Residents

First Boost Members Announced!

21st December 2021
"First Boost Members Announced!"

We are very happy to announce that we have picked our first set of people to get Boost Membership!

In the end we had 27 entries. Two winners were picked randomly last week and have now confirmed that they can take on the places starting in January.

We’ve asked them for a brief bio, so I’ll let them introduce themselves:

Kate James

A photo of Kate James “Throughout the lockdown I’ve found a creative outlet in working alongside community groups to mark how we’ve all coped with the pandemic in our own ways. Working with Collective Encounters, Friends of Springfield Park, The Drive L14 and The Lantern Company, I used a real mixed bag of materials, mainly fabric and woodwork, but also poetry, chalk and typography to create art that captures moments in time we can all relate to. I’m hoping to make full use of the DoES workshop to create something entirely new in 2022.” – Kate James

 

Lauren McGuffie

“A big warm hello to all of you, my name is Lauren and I’m the face and hands behind Little Chestnut. I currently make personalised gifts and homeware using a variety of paper cutting, vinyl, sublimation and toner reactive foiling.

I studied art at college and went on to complete a degree in Visual Art at university. I spent ten years working as a Visual Merchandising Specialist for a large global home furnishing retailer. This saw me spend time planning and implementing my designs not just in the UK, but in Europe and Australia.
I was made redundant at the beginning of last year and decided to take the opportunity to follow my passion and take the plunge to start working for myself.”

We’re really looking forward to welcoming them into the space more. While both have visited before, neither have spent much time at DoES yet and they’re both eager to get working on projects. If you see them while you’re in be sure to say “Hello!”

Unfortunately we only had two places to offer so we know there will be some people left disappointed now. We do hope to run this scheme on a regular basis though and there should be more information about the next cohort at the end of January.

For the geeks amongst us… as mentioned we had 27 entries. Six of those were for a full time desk and the other 21 for workshop membership. The Google Form puts the entries into a spreadsheet and we picked a winner by using “randomise range” on the rows. After that it was a simple case of going down from the top and picking the first of each type of membership, which brought us to Lauren and Kate. No rubber balls or extravagantly designed and named machines were involved, this time…

DesktopProsthetics

7th May 2015
"DesktopProsthetics"

Copyright Jason Abbott

image with thanks copyright Jason Abbott

DoESLiverpool are developing an iteration of the Enabling the Future project within the “Build Your Own: Tools For Sharing” Exhibition at FACT 4 June – 31 August 2015 with the Crafts Council and in association with Norfolk Museums Service and Norwich Hackspace. Ross Dalziel, Patrick Fenner and Adrian McEwen who are permanent deskers at DoES Liverpool are helping facilitate and support a ‘production line’ area in the FACT show within their main gallery 1 on the ground floor to 3D print open source designs of upper limb prosthetics. It’s inspired by a local family the Abbott’s who used our workshop to print hand parts independently. You can see an image of Baylee Abbott above.

Over the course of the exhibition FACT Gallery Assistants and DoESLiverpool will assist the public in testing and building 3D printed prosthetics using the open source design “The Raptor Hand”. The public will have the opportunity to play, experiment and understand what prosthetics are and how access to rapid prototyping and open source digital making tools can help people make the world the way they want it.

By working with Reach in the NorthWest, the association for children with upper limb deficiency, we’ll be helping a number of children (primarily) from the North-West and, when the exhibition tours, East Anglia where Norwich hackspace are assisting. In addition, the exhibition which tours to Norwich will raise awareness within the Reach community and the general public about some of the uses for 3d printing. It’s worth noting that the Raptor Hand is more of a tool rather than a fully functional prosthetic device and has very limited grip strength.  For more details on the design and its suitability check out http://enablingthefuture.org/faqs-general/

DoESLiverpool if you are new to us, as an organisation, do not do projects in a sense; we simply help our community to realise their projects with the facilities we have. Our community is essentially anyone who wants to do something with us. Part of the ‘deal’ of this project is that DoESLiverpool and Norwich Hackspace can keep the new larger 3D printers, Ultimaker 2’s, so that if people do need to print more hands in the future at DoESLiverpool, we will have extended our facilities so that they can. If a group grows and develops around the activity in the exhibition then that group can continue to use DoESLiverpool to support it like the many diverse groups that call DoESLiverpool home.

We are managing the project on github which we hope will aid Norwich hackspace when they help with their side of the tour.

There are a few dates of specific activity the public need to book on to aside from the public launch on the Thursday 4th June at 6pm. Booking details will follow on Eventbrite

Outside of these workshop dates the public can visit the exhibition and see the hands gradually being printed and finished so just like the DoES workshop but a little more formal and with more context and a visual explaination of the process of building the printed hands for DesktopProsthetics. Gallery assistants will be able to explain the process and show some of the completed parts as they are printed and prepped ready for assembly

Laser cut artwork produced here

16th January 2015
"Laser cut artwork produced here"

Christine Toh has provided us with a lovely write-up of the laser cut, pop art inspired work that she’s been producing recently in DoES. This goes into exhibition at the Bluecoat Display Centre (almost across the road from us) from 23rd January to 7th March 2015.

Christine Toh

Christine2toh@yahoo.co.uk

christinetoh.wordpress.com

“Fleurs d’Amour” Collection / “Flowers of Love” Collection Medium: Acrylic or acrylic and wood, paper, laser cutting and digital printing.

I am a mixed media French artist living in Liverpool and have graduated from John Moores University in Fashion and Textile Design in 2008.

The development of my work is closely linked with the exploration of new processes and materials. The use of text and the use of colours have always been a strong inspiration and key elements of my work.

I learned last year how to use a laser cutter at DOES, a fantastic non-profit community organization supporting local entrepreneurs and makers in Liverpool. This had led to the development of a new set of work: the “Fleurs d’Amour” series or “Flowers of Love” series.

Those flower pendants have been designed from the word “amour“ (love) written in a circle as a message of eternity.

The flowers have been cut mainly in acrylic but birch wood has also been used and been combined with the acrylic to create the case. The word “amour” has been engraved in the center.

The red cord has been hand twisted and the piece is presented in a square kraft gift box.

Each piece is unique and individually made with attention to details.

A vibrant and dazzling colour palate has been chosen to inspire freshness, optimism, fun and the pendants will hopefully provide pleasure to wear.

Put together the “Fleurs d’Amour” will remind you of Andy Warhol’s iconic Flower Series designed in 1965.The reference to Andy Warhol emphasizes how pop art ideas are very much part of our everyday world today.

A Route to Space for Liverpool and UK business?

2nd July 2014
"A Route to Space for Liverpool and UK business?"

As part of the International Festival of Business, the British Interplanetary Society returned to its birthplace of Liverpool for a day of discussion of doing “business in space” – Mark from Reddbridge Media attended out of curiosity, and found some real messages for the businesses, makers and experimenters of today and tomorrow.

Read his report here on the DoES blog.

Read More

DoES Christmas Opening Times 2013

17th December 2013
"DoES Christmas Opening Times 2013"
It’s that time of year where opening times for places get a bit squiffy, so to clear up the next few days and weeks:
Currently, DoES opens for Hot Desking at 9:30am till ~6pm.
The DoES Christmas Drinks will be on Friday the 20th, from 4pm till 8pm (Or the last person goes home) – All are welcome.
On Monday 23rd, we’ll be open as normal, and Maker Day will be 6:30pm till 9pm as normal.
After that, for Hot Desking we close until Monday January 6th at 9:30am.
For Residents with access cards set up, you’ll be able to get in whenever the building is open:
  • Monday 23rd: Normal
  • Tuesday 24th: 10am – 4pm
  • Christmas Day: Closed
  • Boxing Day: Closed
  • Friday 27th: 10am – 4pm
  • Saturday 28th: Normal
  • Monday 30th: 10am – 4pm
  • Tuesday 31st: 10am – 4pm
  • New Years Day: Closed
Thursday 2nd Onwards: Building back to normal
Monday 6th: All Back To Normal For Hot Deskers and Events
If you’re unsure about your access, or need to find out how to fill the coffee pot if you’re first in, then grab one of the Organisers in the next week and we’ll sort you out.

My Experience of DoES Liverpool

12th July 2013
"My Experience of DoES Liverpool"

Over the past two weeks I have been doing work experience at DoES Liverpool. I choose to do it at DoES for the simple reason that I wanted to experience an abnormal working area. I quickly learnt that the working area wasn’t the normal 9-5 office. Sitting on the wardrobe opposite my recently assigned desk was a blue toy called Bubblino (http://bubblino.com/). After sitting wondering what it did for a few minutes an outburst of bubbles erupted from its mouth. Adrian later explained that he had made this appliance so it blew bubbles every time DoES Liverpool was mentioned on Twitter, leaving me with a taste of what was to come.

The first couple of days I was used as a guinea pig to try out their latest instructions on how to build an “arduino weather dial”(https://doesliverpool.com/groups/internet-of-things-making-for-kids-from-does-liverpool/). This was enjoyable and gave me a different angle on the services DoES offered. Their main service being hot-desking, giving people a desk for just £8.00 a day, as well as selling packs to school with instructions on how to build simple but clever electronic based products.

Next I had a go in their workshop. Being about as in practical as they get I found myself feeling like a ticking bomb ready to blow up and break any equipment near me. To my astonishment I didn’t break the expensive 3D printer or the even more expensive laser cutter(probably because it was already out of order). I got the hang of the cutter quickly thanks to the help of Patrick and completed that day by writing a set of instructions on how to use it for the DoES wiki page.

The rest of my time in DoES I was left to my own devices with the help and support of the highly qualified people surrounding me. I decided to split my remaining time in half. Half I spent learning HTML, CSS and “a bit” of Ruby (however, after just learning loops in Ruby I felt like my head was about to explode if I learnt any more). The other half of my time I spent marketing DoES. Which went from putting products onto Ebay to standing in the middle of Starbucks handing out leaflets.

I have learnt a lot in my last two weeks and feel that I have learnt a lot about adult life. I’ve met some remarkably intelligent people and also learnt that I am never going to work for anyone. I cant thank DoES enough and wish them every success.

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