What does this room of people all have in common?

Arts and crafts being setup.

Several weeks ago now the Toronto Mini Maker Faire Launch party happened.

You can find more images on the following photo streams; Photo booth shots and more,  Photos by Adam Evenden

Upon entering the launch party and registering attendees where faced with an arts and crafts table, full of hot glue, blank masks, LED’s, Coin battery’s, pipe cleaners, markers,  tape, Glitter, and more.
Click more to see some of the creations.

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Lathe in action

Click more to see more pictures of the lathe in action, and the first mystery project

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Laser cutter fun.

During one snowy Hacklab open house there was some creative

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Book Scanning Machine

Over the past couple of months, Hacklab has been having conversations with the Toronto Public Library, especially people at the Toronto Reference Library and the Digital Design Studio. A lot of us LOVE the TPL, it’s one of the largest public library systems in North America, and I personally get a lot of use from it – probably a new book every 2 weeks or so, through their hold system, which wonderfully moves the book from whichever of the 98 branches it’s current at to your branch :-).

A few weeks ago, about a dozen employees of the library visited hacklab for a tour of our space. You can read their wonderful hacklab blog post where they talk about the visit. They peppered us with questions about our 3D printer, the workshops that we run, the philosophy and operation of the space, etc. A good time was had by all!

Sherlock Holmes Chess Set

More recently, they invited us to tour the Toronto Reference Library, one of the largest branches of the Toronto Public Library. You can see a few of the shots I took here: Toronto Reference Library Flickr Set. Sadly of course I don’t have any photos of the awesome view from the transparent elevators! We got to see a lot of the behind-the-scenes places in the library, including the printing room, the preservation and digitization area, and an archival area. We also saw some of their computer classroom areas, the really nifty TD Gallery, currently showing a Sherlock Holmes exhibit (including very cool Sherlock Holmes chess set!), and the all-glass study pods.

They are interested in having some kind of “makerspace” area in at least one of the branches, and so they are touring lots of related things in and around Toronto. Hacklab was pleased to help them out, and if you think this is something the Toronto Public Library should do, I’m sure they’d love to hear your support!

For the last few months, I’ve prepared free vegan food for Hacklab on Tuesdays: Eggplant bhartas, spring rolls, tofu in spicy peanut sauce, boc choy in garlic sauce, curries…

Thai Red Curry, Conconut Rice, and Regular Rice (Feb 12, 2013)

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