BRIX - Barrie Region Innovation Xchange

06/23/2024

The Downtown Barrie Public Library is making progress on their plan to relocate the Creative Spaces area over to the other side of the library. The new space is not set up yet, but pretty much everything has made it over there.

06/19/2024

There was a student that showed up to BPL last week on Wednesday night that was hoping to 3D print some pieces for a school project that was a board game. Currently, the 3D printers at BPL are not available, and as is often true on Wednesday nights, there was someone who is part of the BRIX community there, and this person was one of our group that owns a 3D printer :) And, the student needed their parts for Monday.

They had designed board game pieces and card holders for their project in TinkerCAD. It's a great tool for beginner 3D modelling and for fairly simple models. The game pieces came out OK, but the card holders weren't quite hefty enough to hold up a card, so the part was beefed up a bit by giving it legs. As is usual with people that own 3D printers, there were a bunch of colours to choose from, so they were printed in different colours to make it easier to tell which was which. Sadly, the student wanted 6 of each, but only 4 sets were printed before the 3D printer started to resist, but the parts were delivered and the student was pleased, and was telling everyone about how someone helped them make their game parts!

06/16/2024

A few of us went to visit the Innisfil Idealab & Library yesterday! They have a great makerspace, and it has been operating for over 10 years!

It's great for us to connect to other groups, spaces, and organizations that see the value in making, maker communities, and makerspaces. They have had great success with the large number of people who have made use of their space over the years, and they have many success stories to show it.

You do have to have an Innisfli library card to use the makerspace there, but out-of-town users can register for cards for a reasonable fee.

If you have been to the Innisfil Idealab & Library to user their makerspace, and have positive feedback or a success story to share, we'd love to hear it!

Send a message to learn more

05/16/2024

The meetup at Innisfil Idealab & Library has been postponed - we have been given the opportunity to arrange a dedicated session and a tour!

Send a message to learn more

05/12/2024

We met again at BPL Downtown on Saturday. We worked on some of our own projects, and there were a few projects on the go for Mother's Day. Afterwards, we were discussing how we end up helping people, and how people are surprised that we do it because it's fun for us. As it was said during the conversation, it can be a gift to someone to let them help you. :) Often people will come by, and if we get the sense that they might not be sure about what they want to do, or with the tech they are using, we will usually come right out and ask them if there is anything we can help them with. We are not shy about asking if people need help making stuff :)
One of the most rewarding opportunities we get (and we had one such opportunity on Saturday) is when there is someone who knows what they want to make, and they know that there are tools and materials available to create it, but they aren't sure the best way to do it. These opportunities are so great because we have all been there, trying to see if this way or that way of doing something will turn out well, and often experiencing the frustration of disappointing results. When we can help someone skip all the trial-and-error part of learning how to make a certain thing, we feel like we have been able to replace that potential frustration and disappointment with discovery, understanding, and joy.
So yeah. We like to help people make stuff. :)

A note for next week, Saturday May 18th. We are planning at meeting at the Innisfil Idealab & Library at the normal 12 or 1 pm time. A couple of us have been there before, and we would like to go as a group and experience their space and see what projects it inspires. There are some different and interesting tools there - you should check them out and see if there is anything that sparks your interest as well!

Hopefully we remember to take lots of pictures so we can tell you all about it!

04/28/2024

The Repair Cafe was a success! We had 7 or 8 volunteers there doing the fixing, as well as Meg Whitton and a bunch of the BPL staff organizing and directing traffic. It was quite a production.

This was the most well-attended Repair Cafe that I have seen, both from the number of people volunteering and also from the number of people bringing items in for repair.

There were radios, fans, lamps, irons, toasters, various sewing items, and others. I think there were a total of 36 items bought in.

The next Repair Cafe is scheduled for November, and we will be there.

Barrie Today did a news article:

'I think the vast majority of people, if they thought it was an option, they would get things fixed,' says fixer Brian McGillis

04/21/2024

Here are the mugs! These were done with an interesting process. Typically, the two ways to do sublimation are: to print an image from the computer, or to draw a picture with sublimation markers.
As Nicole West requested, she was hoping to have some way of 'coloring in' the design. So, what Josh did was to make a underwater scene of outlined objects, printed that on the sublimation printer, and then they colored in the image like a coloring book! It gives the pictures the best of both worlds - nice clean lines to give the design some sharpness and definition, but the colored in sections make it look more hand-made and personal.

04/21/2024

On Saturday we had 5 of "the regulars" of the BRIX community make it out to BPL downtown to get together, work on our projects, and help out where we could. We would have had 6 except for some car trouble.
There was someone hoping to make some mugs, and after nearly overwhelming them with suggestions, questions, and options, Josh took the reins and helped them custom-make some designs and helped them make mugs with the sublimation printer.
Pics may be incoming :)

Next week is the Repair Cafe! Josh and Brian will be there (and maybe others) to help people repair their various items and keep them out of the landfill. We will probably stick around after for a normal meetup.

04/20/2024

BRIX hasn't had many people at BPL downtown for a couple of weeks... Various life priorities, you know how it is.
But today, we are heading back, and there will be a bunch of us! We will be working on various projects of our own, but we will be around to help with whatever you want to learn about or make!
See you there!