Make@SCI

Hi, I’m Bridgett! One of the biggest influences in my life as a Maker was growing up on a parade route in Adel, Iowa, and the transformative magic that happened on the floats with candy, color and confetti! I spent summers barefoot playing in creeks and riverbeds with my labs, Otis and Buddy. Here, I filled my pockets with shells, rocks and artifacts, looking up curiosities in the World Book Encyclopedia. My family encouraged my creative curiosity by providing endless arts-and-crafts supplies, often secondhand from thrift stores and instilling the idea that the box the new item came in is often more fun than the new item itself!

I took my interest for the natural world and my love for creating things on to study at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa. Here, I continued to care and expand my family of pets, adopting toads, guinea pigs and Lolli the Boston terrier, and transformed my dorm room into a tinkering studio covered in solder, screen-printing emulsion, vintage fabric and puff paint. I developed a strong body of work in fort making, circuit bending and printmaking and furthered my experience with animal rescue and advocacy volunteering with local animal shelters.

While wrestling with a major for my bachelor’s degree, I decided, “I just like to make things!” I graduated from the University of Kansas with a bachelor’s of fine arts in printmaking and environmental science. One of my favorite things about Making is the empowering ability to take ownership of a process and the potential to educate yourself and create anything you can dream of. I am excited to continue Making, working with animals and spreading my excitement for the world around me to everyone I meet at the Science Center of Iowa!

We ended our final Iowa Maker Tweet-Up of the summer on a sweet note… featuring cooking studios, die-cut chocolate, 3-D printed treats and more! Our final #iamakerchat of the season focused on Making in Iowa and how local Makers can collaborate to develop the state’s innovation ecosystem.

Here are a few of our favorite tweets from Tuesday’s conversation:

First, we brainstormed ways to invite new Makers to join the movement while supporting Iowa’s existing Maker community.

How can we show the world that everyone is a Maker? #iamakerchat -@SCIOWA

Programs like yours, and make sure we keep bringing people into the conversation from different backgrounds. #iamakerchat -@Area515DSM

How can Makers support Makers as we work to develop Iowa’s innovation ecosystem? #iamakerchat -@SCIOWA

SHARE. And then share some more. Go to a Maker Space or your library or a meetup or your existing clubs and SHARE. #iamakerchat -@Area515DSM

We brainstormed how Maker Faires can better serve the local Maker community and inspire new Makers.

What role do Maker Faires play in developing Maker culture/bringing it to pop culture? #iamakerchat -@SCIOWA

That whole “not connected” thing. That’s what they could be doing. Also, inspiring the young’uns. #iamakerchat -@Area515DSM

Then, high-tech cuisine came up…

How do we encourage Makers to collaborate on new ideas? #iamakerchat -@SCIOWA

We’d also like to have some like-minded neighbors. We can’t be the entire village, e.g., a cooking studio would be GREAT! #iamakerchat -@Area515DSM

Food art/cooking is a key part of Making, but it’s often left out of the discussion. How do we bring that to light? #iamakerchat -@SCIOWA

But those ties are happening! They’re just not as obvious as wearables, for instance. But hey, 3-D printed food! #iamakerchat -@Area515DSM

Finally, we said farewell to an inspiring summer of tweet-ups with this question:

How would you describe the Maker movement in one sentence (or two)? #iamakerchat -@SCIOWA

Making something will almost always involve learning something. Might be something different than you expected as well! #iamakerchat -@MichaelELandon

It’s about us reclaiming our confidence as producers and agents of change in our lives. (And making cool stuff.) #iamakerchat -@Area515DSM

Join us next summer!

Thanks for following along and joining in the Iowa Maker conversation! Stay tuned in June 2016 for another summer of #iamakerchat, featuring new topics, new technology and new ways to expand your Maker mindset!