Workshop

"Boost Membership Update"

With our new Boost membership application going live last week we wanted to share a post that has kindly been written by one of our Boost members, Gabriele, who joined us in October 2022. It sounds like she’s been having a great time learning about the equipment in the space. She has also been collaborating with some of our members and sharing her knowledge with us.


A close up photo of an intricate laser etching of what looks like a hand-drawn dragon. The very narrow depth of field causes the top and bottom of the image to be blurred leaving only the centre in focus.In October I was so lucky to win the boost membership for DoES Liverpool. It has granted me access to a number of wonderful machines and more importantly to many incredible people. Everyone in the DoES community has expertise in some field and they are more than eager to share it with anyone interested. Everything in DoES is set up by the community members so anyone can ask and learn about the inner workings of laser cutters, 3D printers, CNC mills or knitting machines, and get involved in calibrating and maintaining the equipment.

I have been using the laser cutters to make beautiful engravings on wood. I like making intricate designs that resemble an ink drawing and using different settings on the laser cutter to replicate the pen stroke effect.

A screenshot of a 3D design software showing a four legged creature with a long segmented torso, almost resembling a caterpillar, with two spindly arms.I have also met a number of people involved in game development. I am now designing characters for a hobby game project, as well as building a demo training platform in VR for a security company. I have recreated the Tapestry building where DoES is currently housed to use in our demonstration.

DoES is a perfect place to find exciting opportunities and learn new skills, I would recommend it to absolutely everyone.


Thanks Gabby for the great post! We’re glad you’re having such a fulfilling time at DoES Liverpool and look forward to your continued involvement.

For everyone reading this post who thinks this sounds like somewhere you would like to spend more time, we have a weekly Maker Night on Thursday evenings from 6pm and a monthly Maker Day on the second Saturday from 10am-5pm. These are free sessions you can drop in to and have a look around the space or get started on a project. You can also come in any time and have your first day free if you bring cake or snacks to share! Finally, as mentioned above we have just opened applications for the April 2023 Boost Membership, so sign up if you’re interested in six months free access to DoES Liverpool!

"One Year of Boosting"

It’s now been a year since we launched our Boost membership scheme. Over this year we’ve invited 8 people to join our community who, for the most part, had either not heard of us before we launched this scheme or hadn’t had the opportunity to spend much time in DoES Liverpool. This is a great result as it has introduced us to some really interesting people with a diverse range of interests. It hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing as unfortunately a few of the winners have not been able to take up their membership, but this at least has helped ease us into the arrangement.

Before further ado though we also need to launch our next round of the scheme. Click here to apply for the January 2023 Boost Membership. We’ll close applications at 11:59pm on the 11th December and announce the winners on the 13th December.

Apply for Boost Membership

The DoES Liverpool Boost Membership was introduced to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our opening DoES Liverpool, the amazing coworking and shared workshop space in the Fabric District of Liverpool. Now that DoES Liverpool is 11 years old we’re ready to continue Boost membership into its second year. The Boost membership gives two people the opportunity to use the space free of charge for six months either through getting an allocated desk or by having 24-hour access to the workshop. The aim is to help people be creative using the resources we have in the space, whether that’s inventing the latest high tech Internet of Things widget, or designing amazing fine art embroidery, or simply knocking up websites on their laptop using our great high speed Wi-Fi. There are unlimited possibilities to create, the only thing we need is you and your ideas.

We’re going to make a slight change going forward to how we handle the situation when people find they’re not able to take on the membership. We know that people’s circumstances can change rapidly so we entirely understand that while someone may have applied for membership or even accepted it, with great plans for the future, life can get in the way. By the end of the first month we find that most people have an idea of whether they’re really going to be able to make use of the membership. As such we’re going to make sure that towards the end of the first month we will check-in with our new members and make sure that they do still feel they can make use of the space. This isn’t to say that you have to be in all day every day, but if the new member feels like they’re not likely to actually use the membership then we will offer the remaining time to the next person on the list.

It’s been a great year so far that even included an open-mic comedy night so we look forward to seeing what 2023 has to offer us!

"Launching our next Boost Membership Applications"

Our first pair of Boost members are only a month into their membership but it’s already time to announce that applications for the next cohort are now open!

The DoES Liverpool Boost Membership is our way of trying to grow our amazing community, and give more access to people who might otherwise struggle to afford a full time membership. As a reminder what is on offer is:

  • Either a six month Workshop membership, meaning you can come into the space and use our equipment as much as you want for six months.
  • Or a full time allocated desk in our coworking space and access to the workshop, again for six months.

We launched the DoES Liverpool Boost Membership at the end of last year to celebrate ten years of operating the best coworking maker space in Liverpool. In this time DoES Liverpool has gone from a single small room with a basic 3D printer to taking over an entire floor of The Tapestry building in the Fabric District. We now have a dedicated coworking space, far more workshop equipment including many 3D printers, laser cutters, a CNC mill and various sublimation printing technologies. We have a whole room of textile equipment along with multiple meeting rooms and one of the fastest internet connections in the city centre!

What do you get with a DoES Boost membership? All the benefits of a standard membership. A “desk” membership gives an allocated desk for a person to store their belongings and access to meeting rooms, whereas a “workshop” membership only gives access to the space and use of the workshop area with a “clean desk” policy. What they both provide is:

  • A storage box in the workshop area to store belongings
  • Access to all of the equipment in the space, with free inductions where necessary (with the usual booking and availability constraints)
  • Access to our incredibly fast internet connection
  • 24 hour access

All of this will be available for free to two lucky people for six months from April. We’re opening applications today and will close them at 11:59pm on February 28th. Click here for the form. We will then do a random draw and announce the successful applicants on the 2nd March to give them as much time as possible to prepare for their membership starting on the 1st April!

To clarify, the following is not included with membership at DoES Liverpool:

  • Materials (e.g. 3D printer filament, plywood or perspex for the laser cutters)
  • Mentoring – people in the community will of course be very interested to hear about your projects and may offer their help but we do not employ support staff or technicians.
  • Access for all your friends and extended family – we would be happy to meet your friends and understand that sometimes a project might need a helping hand but this offer is for a single individual and needs to be treated as such.

It was great to see so many new names in the applicants for our first Boost membership but we want to spread the message even further this time. If you know someone who has an idea for a project but doesn’t have the equipment to make a real go at it then let them know! If you know a community of people who would be interested in DoES Liverpool and maybe haven’t heard of us, then spread the word!

"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…

"DoES Liverpool Has Moved"

 

DoES Liverpool has now officially moved to The Tapestry building.  When we re-open following the Easter holiday, on Tuesday 3rd April 2018, our new address will be:

DoES Liverpool
1st Floor
The Tapestry
68 – 76 Kempston Street
Liverpool L3 8HL

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped so far. There’s still plenty of cleaning and arranging to be done but if you don’t mind a bit of dishevelment then you’re welcome to come along and take a look. Our internet connection is active and the coffee will be brewing so you should be able to get some work done, although there’s a decent chance someone might offer you a paintbrush or mop!

This does mean that from this point our new pricing scheme is in action, as mentioned previously that is as follows:

Description Price Member Price
Single Day
(Workshop* or Desk)
£12/day £10/day
Out of Hours Workshop £35/month £25/month
Monthly Workshop £65/month £50/month
Flexidesk £80/month £70/month
Monthly desk £180/month £165/month
Registered Address/Mailbox £99/year £79/year
Storage per cubic feet per month £3 £3

* – Gerald surcharge of £2/usage still applies

If you are interested in receiving the discounts mentioned above, or simply supporting our efforts, this page will show you how to become a member.

Any hot desk days you’ve previously bought are still valid in the new venue. If you have a permanent desk then we will work with you to determine where your new desk location will be. If you have monthly workshop membership then your storage box has been transferred and your membership continues in the new location.

If you have a registered address with us, please now update any records you have to use the following address:

Your Company
c/o DoES Liverpool
The Tapestry
68 – 76 Kempston Street
Liverpool L3 8HL

For the time being we will still be able to receive post at the Gostins Building but this will only be available for the next few months so we advise that you update your records as soon as possible.

As mentioned there’s still much to do so we don’t yet have glossy photos of our finished space, but below should give you a taster, together with the last moments in Gostins!

End. Of. An. Era. Goodbye Gostins, it’s been a fun 7 years. #weeknotes

A post shared by DoES Liverpool (@doesliverpool) on

"Announcing our new home, and DoES membership!"

It’s been over 3 months since I last posted something about DoES Liverpool’s plan to move, and what a busy time it’s been. We’ve firmed up our plans to move and we’ve also managed to get some new people signed up so that we can be a lot happier about being able to afford what is looking like an exciting expansion of the DoES Liverpool coworking space and workshop. We actually announced this in person during our birthday party and have dropped quite obvious hints and mentions on Twitter, but somehow posting it to our blog feels more official. I am very happy to be able to announce:

DoES Liverpool is moving to The Tapestry, a newly renovated classic building in what will soon be known as The Fabric District.

This move should be a great new start for DoES Liverpool as we work through our seventh year. DoES Liverpool will be always be DoES Liverpool, but with double the floor space we’ll be able to do that much more. We will have a bigger, better events space; multiple meeting rooms; quiet corners to take a call and a nice space to hang out, drink coffee* and have a chat. While still offering the best coworking and workshop facilities in the city! (* other beverages are available)

The Fabric District is across the city between London Road and Islington. The map below illustrates our old location (red) and the new (green), we’ve also highlighted Lime Street Station to show the great transport links we’ll continue to have in our new location.

Jason Abbott, one of the owners of the Tapestry, and a number of other stakeholders are really pushing to develop the area into a great place to live and make things. They’re trying to do it in such a way that doesn’t push out the great people who are already running businesses there now, hoping to embrace their work and bring more people, and customers, into the area!

They’re still working to finish the building, and once that’s finished we then need to get in and get the space ready for our own purposes. We’re expecting to have the keys at the beginning of January and will then work to get the space ready as fast as possible. We’re working on the plans for this but we’re really hopeful to get things done as fast as possible and to be in by February.

The move to a new space is such a large change for DoES Liverpool, our first move in over 6 years, so this seems like an obvious time to make some changes to our pricing structure.

One key thing we’re doing is making membership an official thing. We’re ever thankful to Francis Irving for suggesting the “Friends of DoES” scheme and now we’re bringing that in as part of our pricing model. If you setup a monthly £10 payment then you are considered a “Friend of DoES”, we truly appreciate the people that do this and we know that people like having this option to signal their support for DoES Liverpool and our mission to support a vibrant community of makers in Liverpool. See this page for how to sign up.

This restructure does mean increasing our standard prices but we’re going to take this opportunity to offer discounts on these prices to our members as well. The larger size of the new venue and the ability to offer 24/7 access means we can add a few more services to the list as you’ll see below:

 

Description Price Member Price
Single Day
(Workshop* or Desk)
£12/day £10/day
Out of Hours Workshop £35/month £25/month
Monthly Workshop £65/month £50/month
Flexidesk £80/month £70/month
Monthly desk £180/month £165/month
Registered Address/Mailbox £99/year £79/year
Storage per cubic feet per month £3 £3

* – Gerald surcharge of £2/usage still applies

There’s a few new things on that list I can tell you about. The first is the “Flexidesk” option. This is somewhere between the hot desk day and the full monthly desk option. We really want it to allow people to pop in for short periods without having to stress about paying a half day for a few hours, or rushing out before their half day turns into a full day. It’s similar to our “all you can eat, but don’t take the mickey” workshop option that lets you come and go as you please but reflects the fact that we expect Flexidesk users to be in more often. We’re not going to be stressing about how often you’re in and we don’t want you to either, we just want to see more of you!

We’re now splitting the workshop offering into two, one for people who are likely to be in during the daytime and one for people who are more likely to be in “out of hours”. We’d expect this to be like peak and off-peak and have priced it accordingly, it’ll be interesting to see what changes when we have much extended opening hours.

Finally, we’ve come up with a price to cover general storage. We’re hoping this works out and is a fair price, considering our biggest outlay is rent – i.e the physical space – we really need to be able to recoup that cost and if you’re storing stuff at DoES you’re definitely making use of the space. All of the monthly costs already include some storage but if you find you need more, you can now pay us for it!

These price changes will help to make sure we can cover the running costs but getting the space ready in the first place and getting everything moved over is going to stretch our current finances so we’re also planning to run a crowdfunding drive to help us to cover that. There’ll be more information once we have a better idea of the costs involved.

We’re keeping the old prices until we move into the Tapestry but if you want to take advantage of the Flexidesk option you can do that straight away, just get in touch at hello@doesliverpool.com! Similarly if you have any questions about the move please get in touch. There’s so much more to tell about this story and we will continue to update you but hopefully we can alleviate any concerns you might have.

Finally lets close out with the current plan for room layout and some photos from within the (unfinished) space. This layout isn’t final yet and the furniture shown is just a guide but it’s still an exciting glimpse at the future capabilities of DoES Liverpool!

"Maker Difference"

Liverpool Libraries are running a new programme of Maker activities in libraries this year. Building on the success of Make Fest and Liverpool Code Club the Maker Difference project will bring more opportunities for young people to engage in making across the city.

There will be four new mini maker spaces, with 3d printing, vinyl cutting and electronics kit available in Central, Toxteth, Speke and Norris Green libraries. This new kit will be supported by workshops and new code clubs to help introduce new makers to the tech. This funding will also support Make Fest on 24th June and a smaller Young Makefest in March 2018. There will also be commissioned projects by WeHeartTech, DomesticScience, Jen Fenner and Re-Dock.

One of the things that’s sometimes hard to capture at DoESLiverpool (despite the #weeknotes script) and the wider maker community, are the stories behind every cool thing you see at events like Liverpool Makefest that helped pave the way for MakerDifference.

Conversations in the workshop and across desks between people are where it all begins and Maker Difference comes from this place; Liverpool Library Services then making the time and space to listen to these conversations. There’s a lot of subtle advocacy at work in DoES even though we famously don’t do anything, just provide a space for people to do things. But these people often care a lot about not just what they are working on but on the wider ecosystem around their field and that means Maker Difference can benefit from the advice and support of that community without worrying they are dropping a programme on people ‘from space’ that might not feel right as can often happen.

It’s worth remembering it’s not really about 3d printers or lasers or LoRaWAN it’s how people share their knowledge and ideas; in little bursts, informally but often; and then the interesting often silly little conversations they have; or small scale tests, and prototypes that then lead to the systems and events the wider public can see. And if you share your knowledge with people surrounded by impact sensors, LED displays, Moteinos, ESP8266 boards, Arduinos, vinyl cutters, hot presses, text adventures and  microbit robots, exciting things happen.

It’s the hidden social glue and advocacy of DoES Liverpool that many makerspaces and hackspaces have but we are lucky to mix uniquely with co-working and we hope by supporting projects like Maker Difference we can pass that on so that the events, clubs, commissions all get mixed up in the way they get mixed up at DoES.

"Make:Shift:Do 2016 at DoES Liverpool"

Last Friday and Saturday saw this year’s edition of the Craft Council’s Make:Shift:Do, a programme of workshops, open days and events all across the UK.

We’ve celebrated Make:Shift:Do here at DoES Liverpool for each year it’s run and this year was no different. We put on an open day and a series of workshops.

There was a whole range of things for people to try out: you could design and make your own t-shirt; create a musical LED pumpkin; get your fact 3d-scanned; or build some LED jewellery and soft circuits.

To give a flavour of what went on we’ve collected together some of the tweets and photos from the day.

If you missed out on coming along, or are itching to get on with more making, remember you can always come along to one of our regular Maker Nights (every Thursday evening, 6:30-9pm) or Maker Days (the second Saturday each month, 10am-5pm).

"Laser Cutter Improvements"

DoES Needs You!

As you’re all probably aware, one of the best things about DoES — other than the sense of community, great prices, wealth of knowledge, networking opportunities, amount of different tools available… there are too many best things! — is our laser cutters. Sophia the Smaller Laser and Gerald the Gigantic Laser are the most popular and busy machines in the workshop, and are a valuable asset, not just for DoES, but for the whole Liverpool area.

From time to time, they do need minor repairs, and we try to carry those out as quickly as possible. However, it is finally time for them both to have the kind of overhaul that has been necessary for a while, to ensure that both cutters keep running at optimum capacity for you, for as long as possible.

To ensure this, we are going to be buying various bits of new hardware to keep Sophia and Gerald happy –

  • a chiller for each cutter so they’ll cut more powerfully and for longer, even on hot days,
  • a new, more powerful extractor fan for Gerald (that won’t need vacuuming out every 2 weeks!),
  • built in ducting, to simplify using the cutters, and improve the airflow control (less smoke in the workshop),
  • a new lens for Gerald,
  • new, fresh mirrors for both cutters,
  • a dedicated CO2 extinguisher for the cutters.

As you might imagine, this kind of upgrade won’t be cheap, and that, hopefully, is where you come in.

We’re asking for help from the DoES community to put towards the cost of these upgrades. We expect them to cost around £1400, (although £850 would cover the cost of the chillers and extractors) and want to raise as much of that as possible by 3rd July, at which point we will take whatever is collected, and get to work improving!

We understand that you all give so much to the DoES community already, and thank you for that, but hopefully you’ll be able to help us past an investment hump, and make your workshop even more epic.

How to donate

The best way is by bank transfer to:

Account Number: 65487257
Sort Code: 08-92-99
Reference: LaserPledge

Make sure to include that reference so we know you’re not paying hotdesking!

If you’d like an invoice for you accounts, just email accounts@doesliverpool.com to ask Sean for the amount you’d like to donate.

You can also give any of the organisers cash, if that’s easier for you.

Or you can donate by Paypal:




[olimometer id=1]

We have collected: [olimometer_progress id=1] out of the [olimometer_target id=1] target

"Upcycling Farnell Boxes to Make a Laser-cut Workshop Sign"

At Maker Day this month, the Future Makers were on the laser-cutter cutting these geometric shapes out of cardboard to then tessellate into cool 3-dimensional shapes.

Playing with the cardboard and laser-cutter reminded me that we could do with a sign for the workshop door (we also laser-cut some new “we’re in the workshop” signs to help direct people round too).

For our cutting materials we were just using old cardboard boxes from the recycling pile, and the first Workshop sign we cut was from a crisp box.

Take 1

Once we’d cut that we realised that it would look better (particularly on a wooden door) with a contrasting colour behind the cut-out section. At which point inspiration struck!

The Farnell boxes (given the number of people building things with electronics round here, we have one or two knocking about…) have a colourful wavy pattern design on the side!

Raw Materials

We soon had one flattened and ready to feed into the laser-cutter. Andrew pointed out that if we could provide a bit of depth between the text and the background you’d also get a neat parallax effect as you walked past the door. Well, that just needed a couple more frames cutting from the box…

A few minutes of laser-cutting and we were ready for assembly.

Laser-cutting done

Then after a bit of glueing, it was set to be installed.

Assembled sign

And now everyone knows where the workshop is!

Workshop sign close-up
Workshop Sign on the door
Workshop Sign in place
Scroll to top