Studio 2

Seething hot, neon-orange steel. The smell of metal and plastic. Bronze casting, LED soldering, blacksmith practicing, Oregon Trail playing, Abstract Game designing, 3d printing…did I cover it all? (No. Because I only went 1 out of the 2 days)

“Well…Where the hell were you at?”

The Quad City Co-lab Grand Opening event, that’s what.

As mentioned previously, the Quad City Co-lab is a hackcerspace, or maker-space, or creative space aimed at simply that: Providing an area for creative people to gather together and work on various projects, share information, share technology, and essentially…make things!

Awesome Boyfriend, Wee One, and my little brother all had the opportunity to go to this event this weekend, and I’m not sire if interesting even begins to cover it. I can certainly understand why the Co-lab’s grand opening was a 2-day event, because there was enough going on just at one time that could keep my mind busy for months!

I have to admit, after taking the soldering workshop there a few weeks ago, the very first thing I did was solder myself (and Little Brother) a sweet, LED blinking “Maker Fair 2010” pin. You don’t have to tell me how cool of a take home souvenir that was. (I know.) And that is exactly what was happening here: “makers” of all kinds, gathering in one space to make things…and share what they know about making them.

We showed up in the middle of festivities, but the first thing that we definitely had to see was this: A hobbyist blacksmith doing a demonstration just outside the doors.

He literally got a railroad spike so hot, that he was able to twist it into a coil with a crescent wrench. (Brute force.)

And then there was the bronze casting. Little Brother was into this one. There was a sand contraption set up (not so easily, I’m sure) to house the hot bronze old that was being cast. Sounds like some dangerous work for a klutz like myself! 😛

One thing I found pretty amusing, was that there was a camera-man milling about the event. Not amusing was the fact that he was a cameraman, but the fact that his camera was an iPhone:

We also listened to a hobbyist abstract game designer. I thought I didn’t know what an abstract game was, but chinese checkers? Mancala? Or one of the most famous, Chess? Those are all examples of abstract games. Unfortunately I have no pictures of him. Which is probably for the best honestly, because I had a feeling my little brother’s commentary threw him for a loop anyway 🙂

Another highlight of my visit: The 3D-Printer. Have I heard of these? Yes. Had I ever seen one in action? No. And that was pretty cool. They had the 3D printer set up and cranking out 3D prototype models of the Co-lab logo, and a lovely little fish. 🙂

Dave was working on a design to put in the printer at the opening as well.

Needless to say, a fun and intriguing event. Keep an eye out for more events from the QC Co-Lab on their website, or their twitter. Maybe I’ll spot you there next time!

All Photos courtesy of Zak Kapua 🙂