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Jigsaw Renaissance

Jigsaw and the Great Global Hackerspace Challenge

Wed, 03/30/2011 - 12:27 — willowbl00
Gentlemen, ladies, and partially-sentient automata—start your irons!
 
Guest post by Jigsaw member James Gray
 
Right now, teams from thirty hackerspaces, makerspaces, and diffuse conglomerates of autodidactically-inclined individuals around the world are putting their heads together in preparation for what promises to be a creative contest of quasi-mythological, yea, of nigh- legendary proportions. Their goal: to capture eternal glory in a friendly six-week engagement, drawing upon their skills to create a project of educational merit and some portability. In short, these bold citizen-scientists are locked in a duel of ingenuity where the most imaginative builder will triumph, each putting their skills to work to Do Something about the problems facing education today.
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Jigsaw and Science

Sun, 03/20/2011 - 20:27 — willowbl00

limelight!

This St Patrick's Day, Jigsaw held a fundraiser for the space called St Maker‘s Day. We planned on maklng potato clocks. Because, you know, lt‘s an Irlsh holiday, and we all know the Irish looove thelr potatoes (I'm Irlsh, so I guess that means I can say these things). It was my task to obtain the things with which to make them. I dug around in the local electronics store for alligator clips and wire. I dallied at the hardware store getting galvanized nails. However, I failed with the two obvious componants of 1) Potatoes and 2) Clocks. So we did what any good makerspace would do and improvised.
 
What else could we measure the voltage of? Anythlng, really, but how about limes? Those are green, the stereotypical color of the day, and readily available at the Hideout around the corner. Nick persuaded the bartender to hand over a total of 4. We had a control llme, a boiled lime, a nuked lime, and a frozen lime. Over tlme, the frozen lime underwent another reactlon and became the thawed lime. You can flnd the readings on our blog, but the most important thing was that if you wlre the limes ln series you can power an LED. Giving you a limelight. (Oh yes, I love the puns). We also calculated that to power an iPad, you couldn't use llmes because lt's an Apple product.
 
[Jigsaw Renaissance is a Seattle based makerspace that I've been a member of since it's inception. If you live in the greater Seattle area you should definitely check it out! - Jake]
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Multiple Maker Spaces

Thu, 07/15/2010 - 15:46 — willowbl00

It seems maker spaces are springing up everywhere. And that's really, really exciting. We're a part of a movement, a gathering force of change and hope. We gather at Faires, at Cons, at challenges. We make friends and learn from each other. We feel epic, because we do epic things.

It feels amazing... until a space opens in the same city, down the way. Then we feel threatened, because we're socialized to see participants as a zero-sum game. We think someone going to NotYourSpace is, well, not going to your space.

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Jigsaw : a physical wiki, a work in progress

Sun, 06/27/2010 - 16:08 — willowbl00

Jigsaw Mural! Willow here, of Jigsaw goodness. You haven't heard from us in awhile, but that's because we've been going throughsome major growth spurts. Murals, zombie camp, building work tables, getting a class pet, more and more classes, making our Kickstarter (!!!), and lots of new rad people. Phew.

The space operates as a physical wiki - except for member desks, you can move or change anything, if you think it will operate better in that way. Over time, placement evolves to best use for people who are most active. (We took this idea from our parent space, Bucketworks. If you're in Milwaukee, check them out!) Which is rad... except that it's more difficult to track changes in a physical wiki than it is on the traditional online format. To that end, we've started using Yammer. It's Twitter for set groups - super useful.

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Help Our Hackerspace Build a Kitchen!

Mon, 06/07/2010 - 10:56 — Jake von Slatt

The Hackerspace I belong to in Seattle, Jigsaw Renaissance, is in need of a culinary laboratory facility, colloquially know as "A Kitchen," so that we can add the preparation of comestibles to our maker repertoire.

Also so we can bake you cookies.

Lovely prizes are offered for your tax deductible donation including above mentioned cookies,  a 3D printed version of our nautilus logo, and the chance to be immortalize on toast!

Click through for the complete low down . . . 

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Jigsaw Renaissance update: new space, new stuff to do

Fri, 03/19/2010 - 20:24 — rehana

It's official: We're moving to 1026 Madison! Thanks to all our new members, to everyone who helped spread the word, and especially to Willow for all the work she did to make this happen.

With all the new members, there's been a flurry of activity on the mailing list. Click through to see the new activities they've cooked up.

 

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Leur Existence

Sat, 03/06/2010 - 23:19 — willowbl00

 

I was in NYC a few weeks ago, and went to The Horticulture Society of New York, which is a gorgeous space full of sun and plants (believe it or not). I went to see an art exhibit called Leur Existence (The Tree Project).

The trees that still live from the time of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima are called, Hibaku trees (A-bombed trees).

In the winter of 2008, from a tree Dr. Riki Horiguchi in Hiroshima, I received seeds of Round Leaf Holly, Persimmon, Chinaberry, Firmiana simplex, Japanese Hackberry, Jujube trees that are the second or third generation of Hibaku Trees.

I have been giving these seeds to the ones that are interested in planting them both in the US and the world. By sharing these seeds, I would like to share the pleasure of growing plants, especially the plants from Hibaku seeds.

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Jigsaw Renaissance news and events

Thu, 03/04/2010 - 15:59 — rehana

First off, we're looking for a new space. Willow has a post on the current top choice. We want a bigger space, more centrally located, that's easier to let people into; this is all of those and nice-looking too. 

Click through for up-coming events in March:

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February events at Jigsaw Renaissance

Sat, 02/06/2010 - 00:58 — rehana

We have a lot planned for February! The calendar is here, and I promise we'll quit moving it one of these days. Brief descriptions and links below:

Saturday, 2 pm: Joshua will be giving a talk about the Scratch programming language, a visual language designed to teach kids about programming. We'll also be around before and maybe after, starting at 11, to work on improving the space.

Wednesday the 10th, 7 pm: Show and Tell. Bring your projects, show them off, ask for help if you're stuck.

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Why I believe in Maker Culture

Thu, 02/04/2010 - 16:11 — willowbl00
dirty hands from motobike work at HBL
Cult of Done #9:
People without dirty hands are wrong.
Doing something makes you right.

Hi, I'm willow bl00 (aka Willow Brugh), and you'll see me poke my head in here from time to time. I live in Seattle (I think it's the promised land), alongside the likes of Libby Bulloff, Noah Beasley, and Nathaniel Johnstone. I organize and moderate a Transhumanist discussion group, just applied to law school (interest in the overlap of information technologies and the human body), work at ZoomPop, train Parkour, and play in hacker spaces. I've spoken at Ignite and Dorkbot and on NPR and to Free Inquiry Groups. I'm also the director of Jigsaw Renaissance, which is what I'm here to talk to you about.

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