And man, what an amazing year it’s been.

Last summer and fall, we were going along pretty well, hosting workshops and Ubuntu parties and artist talks, a Ludum Dare and the Central Art Walk. And, of course, our second annual Hacky Hallowe’en event. Tuesday Open Nights were hopping and membership was growing. And the weather started to get colder, and we were wondering when the landlord was going to turn the heat on.

Then we heard that the landlord wasn’t sure if he could turn the heat on.

We toured maybe a dozen light industrial spaces in Kitchener-Waterloo in order to find a home. It was a connection we’d made through some of our friends in the community that landed us our new space at 33 Kent Ave. in Kitchener.

A lot of people put a lot of work into getting us there, but I need to especially thank and congratulate Ben Brown for making the move happen. Honestly, Ben is the heart and soul of Kwartzlab and we wouldn’t be nearly what we are without him.

Building out the new space was a solid six weeks of effort to make everything ready and (mostly) operational in time for our Grand Re-opening. A whole bunch of our amazing, talented members chipped in and got us up and running again. And we threw a hell of a party to celebrate.

Once the dust had (literally) settled, we found our routine again. Membership hasn’t stopped growing. We’re now at 45 members at last count and can easily cover our increased monthly expenses at our new home. Tuesday Open Nights are busier than ever. We hosted our first book launch in February, as well as Computer Science classes, crafting workshops, a Python coding dojo, the jam-packed LAN party and gaming marathon that is Headshots from the Heart and now a regular Sunday night Craft Jam.

And then, just this last weekend, we pulled off an utterly amazing Maker Faire Waterloo. Credit for that has to go to Jaymis Goertz and his organizing crew. It was Jaymis’ idea and his persistence that made it happen. He brought together a fantastic team of volunteers and made a musing in a tweet less than a year ago into a reality. A great day for everyone involved. I’m still blown away by how awesome it was.

Kwartzlab wouldn’t be anything at all without its brilliant, skilled and dedicated members. It’s to all of you I raise a glass and congratulate you on a fantastic year. Thank you all, for everything you do. And here’s to year 5.

The Knowledge Integration eXhibit is running this week at the University of Waterloo. One of the exhibits, Satellite in the Shed, discusses the history and significance of the DIY movement and what it means for the resilience of our society.

The exhibit includes and interview by our own Robert “Gus” Gissing and photos of the works of Bernie Rohde.

It also includes other cool projects, like a a homemade exercise bike, a video game controller and a haptic rangefinder glove.

The exhibit only runs one more day, Wednesday, March 12, noon to 6pm.

Rebecca does a reading

And talks to readers

Cake!

And because Niki builds cool electronic gadgets in QUICKSILVER, we hosted a Learn to Solder workshop!

At tonight’s Tuesday Open Night, to go along with RJ Anderson’s QUICKSILVER book launch, we’re hosting a mini Learn to Solder workshop!

We’ve acquired a dozen LED Blinkie kits from Hacklab.to for you to try your hand at making a blinky light thing! As supplies are limited, they’ll be available first come, first served.

Blinkie! 3D Printed monster not included.

You can learn to solder just like Niki!

11:00am Bottle Launcher Demonstrations

Jaymis Goertz will demonstrate his pop bottle launcher, a fun project you can build at home!

12:00pm Laser cutter Demonstration

Mark Pitcher will show you how he put together a simple project on our laser cutter, to give you an idea of the sorts of things we can make with this versatile tool.

1:30pm Agnes Niewiadomski’s Artist Talk

Agnes talks about her work currently exhibited at Kwartzlab.

1:45pm Artist in Residence, Michael Hornyak

Michael will give a short talk about Hyper-interactive Reality, his work and what we can expect during his residency.

2:00pm Isabella Stefanescu

Isabella Stefanescu is a local artist and a founder of the Globe Studios. Her recent work has included The Euphonopen, which is a drawing instrument that produces music as it draws. Her next project is The Lineage Machine: a device to record the movements of an artist’s hand while drawing, and a robotic arm that plays those movements back. Isabella received a grant for The Lineage Machine from the KW Awesome Foundation. We’re thrilled to have her give a talk during our opening.

3:00pm Laser Cutter Demonstration 2

Mark will be giving another demonstration of the laser.

5:00pm Open House Ends

7:00pm PARTY BEGINS!

Also…

Throughout the day

All throughout the day, from 11:00am-5:00pm, we’ll have tours and refreshments. Agnes will be demonstrating string word art, James Bastow will be running his 3D printer, robotics expert Karl Williams will be showing off his robot gripper arm, and you’re welcome to bring in your awesome projects to impress us and anyone who happens to come in.

It’ll be a fantastic day! I hope you can join us!

Local author RJ Anderson will be at Kwartzlab during a very special Tuesday Open Night, February 26th at 7pm to celebrate the launch of her new book, Quicksilver.

Quicksilver features several pivotal scenes in a makerspace very much like Kwartzlab. Rebecca visited our old Boehmer Box location last year to do some research and get a tour. In the book, she describes it as “fantastically squalid,” which I find incredibly charming. So while she’s somewhat disappointed she can’t give her readers a tour of our former space which she was able to describe so evocatively, I’m thrilled that we can have her give a reading at our new, significantly less squalid location.

Also, as noted, there will be cake!

To RSVP, please either sign up for the Facebook event or email the address in the e-vite above. (You won’t be turned away if you don’t RSVP, but it will help us determine how much cake we need. Thanks!)

In just a couple weeks, we’ll be hosting our grand opening in our new space! After almost 2 months of build-out, moving and set-up, we’ll be up and fully operational again. And we’d like you to celebrate with us.

Open House: 11am till 5pm

During the day, we’ll be holding an open house, with tours, equipment demos and some small projects for you to make and build!

Schedule.

Party: 7pm till late

In the evening, we’ll be partying like only Kwartzlab can. Whether you’re enjoying our kick-ass sound system in our fantastic new front space or chilling and socializing in our comfy new lounge upstairs, it’ll be a great time. We’ll have some hors d’ouevres and a cash bar and maybe even cookies baked in our new kitchen!

Best of all, we’ll have live music, featuring local bands Post Normal opening for Binary Forest. Here are a couple amazing tracks from Binary Forest:

Come join us at 33 Kent Ave. in Kitchener on February 16th for an awesome day of partying and making to celebrate the new Kwartzlab!

We’re working hard so we can get the buildout done and move in to Kent Ave. by the end of the month.

This is more or less what we’re building towards. It’s changed a little bit since printing, but the general layout is going to stay the same.

We have wireless working now. Wired networking is going in next week.

Framing…

Flooring…

Electrical…

Painting…

Mark is experimenting with his sprayer, working on painting the ceiling. Black painted rafters worked rather well at the old place, so we’re trying the same thing here. But we may need to touch up the walls when we’re done…

Bob always has the right tool for the job…

View Larger Map

For more locations details, see our newly updated location page

It’s very much a work in progress—don’t think we have Internet yet—but you’ll get a sneak preview of what Kwartzlab will be in 2013.

Hacky New Year!