Geek Venues (2/4)

The second guest post from Brannen in a series about geeky hangouts around DC.

Welcome back, geeks and friends. Tonight’s thoughts brought to you by Lady Caffeina, She of the Bright Eyes and Trembling Hands. "It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion, It is by the beans of Java the thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion" But, enough about my chemical addictions, let’s talk about a deeper and more insidious need of mine.

Crafter Spots

I tend to keep my hands and brain busy during evenings and weekends in making things. Its just something I do and the need to do it has gotten worse as I’ve gotten older. Culinary experimentation, fermentation, carving, building - its all there. Lugh help me, I’m actually looking through poly resin information in the other window and having visions of an extremely sticky-then-hard disaster in my future. There’s something about this time of year though; the chill in the air, the early sunsets, the endless, sanity destroying loops of carols in public spaces, that just makes me hands itch with memories of yesterday. Memories of handmade Christmas gifts (not out of some sort of ethical or aesthetic choice, but because us kids didn’t get an allowance or budget for gifts. We either had to make them or endure the shame of failed social obligations.) rise like swamp gas out of the muck of the mind.

Not all such memories are bad though, and obviously they haven’t kept me from indulging that drive to make and that ever expanding curiosity about how things work. And I know I’m not alone in that. The geek culture seems to have a large population of crafty and/or DIY folk in it. Sometimes the crafting is a way to further their hobby. Sometimes the making is the hobby. Either way, I call it a good thing (and look for further thoughts on this in the future). But for now, let’s stick with the original theme: getting out and indulging yourself.

HacDC is one of hundreds of Hacker Space or Maker Space shops that have sprung up around the globe over the past decade, spaces devoted to amateur engineers and their networks. Head over to their site and you’ll get a taste of what’s going on in the space. Gatherings for microcontroller and electronics enthusiasts are coming up soon, as is the ongoing software developers’ get together. They hold free classes and workshops, maintain space for the technical and social needs of those who want to tear apart and rebuild technology and generally do very cool work with the tech available to most folks. Their Spaceblimp project had me mesmerized. So as a way to get out for an evening, a working date in those early, what-do-we-talk-about stages or something to do with friends, its a great venue. Just keep checking their website, mailing list and other channels of communication.

See? You could be doing this on your weekends. (via blackrazorus)

If your needs are a little more... muscle intensive, then get yourself over to the gatherings of the Blacksmith’s Guild of the Potomac. Mostly meeting at the forge at Gulf Branch Nature Center in Arlington, they’re easy to get to and a friendly bunch of folks.

Now, just a couple of warnings about smithing: it takes time to pick up even basic skill, its hot, it takes time to pick up basic skills, you need keep aware, it takes time to pick up basic skills. But there is a pay off for patience and perseverance: you get to make things out of metal, with metal, in your own hands. Machine pieces can be a lot of fun and produce some beautiful work. Casting is just neat (and something I’m trying to figure out a way to do a lot more of), but there’s something about handling steel gone orange in the flames, about shaping it with heavy wallops and delicate strikes, of learning to coax and seduce the metal into what you want. And from a fantasy geek standpoint: who wouldn’t want to make their own mace?

Trust me: Wear closed-toe shoes. No, I don't want to talk about it.
(via Derek Key)

Unless you’ve found a truly special someone, this probably isn’t a date kind of activity. Though, hey, if you have, team forging can be awesome. I would recommend this spot as a great way to get to know your friends, though. There’s something about dripping sweat and the concern of metal searing skin while you work that tends to focus the mind and bring out honest words. Or maybe that’s just my experience.

Coming up next from Brannen at DC-Geeks... we retreat a bit from the making to the use of tools in a couple of spots that might appeal to the science geek in us all.