A new collaboration for Make Works Scotland

On behalf of Make Works Scotland, we are partnering with Kulturzentrum LUISE in Munich to fully understand the potential for communities rooted in local craft, sustainability and grassroots networks to make a difference locally and globally.

With Helen Voce, Make Works Scotland (MWS) Co-Lead, taking the reigns we are planning an exchange between Scotland and Bavaria. First, German partners will participate in a three-day guided visit to Scotland, meeting Make Works listed manufacturers/makers and representatives of creative and cultural hubs to gain an insight into their work, plus maker communities/practitioners in the wider, existing MWS creative community. We look forward to cross-cultural conversations around zero-waste, sustainability, circular economy and more, and the role of purpose-driven enterprises and communities.

Building on this, MWS and Scottish representatives will visit Bavaria for a two-day workshop to reciprocate meetings and conversations with German partners in the LUISE cultural centre and via guided visits to the Munich Creative Quarter. This will be followed by a one-day MWS workshop to map regional creative assets, producers, makers, manufacturers, skills, hubs, etc.

We’re looking forward to regular pre-meetups with our German partners!

This activity is thanks to funding from the Cultural Bridge Programme - of which we are one of 15 partnerships between UK and German-based organisations, who have been awarded funding to develop cultural projects exploring issues facing communities across both countries.

With investment from seven major partners: Fonds Soziokultur, Goethe-Institut London, Arts Council England, Arts Council Northern Ireland, British Council, Creative Scotland and Arts Council of Wales/Wales Arts International, Cultural Bridge is the first project that sees all organisations collaborate on a single fund.

Reigniting Make Works

Image Credit: Eoin Carey for Make Works

You may or not know about our work with Make Works. It’s a global library for local manufacturing, connecting people who want to make with people who do. We aim for free and accessible fabrication for artists, designers and makers. It was launched in 2014, in Scotland, in response to frustrations, difficulties and challenges of finding fabricators to make art and design work. 

In 2018, Make Works moved its HQ to Fab City Research Lab Barcelona at the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) and is now part of the Creative Europe funded Distributed Design (DD) platform which enables the exchange of ideas and as a networking hub for the European maker movement. 

Kate Armstrong, Communication and Design Lead, Fab Lab Barcelona:

'Welcoming Paved With Gold to the Distributed Design Platform is as gratifying, as it is strategic. Our association with Kaye and Helen will be further concretized through the implementation and facilitation of Make Works as part of the Distributed Design Platform ecosystem. Together, we aim to expand the impact of Make Works from its Scottish roots, across Europe and beyond with particular attention to opportunities already being developed in Iceland and Hungary. Make Works provides benefits for makers, designers and manufacturers with a particular interest in the platform's potential to empower local communities through capacity building, sustainable economic development and meaningful creative practice.'

In October 2020, Make Works contributed to panel discussions at the FAB City Summit ‘From Emergency to Resilience’: ‘Crafting Fab Cities - an eco-systemic view of tools and methods’ and ‘Platforms - sharing tools, resources and knowledge’. This forum marked the beginning of Make Works’ ambition to start conversations with others to see how it can grow as an “open” global library for local manufacturing where anyone can recommend a manufacturer, or become a representative for their own region via adaptations and in response to local needs, agendas and ecosystems.

As well as following up on enthusiastic enquiries about Make Works at the Summit, during the fourth year of Creative Europe funded DD platform, we are exploring how DD members can embrace Make Works to complement their existing and planned activity to support and have continued conversations about sustainable cities, local manufacturing, clusters of creativity, celebrations of making heritage initiatives amongst others. These include:

Jessica Guy, IAAC, Catalonia, Frosti Gislason, Innovation Center Iceland, David Pap, Fab Lab Budapest, Hungary and Gareth Owen Lloyd + Nat Hunter, Other Today, Brighton.

Existing Make Works regions have continued to do brilliant things during this time, an example being Derby and Derbyshire who are continuing to work with students and support them with film-making and learning about the world of local manufacturing within their wider Museum of Making heritage project.

We are excited to begin conversations with Scottish makers and manufacturers for Make Works again and build on Make Works story so far. In addition to working on local and global activity, a new home for Make Works Scotland will actively be sought so get in touch with Kaye and Helen to start conversations.

And finally, we’re also working on a new interface for Make Works so things will begin to look a little bit different. 

Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.  Get in touch at: makeworks@fablabbcn.org

We can’t wait to get chatting!

We've become a member of the Distributed Design Community

As part of our work supporting the reignition of Make Works across its regions, we are really excited to announce that we’ve become a Distributed Design Partner. Distributed Design acts as an exchange and networking hub for the European Maker Movement. Distributed Design sits within Fab Lab Barcelona and IAAC, and their projects closely overlap the Fab City Network, working towards a system of Data-in Data-out urban model as opposed to the current city models of Product-In Trash-Out.

We join 18 other organisations all promoting local and sustainable making and manufacturing in their regions; from Fab City Store Paris, Danish Design Center, Open Dot Lab Milan, Ars Longa, and Other Today to name a few.

Our work will primarily be around supporting the integration of Make Works as a tool for the Distributed Design community to use in their work to map manufacturing in their local areas. We’re really lucky to be working with the inimitable Helen Voce to bring this project to life, and pick up on some of the work of brilliant creatives Fi Scott, Neil McGuire, Jamie Sterling, Roy Shearer and too many others to name.

We have huge plans for the next year including a complete update of the Make Works website, events to support its re-launch in Scotland, and we’ll also be mentoring 2 Distributed Design Awards Winners.

Watch this space…

Distributed Design is supported by Creative Europe.

Searching for an alternative funding model

Earlier this year, Make Works approached us to see how they can improve awareness of how people can support the Make Works platform. 

Make Works is a factory finding resource where you can discover incredible makers, manufacturers, material suppliers and workshops. They create beautiful videos and a platform for manufacturers to showcase their work. It opens up the often hidden ways to work these manufacturers, which is especially useful for small makers.

We went off to investigate a bunch of different options for Make Works, and discovered Patreon. A crowdfunding platform with a twist; the idea is that people who really care about your project being out there in the world become a Patron, and support it in small amounts each month. 

Fi at Make Works loved Patreon's open approach so we reached out to them to start building their campaign. We worked with Patreon and Make Works to create a campaign page that would ignite their community's passion and make it as easy as possible to support Make Works. 

Make Works have written a great article about why they are looking at these alternative funding models, and how this applies to other not for profit organisations who don't quite fit that traditional VC funding model.