The Storyteller's Tavern

WORKBENCHCon weekend, as with all weekends, had to eventually draw to a close, but Leigh and I were so fortunate to be able to get to sit down with Xyla Foxlin, who has (among other fantastic things) created a YouTube channel to showcase her love of engineering challenges, problem solving, and teaching. The three of us got a chance to talk more about Xyla's move from making strictly educational tutorials borrowing friends' proverbial hats; the value of learning from your peers and community; and the importance of representation and role models in STEM fields, or put another way, the burden and blessing of becoming a superhero.

Episode Trivia Minigam! Can you name the actors who played Dr. Dana Scully, Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan, and Angela Montenegro?

Notable Quotes:

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We had some tremendously generous support in making this Chapter of The Storyteller's Tavern possible, and we'd like to thank Kutzall, Total Boat, and WorkbenchCON

The Storyteller's Tavern is made and hosted by @TheTinkerTeacher and @MakerMush. Please consider subscribing, reviewing, and rating. We welcome your support on Patreon.

There are some faces you see when you go to a Maker Event as a newbie and you just know are the ones who will welcome you in. Alma of Pink Soul Studios and Steph of Uncommon Outpost are two of those people who we had seen all over the place but had never gotten the pleasure and privilege of getting to know - until this year's WORKBENCHCon. Leigh and Mush got to sit down with them and catch up on their take on the magic and the purpose of WORKBENCHCon from their roles as advisory board members. As Leigh puts it in this episode: "if somebody wants to know why they should come to workbench con, they should just listen to this episode."

We weren't able to do our regular intro in this episode, as we were talking a mile a minute pretty much as soon as we sat down. We found a good place to fade in on our conversation, so we jumped in from there!

We had some tremendously generous support in making this Chapter of The Storyteller's Tavern possible, and we'd like to thank Kutzall, Total Boat, and WorkbenchCON

The Storyteller's Tavern is made and hosted by @TheTinkerTeacher and @MakerMush. Please consider subscribing, reviewing, and rating. We welcome your support on Patreon.

Tom Bodett (@tombodett1123), an iconic voice and beloved spokesperson, is a treasured figure in American culture, and woodworker of thirty plus years. Leigh and Mush had a wonderful experience of learning more about Tom, his history, and how he's ended up serving the community of Brattleboro, Vermont by co-founding Hatchspace (@hatchspacevt), plus how he came to be hitchhiking to and living in Alaska, as well as how hands-on making serves kids and adults alike.

More Tom

We had some tremendously generous support in making this Chapter of The Storyteller's Tavern possible, and we'd like to thank Kutzall, Total Boat, and WorkbenchCON

The Storyteller's Tavern is made and hosted by @TheTinkerTeacher and @MakerMush. Please consider subscribing, reviewing, and rating. We welcome your support on Patreon.

Hadeel and Firas from Four Rivers Studio are a husband and wife duo based out of Chicago's west suburbs. By day, Firas is a historian and Hadeel is a nurse, and together they started a woodworking business out of their garage.

Leigh and Mush talked with them right before they presented their second session at WORKBENCHcon this year, and got a chance to speak about empowering diversity in Makerspaces; ways that they infuse past intellectual traditions with contemporary craft; and the overlap between academia, nursing, and woodworking.

If you're listening to this close to when it was released, Hadeel and Firas just had the baby that gets mentioned in this episode - congratulations!

More Four Rivers Studio

We had some tremendously generous support in making this Chapter of The Storyteller's Tavern possible, and we'd like to thank Kutzall, Total Boat, and WorkbenchCON

The Storyteller's Tavern is made and hosted by @TheTinkerTeacher and @MakerMush. Please consider subscribing, reviewing, and rating. We welcome your support on Patreon.

JPaulTheCarpenter (@JPaulTheCarpenter) is a singer/songwriter turned builder, raised in the hustling streets of Dallas TX, who then moved to the creative hub of ATL.

Leigh and Mush talked with JPaul at WORKBENCHcon (@workbenchconference) about his journey from working on military aircraft to getting nominated for Grammys; the mentors who first believed in and thereby empowered him, and how that guides what he does today; and about focusing the power of the Maker Community into a Swarm of positive impact.

More JPaulTheCarpenter:

Mike Marazzo, or MarazzoWoodworking, is an avid DIY-er and woodworker, often specializing in custom wood flags based out of Elgin, IL. Brandon Silveira, aka Full House Woodworking, is a maker based in Hollister, CA. Both Mike and Brandon are police officers, Mike having recently retired, and together they host the Handcuffs and Sawdust podcast.

Leigh and I sat down with them both, kicking off WorkbenchCON by highlighting the reunion of the Maker Family, overcoming imposter syndrome, and some of the influence our parents had on us.

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Handcuffs & Sawdust

We had some tremendously generous support in making this Chapter of The Storyteller's Tavern possible, and we'd like to thank Kutzall, Total Boat, and WorkbenchCON.

The Storyteller's Tavern is made and hosted by Leigh Northrup (@TheTinkerTeacher) and Mush Hughes (@MakerMush). Please consider subscribing, reviewing, and rating. We welcome your support on Patreon.

Eric Schimelphenig (@ericschimel) has an intense passion for digital fabrication and Making. He uses and teaches 3D printing and CNC fabrication, and has helped design and build digitally fabricated homes, geodesic domes, and many other cutting edge projects. Eric is a regular columnist for Kitchen & Bath Design News and MAKE Magazine, teaches Sketchup nationally, and speaks on emerging technologies for the design field. As he'd probably summarize it himself: he's a big ol' digital fabriaction maker nerd, and proud of it.

At Maker Camp, he was helping man the Avid CNC (@avidcnc) booth, and took time at the end of the weekend to close out Maker Camp '23 with Leigh by talking about the bedrock of collaboration in the community, the trust and respect inherent to these sorts of gatherings, and a brief but intense recap of the '23 Total Boat Makeregatta.

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We had some tremendously generous support in making this Chapter of The Storyteller's Tavern possible, and we'd like to thank Total Boat, Blackthorne Resort and Maker Camp, and The Tasting Lab for making it all happen.

This chapter of The Storyteller's Tavern is hosted by Leigh Northrup and Leah Hartmann, and produced by Mush Hughes. You can support the show directly on Patreon.

Brooke and Michael, from Maker's Workshop, got their start via a serendipitous confluence of artistic burnout and budding makerspace potential. Based just outside of Boston, they run the Maker's Workshop, both as a physical shop, and as the name of their presences online.

Patrick Gensel (@patrickgensel), from Pennsylvania, will tell you that he is a "maker of things," which can clearly be seen through the items he sells on Etsy as Pine and Print. From there, he began sharing his process on Instagram, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The group talks at length the crossroads of tradition and technology, whether that’s by what’s involved in creating their own maker spaces, 3D printing your own nostalgia and turning your projects loose on the world, or CNCing gingerbread.

Just a heads up: there’s a surprise appearance by Red the Shop Dog (@redtheshopdog) via some barking right around the ten minute mark.

Maker's Workshop

Patrick Gensel

We had some tremendously generous support in making this Chapter of The Storyteller's Tavern possible, and we'd like to thank Total Boat, Blackthorne Resort and Maker Camp, and The Tasting Lab for making it all happen.

This chapter of The Storyteller's Tavern is hosted by Leigh Northrup and Leah Hartmann, and produced by Mush Hughes. You can support the show directly on Patreon.

Leigh & Mush catch up on the goings-ons of the last few months and get hyped for WorkbenchCON 024

Andrew Stanfield is a freelance media producer and Student Success Coach based in Albany, Oregon, who also dabbles in making stuff.

Mark Adams, whose gorgeous black and white photos you've Definitely Seen, is a freelance photographer, splitting time between Cleveland OH and Portland OR. Mark loves photographing people and motorcycles, but loves being able to hear everyone's the most.

Leigh, Andrew, Mark and I talked about the balance and responsibility of social media; feeling seen; and what makes "doing," whether that's making or photography, not feel like "work."

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