Featured Makers 2021

  • Zak Smolen’s D&D Creations
    Around the start of quarantine one of my friends asked if I’d be interested in joining a remote Dungeons & Dragons game she was organizing. I’ve always had an interest in trying it out and we decided to give it a shot. If you’re not familiar with Dungeons & Dragons, or other tabletop role playing… Read more: Zak Smolen’s D&D Creations
  • Zen Sutherland’s Mad Science
    Local maker Zen Sutherland is always coming up with unusual and creative projects (you may remember Zentar or the Haiku Ray Gun from the inaugural Asheville Maker Faire). So we picked a couple of our favorites from his more recent projects to share. The Alien Baby definitely wins the award for creepiest project on this… Read more: Zen Sutherland’s Mad Science
  • Street Creature Puppet Collective’s Mini Parades!
    We’ve created a few mini parades since the pandemic started. They involved community collaboration of some kind and employed puppets, lanterns, and music. The first parade was with the Asheville Mardi Gras at the Givens Retirement Estate. It was a perfect fall day and the old folks loved our giant caterpillar (paper mache and grocery… Read more: Street Creature Puppet Collective’s Mini Parades!
  • Travis Wheeler’s Droid-Building: FF-7 and BB-66
    Hello, my name is Travis and I build Star Wars droids! I got into the hobby around 2016, shortly after The Force Awakens came out and we were introduced to BB-8. At the time, I had little to no experience with building things, robotics, painting, 3D printing, wiring…. none of it. But I happened to… Read more: Travis Wheeler’s Droid-Building: FF-7 and BB-66
  • Lindsay Morris’ Linear Clocks
    This may be the world’s coolest clock: a single bar of numbers with a single pointer. Beautifully crafted in fine hardwoods. This idea came to me four years ago, took hold, led me into learning electrical engineering and then, finally, hiring a real electrical engineer!It’s been enormously fun and engaging for me. And for the… Read more: Lindsay Morris’ Linear Clocks
  • Zaniac’s Solar Ovens
    Despite lockdown then eventually opening up to small groups, our students had the most fun building these solar ovens and being outside on sunny days while we ‘cooked’ our s’mores. Download instructions for making your own solar oven: STEM Lab at home – Solar Oven www.zaniaclearning.com
  • Daniel Alich’s DuinoKits
    The DuinoKit is an all-in-one Arduino Discovery Kit. It has all of the parts you would need to try new things with your Arduino. It is set up with an Arduino Nano and everything is all wired together in the briefcase. All the user has to do is attach the wires to the specific parts… Read more: Daniel Alich’s DuinoKits
  • Tom Heck’s Floating Specter Costume
    I designed and built this costume for Halloween 2020 and used it for several hours in downtown Asheville hoping I’d bring a little joy into people’s lives. The build took about 10 hours spread out over two weeks. The arms were the most challenging part to design and I made several iterations of them. The… Read more: Tom Heck’s Floating Specter Costume
  • Darrell Thomas’ Khalk Krawler
    My invention that I created and designed is a radio controlled sidewalk chalk drawing toy I call “The Khalk Krawler”. The Khalk Krawler was designed to give children and adults a new and fun way to play with chalk. The inspiration for the idea came from going through various neighborhoods I go through daily with… Read more: Darrell Thomas’ Khalk Krawler
  • Steve Altemeier’s Motorized Etch-A-Sketch
    Have you ever tried to draw something with an Etch-A-Sketch?  If you’re like me, a basic rectangle is about as ambitious as you can get.  However, a while back I built a harmonograph table that creates interesting drawings using pendulums swinging back and forth to control a pen (they’re pretty cool – do a quick… Read more: Steve Altemeier’s Motorized Etch-A-Sketch