Taking spooky crafts to the next dimension

The Makerspace, located on the 3rd floor of King Library, was decked out for Halloween. Paper bats and garlands hung from the ceiling and fake spiders were strewn about. Candy buckets adorned most of the tables. Some of the staff also embraced the Halloween spirit with t-shirts showcasing a skeleton or black cat.

On Friday, Oct. 25, King’s Makerspace hosted a Halloween-themed event for students to make “creepy crawly crafts.” The Makerspace offers students an area to use the numerous available machines and be creative.

The machines, including 3D printers and electronic cutting machines helped students make stickers and heat transfer vinyls and sewing machines. They could design book covers and bind the books themselves, personalize tote bags or clothes with the heat press and make a sewing circuit.

Anna Hernandez, a sophomore, saw a poster for the event and decided to come after a long, hard week of classes. She used black duct tape covered with green skulls to decorate a book cover and then put yellow caution tape over the top. Later, she experimented with the vinyl heat press.

“I think more kids like doing crafts than they like to admit,” Hernandez said.

The space is important to her because it is a place to de-stress while creating something, and it offers an alternative to going Uptown on the weekend.

The event ran from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., and there were always multiple students in the space working on various projects. It seemed like the creepy craft fair had something for everyone to enjoy.

The Makerspace holds a few events each semester in order to encourage students to come in and take advantage of the space. All of the machines are free to use for the school year, and the staff is currently trying to get a grant to keep it free for next year.

Senior Elliot Boyle loves being crafty and trying new things, so when they heard about this event from their best friend and housemate, they decided that they had to come. Before trying to make a new button for their backpack, Boyle sat and watched what others were making to get inspired.

“I want more time in the day so I can be here more often,” Boyle said. They echoed Hernandez’s sentiment that doing crafts is a great form of self care.

The Makerspace does not require any experience to use their machines because there is always a staff member available to help. At the event on Friday, multiple staff members helped students bind books, choose designs to cut out of vinyl and showed them how to use the machines.

One student even had help making her Halloween costume. She is going as Lavagirl, and a staff member helped her cut out flames from vinyl and use the heat press to put them on her jeans.

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Sarah Nagle, the Creation and Innovation services librarian, runs the Makerspace.

“I think a lot of students really like doing these things at home or at their high school, so it’s a space for them to do it,” Nagle said.

Unfortunately, the Makerspace is not open 24 hours like King Library, but when it is, students can visit and use any of the machines. It is open Mondays 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Tuesdays 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Wednesdays and Thursdays 1 p.m.-5 p.m., and Fridays 9 a.m.-5 p.m. for those looking to get crafty.

whitehan@miamioh.edu