Makers Next Door: Meet Jayne, Aspiring Maker and Peanuts Enthusiast
23-year-old safe distancing enforcement officer Jayne Lim can sometimes be spotted at Woodlands Regional Library carrying models of her favourite Peanuts characters like Snoopy and Charlie Brown.
What few may realise is that the models were made right at the library makerspace using fabrication technology like 3D printing, 3D pens and laser cutters.
Lasers? At the Library?!
If the word “laser” makes you think of weapons in sci-fi movies, or contortion dances in bank heist films, you’re halfway there. Lasers are very precise and increasingly, laser cutting tools are used to create intricate and professional-looking designs without breaking your wallet. Jayne found herself captivated by the idea after attending a laser crafting Starter Session at MakeIT at Tampines.
First Impressions as a Beginner
“I thought it was super cool that you could make aesthetically pleasing end products with [crafting],” said Jayne, recalling her first impression of laser crafting. She had visited stores and seen decorative wooden signs with engraved text and designs on them, and wondered if she could make customised ones.
She usually finds inspiration for her laser cutting projects by scrolling through Thingiverse, a website that features a variety of user-submitted digital templates to create interesting physical objects. When a design catches her eye, Jayne downloads the template and transfers it to a free and open-source software called Inkscape, which allows her to further configure the template to her liking.
When she is happy with the design, Jayne then chooses the sheet material from which to create the item—either acrylic, a lightweight, durable thermoplastic, or medium-density fibreboard (MDF), a flexible, composite wood product.
Learning how to operate the laser cutter to get her desired shapes was initially challenging for Jayne, but she says that “the machine does the rest [of the cutting and engraving] for you”, once you’ve learnt how to input your preferences into the device.
Waste Not, Want Not
Since laser crafting involved carving shapes from her chosen sheet material which was often too large for her small-scale projects, and cut-outs would sometimes be discarded, Jayne decided to use the sheet materials in their entirety to reduce waste.
She combined this with her desire to “make something practical that I could use” and settled on creating a pair of matching necklace pendants, made out of MDF as well as acrylic.
She began this process by engraving a design of a wolf pendant onto both an MDF board and an acrylic board. Once that was completed, she removed the wolf pendants, and kept the pieces that were cut out from the interior of the pendants. She then fitted the interior pieces into the acrylic pendant, and vice versa, accomplishing a cool visual effect for both creations.
Bringing Comics to the 3D World
Aside from experimenting with laser crafting, Jayne also found joy in crafting objects with 3D pens. “I thought it was super cool because you could draw whatever you wanted [to create a physical object],” she said excitedly. “I had never seen anything like it before.”
Jayne started off learning how to use the 3D pen by replicating flat, 2D designs from templates. She eventually made the jump to create 3D objects after being inspired by videos online. In an ode to her favourite comic series, she focused her attention on meticulously crafting an ensemble of Peanuts characters with the 3D pen. “I’ve been a Peanuts fan since upper secondary school,” Jayne explained. “I enjoy the series’ morals and I find the characters way too cute!”
She kicked off the project by considering the basic shapes that made up characters like Snoopy and Woodstock, which she followed up by producing them on a smaller scale before creating bigger versions. It was during this time that Jayne learnt that “getting the shape you want” with the 3D pen was a challenge. Embracing trial and error was necessary for her to learn to create shapes that were consistent with the character models.
Jayne shared that “for the bigger characters, I had to pay attention to the ratios as I really wanted to nail the details”. While the smaller editions took her an entire day to produce, it took her months to complete the entire set of Peanuts characters.
No Problem Too Big or Complicated
Working with both the laser cutter and the 3D pen at MakeIT at Libraries has opened multiple avenues for Jayne to learn new skills and express her creativity. If you’re curious about either technique, Jayne has some advice: “Just try everything! I didn’t know that I would like using the laser cutter, the 3D pen, or any of the other machines, before I stepped in here. I didn’t think I would like it at all, so [it’s important to] have an open mind.”
Indeed, curiosity is always received positively in makerspaces, and MakeIT at Libraries—conveniently located at Singapore’s regional libraries—are no exception. If you’d like to follow in Jayne’s footsteps as an aspiring maker, just drop by any of the MakeIT spaces!
About MakeIT
MakeIT is a free-for-public library makerspace that aims to introduce the wonder of digital and tech-based creativity through 3D printing, robotics, digital cutting and other forms of tech-based tinkering to all adult and senior library members. All programmes and materials are free, and no expertise is required.
Join the community of makers at MakeIT on Facebook, or visit MakeIT at Libraries in person at the following locations:
