I worked for four years at Fablab Enschede, started it from scratch in 2011 at Saxion Enschede together with Karin van Beurden (chair of LED Saxion and who took the initiative to start Fablab Enschede at Saxion) and soon also with Ruben Timmers who became project leader. We build a team around Fablab of paid personnel (IT support), several trainees, students and volunteers. My work and interests shifted more towards the design and technical coordination when more people became available.
Here i designed many things, lectured about 3D printing, 2D designing, Fablab in general. I learned how to use the lasercutter, worked a lot with it and discovered 3D printing. I explored it, especially the opportunities of the machines and discovered many shapes, ways of working, methods for designing for laser and 3D printing.
These experiments were in the domain of
- nanotechnology (Lab on a chip),
- textile (printing of fabrics, flexible prints, electronics on textiles),
- building technology (concrete printing)
- industrial design
I organised and gave several workshops, presentations and introductions and I mentored students in the following:
- 3D printing
- lasercutting and designing for laser
- impact of digitialisation on production methods and -industry
- demo's of the technologies available in Fablab Enschede
- presentation at nano conference about lab on a chip
And also many daily things like documenting the experiments, organising things, website content, advising clients about the technology and answering their questions about it, keeping in touch with Fablab NL and the fabtables, other makers and hackers, festivals and meetups......a long list of tasks
All in all lot of creative work, formfinding, inventing. But also with much organisational demands and supervising that demanded increasingly more time and energy and left little time for these experiments. After four years i decided to concentrate full time on designing, being my best skill, and less on supervising and organising and Saxion and left Fablab Saxion
