PAMELA MARTELLO

FabLab manager

What is a FabLab?

A FabLab is a Digital Fabrication laboratory open to the public and their mission is to support and encourage the makers and open source culture. A normal fully equipped FabLab has the basic tooling that includes: Laser cutting machine, 3D printers, power tools, hand tools, CNC milling machines, and electronics working bench. Every FabLab runs differently but normally regular activities are organized so that the community learns how to use this equipment and then be able to come and use them on their own.

Working in a FabLab

While working as a jewelry designer in 2017 I got involved helping as a volunteer in a non-profit FabLab XINFAB where I had the chance to experiment and learn more about digital fabrication as I wanted to integrate this world into my jeweler formation.

I volunteered at XinFab for a year helping organizing workshops, maintaining the space and helping to run the lab. After that in 2018, I was hired as a Space Manager to run the space.

Some of my main tasks while working here were:

  • Management of the space
  • Writing content for their social media channels (WECHAT, MEETUP, and website)
  • Website maintenance
  • Graphic Design for social media content
  • 3D and 2D modeling design service
  • 3D printing and laser cutting design service
  • Community management
  • Machinery maintenance and operation
  • Organizing and hosting workshops about 3DPrinting, laser cutting and 2D/3D software
  • Organizing and hosting meetups to connect and collaborate with the community

To know more about us you can check out XINFAB website to see what we were doing together with our makers’ community.

Below are some of the events I helped with organizing and hosting.

Talks

At XinFab we were constantly looking for people interested in sharing their knowledge, experiences and work related to digital fabrication, design and the makers’ movement. Talks meant to inspire and open a panel of discussion with the community, with the hope of generating a positive impact. Here are a couple of talks we organized pairing up with special guests.

Pioneers of Open Source Furniture speakers: Anne Filson and Gary Rohrbacher (AtFAB)

We teamed up with OpenDesk/Openmake, to organize a talk about open source design and digital fabrication with designers Anne Filson and Gary Rohrbacher from AtFab. The talk searched to explore how the combination of digital fabrication and open-source democratizes design by creating a reality where consumers can buy directly from makers.

Design Thinking (click the image to go this Meetup site)

Design Thinking speakers: Coco Yu & Alex Smith

We organized a roundtable discussion with design thinkers Coco Yu and Alex Smith about Design Thinking and what impact, if any, it can have on our lives. A conversation open to creatives, designers, business people, students, and curious individuals interested in learning more.

Design Thinking (click the image to go this Meetup site)

MEETUPS

The idea of XinFab MEETUPS is to gather people who are interested in a common topic who want to discuss it and maybe come up with a project. It is not a workshop or a lecture, it is a time to meet and to collaborate with our community and make some meaningful impact in our daily lives even if it is a small one like learning how to fix your vacuum cleaner.

Repair café

Inspired by Repair café and several other repair center initiatives we tried hosting recurring REPAIR CAFÉ DAYS at XinFab where everyone can learn from each other how to give a second chance to their belongings. Repairing, hacking or up-cycling, mending is better than ending.

Repair Cafe (click the image to go this Meetup site)

Cat Lovers

Meetup about finding ways to make a shelter or playground for cats using materials leftovers or recyclable waste combined with the usage of digital fabrication tools.

Cat Lovers Meetup (click the image to go this Meetup site)

Special women's day

At XinFab we like celebrating things differently, for the International Women's Day we did an open invitation to all the ladies in Shanghai to come to Xinfab and learn how to use power tools, hand tools, and machines - typically associated with “man's work”.

We have absolutely nothing against men, but we do believe in equality! So we wanted to break stereotypes and show everyone, especially to yourselves, that you can perfectly fix stuff around your home without anyone's help - not your boyfriend, not your dad, all by yourself!

Women's day (click the image to go this Meetup site)

Stitch it up!

Like Repair café Meetup, everyone deserves a second chance and so do your clothes! In a world where things just get easily thrown away or abandoned in favor of an ever-increasing number of new stuff, why not fix, recycle, give our clothes a new life? The idea of this Meetup was to discuss waste and think of ways we can waste less. Each participant had to bring along clothes, pillowcases, bags or any other item we could reuse. Attendants got the chance to learn how to use XinFab sewing machines to fix something they had abandoned because it's got a little hole.

Stitch Meetup (click the image to go this Meetup site)

Open Nights

Open Nights a regular activity we hosted at XinFab every two weeks or so where we opened the doors of the lab to the general public to check out XinFab's Lab space, find out what Xinfab is about, and learn how to become a member and what you can do with all the equipment available.

Stitch Meetup (click the image to go this Meetup site)

WORKSHOPS

In order to sustain the Lab and to teach the members how to use the equipment as XinFab is a DIY space, we organized regular workshops for beginners to advanced levels, covering topics related to 3D modeling, 3D printing, 2D modeling, laser cutting, and electronics.

Laser cut jewelry

We organized a series of workshops for beginners focused on Jewelry making using Laser cutting. During these workshops we covered: introduction to vectorial software, jewelry design, how to use and set up the laser cutting machine and how to cut out your own files.

Laser cutting & jewelry making (click the image to go this Meetup site)

Laser cutting intro training

An introductory course designed to teach students the basics of what is laser cutting, how to cut and engrave, save your files and set up the machine. After this training, students can come and use on their own XinFab's equipment, and help other members of the community by passing on what they learned.

Laser cutting intro (click the image to go this Meetup site)

3D Printing intro training

An introductory course where we teach some basic commands of an Open Source 3D modeling software to create a 3D object. Followed by an introduction to Slicer software CURA to learn how to prepare the files for 3D printing. After this students learn to set up an FDM printer and print their models.

3D printing intro (click the image to go this Meetup site)

Blind contour & engraving

A workshop that explores the blind contour drawing technique applied to laser engraving! Students are paired in couples and each draws the blind contour of its partner, afterward, they learn how to transform this sketch into a digital vector using a vectorial software. After this, they learn how laser cutting and engraving works to create a cool pin with their drawings.

Blind contour and laser cutting (click the image to go this Meetup site)