MAKE 疯客直播 Fe offers workspace, equipment, and classes to nurture creativity and provide the space for people to work on their personal and professional projects.
The laser mechanism of a Boss Laser machine warms up prior to an intimate class of makers who use it to cut and engrave crafts. MAKE 疯客直播 Fe has two laser-cutting machines available for reservation by members.听
MAKE 疯客直播 Fe鈥檚 Jasmine Quinsier-Freitas started out as a student before becoming an instructor at the nonprofit听community workspace.听听
MAKE 疯客直播 Fe offers workspace, equipment, and classes to nurture creativity and provide the space for people to work on their personal and professional projects.
Technology and art are two areas of life that are constantly evolving. This can be a hair-pulling challenge and a happy-dance-inducing benefit, all at once.
This constant evolution, as well as the endless possibilities of technology and art collaborating, was on full display at a recent laser-cutting class offered at MAKE 疯客直播 Fe, a nonprofit community workspace that offers resources for makers and creatives.
Three MAKE 疯客直播 Fe members gathered for the class, taught by 疯客直播 Fe native Jasmine Quinsier-Freitas, who has been teaching the laser-cutting class for three and a half years. Quinsier-Freitas made a quick jump from student to teacher when the previous laser-cutting teacher was moving and asked if she wanted to fill the role.
鈥淭he teacher who I took the laser class from, he was like, 鈥楬ey, you鈥檙e smart. Want to teach? I鈥檓 moving.鈥 I was like, 鈥極K,鈥欌 Quinsier-Freitas tells the class.
Outside of teaching, Quinsier-Freitas works as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. Laser cutting hadn鈥檛 entered the picture until a friend told her, 鈥淥h, your stuff would be so cool laser cut.鈥 That same friend recommended Quinsier-Freitas take a class at MAKE 疯客直播 Fe, which offers workspace, equipment, and classes to nurture creativity and provide the space for people to work on their personal and professional projects 鈥 like, according to MAKE 疯客直播 Fe鈥檚 mission, 鈥渁 gym but with powerful tools instead of exercise equipment and skilled craftspeople instead of personal trainers.鈥
MAKE 疯客直播 Fe opened in 2016 at Meow Wolf and moved to its current location about eight months later. It offers workshops and classes in a variety of disciplines, including three-dimensional printing, welding, woodworking, ceramics, blacksmithing, metal casting, plasma cutting, computer numerical control routing, sewing, and laser cutting.
The laser mechanism of a Boss Laser machine warms up prior to an intimate class of makers who use it to cut and engrave crafts. MAKE 疯客直播 Fe has two laser-cutting machines available for reservation by members.听
Kylie Garcia
Quinsier-Freitas covers everything students need to know about laser cutting, from materials that are safe to use in a laser-cutting machine, to a vector program called LightBurn that inputs vector design blueprints into the machine, to the applications the machine can be used for, including engraving and cutting. Possible creations include key chains, coasters, picture engravings, ornaments, trinkets, signs, and more.
The class, typically held the second Saturday of every month, lasted from 4 to 8 p.m., allowing students time to learn by listening, watching, and doing. Quinsier-Freitas went through step-by-step instructions for using the LightBurn application and laser machines and then guided the students through the process. Each student had the opportunity to laser cut pieces for their own miniature cardstock birdhouses, engraved with the MAKE 疯客直播 Fe logo.
Quinsier-Freitas says she allots about three hours for her laser-cutting projects.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e gonna mess up a few times, and that鈥檚 just what it is,鈥 Quinsier-Freitas tells the students. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a weird user-friendly, not user-friendly thing, but it鈥檚 cool once you know how it works.鈥
That paradox is common among art technology applications and many other crafts and creative processes. People often take different, more expensive and time-consuming paths to help them explore and learn those processes.
鈥淚 think that there鈥檚 not very many pathways to the crafts,鈥 says MAKE 疯客直播 Fe Executive Director James Johnson. 鈥淎 lot of people take the pathway through a community college or through their own self-directed study. And so MAKE 疯客直播 Fe offers a place and education to dive into it that requires very little financial risk on an individual.鈥
MAKE 疯客直播 Fe鈥檚 clientele is diverse and motivated by different reasons. John Layne, who attended the recent laser-cutting class, says the space offers inspiration and a much-needed refresher on information he learned years ago but that fell to the wayside as he dealt with an illness for several years.
鈥淚f you don鈥檛 use it, you lose it. ... It鈥檚 amazing how much you can do,鈥 says Layne, an experienced laser cutter who is new to programs like LightBurn. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a world of possibilities most people don鈥檛 know about, and for anyone who needs a booster to their creativity, [MAKE 疯客直播 Fe] is like a world unto itself.鈥
Layne, a retired Los Alamos National Laboratories worker, plans on applying what he鈥檚 learned at MAKE 疯客直播 Fe to some personal projects, but MAKE also helps members improve their professional skills and projects.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a really big hurdle right at the start of anybody鈥檚 crafting or maker career, and that is acquiring tools or learning how to use tools,鈥 Johnson says. 鈥淚 see MAKE as a super valuable resource in onboarding those individuals into those disciplines. We鈥檙e seeing computer-aided disciplines pop up, but there鈥檚 not any direct training for those things, and the equipment is fairly expensive, so that鈥檚 the gaps that MAKE fills.鈥
MAKE provides the crafting and building equipment it offers through grants, financial donations, memberships and participant payments, and donations of equipment provided by retired makers and makers who donate their old equipment.
Participants in a recent MAKE 疯客直播 Fe class made lasser-cut mini birdhouses.
Kylie Garcia/The New Mexican
Johnson adds that MAKE鈥檚 main focus is on individuals and supporting small businesses.
Johnson talks about one of MAKE鈥檚 members, Hernan Gomez Chavez, who was an aspiring artist and fabricator but unable to purchase expensive tools. After finding MAKE, Chavez 鈥渨as able to not only start his fabrication career, but found a place to teach the skills that he had learned as well,鈥 Johnson says. 鈥淪o he鈥檚 now one of our welding instructors.鈥
Quinsier-Freitas has found fulfillment in her MAKE teaching gig as well.
鈥淚 leave so happy and satisfied,鈥 Quinsier-Freitas says. 鈥淚 love passing on knowledge; that鈥檚 so satisfying and pleasing. And just the diversity of people that come through here and the levels of learning are always challenging me to make the class accommodating for everybody. It鈥檚 just made me more confident.鈥
The laser-cutting instructor says that while it is a challenge to have to evolve with the technology, it is also exciting to explore different uses and to coax the perfection of the machine from the imperfection of the human hand.
MAKE 疯客直播 Fe has 165 members, about 135 of which are paid members; the remainder are instructors or have participated in the organization鈥檚 volunteer trade program in which volunteers can trade a number of hours for a membership.
MAKE membership options range from $50 to $85 per month. While paid certification courses are required before using certain equipment, members have full access to shops, tools, member meetings and events, and special resources and workshops.
Nonmembers can pay to participate in classes and workshops open to the public. The organization also offers free community events such as a tour of the MAKE space every Friday night, a Power Tool Racing event every summer, and a Yard Sale and Maker Mart that takes place at the end of October.
Johnson says MAKE鈥檚 most popular pursuits are ceramics, woodworking, and welding, and the organization is hoping to expand into jewelry, metalsmithing, leather crafts, and lamp work in the near future. He also says a potential move to the 疯客直播 Fe Art Institute鈥檚 midtown campus could be on the agenda in the next two to three years, as a result of a partnership with the Midtown Arts and Design Alliance.
Ultimately, Johnson, who has been in his role for two years, says the future of MAKE 疯客直播 Fe is all about creators. He says: 鈥淲hat I鈥檓 passionate about specifically is proving to people that they can do it, that it鈥檚 not this impossible dream for them to create with their hands.鈥澨
