  If you want to check out some of her fabric designs,  visit her profile page on Spoonflower!

Maker Profile-Daniel Davis

This month at Splat Space I’ve decided it would be really great to interview some of our amazing members for a month-long event I’ve dubbed Makerspace May.  I hope to highlight a few different members of Splat Space this month, because our members are what makes Splat Space great. I think one of the great things about makerspaces like Splat Space is that you get to meet so many interesting people and get to be inspired by so many projects, big or small.

This first week I wanted to interview Daniel Davis,  who we are lucky at Splat Space to have as our PR board member this year.  He is often the guy making the posts to Splat Space’s blog recently,  so I thought it would be fun to turn the tables and see what he is up to.

 

thetinkernut

 

Question 1: Who are you?

 

I’m Batman. Let me rephrase. I’m Daniel Davis, a Nashville, TN native. I moved to Durham, NC in 2009 to pursue a passion for making how-to Youtube videos. Since then I’ve started my own website and video series called Tinkernut and have been doing that professionally ever since! (Also, not Batman.)

 

Question 2:  Do you consider yourself a tinkerer, a maker, a geek, an artist,  or a mesh of all of those titles?

 

Of those four, I’m more heavy on the tinkerer, maker, artist side. Growing up I was always really good at art and loved it…but I also loved computers, programming, and ripping stuff apart. To be honest, it wasn’t until Youtube came along that I felt I actually had a platform that could appease all of those passions. Then the Maker movement started evolving and now I feel a part of a much broader, exciting subculture!

 

Question 3: How are you involved with Splat Space?

 

I became a member of SplatSpace about three years ago. The main reason was to have access to tools that I otherwise wouldn’t have access to. I found that SplatSpace had a lot of involvement with teaching people about technology and I felt that was a good match for what I’m doing with my Youtube channel. There was also the added benefit of having a fantastic group of people that have such different hobbies but all share the same level passion about them.

 

 Question 4. What’s on your workbench right now?  What’s holding your interest?

 

Currently I’ve got a WL-520GU router for some videos I’ve been doing regarding extending wifi and DD-WRT, so my workbench is covered in routers.
 danielsworkbench

 

Question 5.  Favorite project you’ve ever worked on?

 

I love Raspberry Pi’s and love all the amazing things you can do with them. So my favorite project would have to be my Raspberry Pi Arcade machine, just because it combines new technology with retro arcade goodness!

 

Question 6.  Any favorite or hilariously bad epic failures?

 

I shocked myself half a dozen times when trying to make a disposable camera EMP. I did a video about magnets one time where I said that “like attracts like”, which is totally not true. I’ve bricked several different devices while trying to load custom firmware. Out of 100% of the projects I attempt, I’d say that only 60% actually work.

tinkernutlogo

Thank you so much for answering my questions Daniel!  Go visit his website and watch his super fun videos if you want to see what else he’s been getting up to.

Field Trip Report – Martinsville Mini Maker Faire

Yay!  Welcome to Martinsville Mini Maker Faire!

Yay! Welcome to Martinsville Mini Maker Faire!

This past Saturday, some of the members of Splatspace made a field trip up to Martinsville, Va to visit the Martinsville Mini Maker Faire and show our support for our maker friends. The day was perfect for it.  It was sunny and in the upper 70s,  the fields were green, the trees were blooming,  and we got to see the countryside on the way up.

The event was held in Uptown Martinsville in The Artisan Center,  which is a really awesome space, housing artist space and Martinsville Fab Lab.  For more info, visit the website of The Artisan Center,  it was pretty amazing to see all the awesomeness under one roof-including kitchens, a dance floor, and a wood shop, as well as the first official Fab Lab in Virginia. ( It truly made us daydream about all that available space in our building. 🙂 )

There was a lot of great stuff to see at the Mini Maker Faire!  We made brush bots from cut off toothbrushes,  batteries,  and little vibrating mini discs.

Brushbot races! Mine kept going in circles!

Brushbot races! Mine kept going in circles!

We oohed and ahhed over the Fab Lab Martinsville’s equipment, including the big mother-trucking Roland.

Imagine all the possibilities!

Imagine all the possibilities!

We invented RaptorCorns. They were out of the legs for unicorns that they had cut out on the laser cutter, but had Raptor legs, so we made RaptorCorns! This later inspired me to scan it and soon it will become stickers out of Splatspace’s own vinyl cutter.

A RaptorCorn!

What sound does a Raptorcorn make?

Not pictured but also seen:  3d printing,  3doodling,  a “Learn to Solder” class, laser cutting, cigar box guitars,  a robot built by the local high school Robotics Club, fossils,  and the Virginia Stem Lab let us play with a handheld microscope.

It was a really great day!  Thanks to the Martinsville organizers for such a great event!

 

Our Own Jeff Crews On TV!

Screen Shot 2014-12-24 at 11.24.40 AMJeff Crews, a proud offspring of SplatSpace, was featured on UNC TV the other night in a section covering Makers and the holidays. He showed off our 3D printer, using it to produce his blessed creation: the googley eyed…wait for it…”eye”phone case!!! The event was part one of the holiday themed Maker Workshops at the Museum of Life and Science. Click here to watch the full video. The Maker section starts at 8 minutes in and Jeff’s debut starts at 9:35.