Maker Spotlight

Maker Spotlight: Thimble

This post is part of a series in partnership with New York's Next Top Makers, a community-sourced incubator dedicated to connecting innovation with local production. We’re catching up with this ...

Maker Spotlight: Project Entrepreneur

Beth Janson, Founding Director of Rent the Runway Foundation, a newly-launched initiative from fashion tech company Rent the Runway (RTR) chatted with us about their mission to increase the percentage of women founding companies. One of ...

Maker Spotlight: Erin MacKeen

This week we chat with Erin MacKeen who recently left her full-time gig in Communications and Community Development to pursue her creative path. Erin tells us about the transition, how her process ...

Maker Spotlight: Staaker

This post is part of a series in partnership with Oslo Innovation Week, which takes place October 12-16th in Oslo. The Oslo Innovation Week 2015 program includes over 60 events on Startup, ...

Maker Spotlight: Teenage Engineering

This post is part of a series in partnership with Oslo Innovation Week, which takes place October 12-16th in Oslo. The Oslo Innovation Week 2015 program includes over 60 events on Startup, ...

Maker Spotlight: Bethany Koby

This post is part of a series in partnership with MakerCon, which takes place September 24th in New York. MakerCon connects the individuals at the forefront of the maker movement and taps into ...

Maker Spotlight: Danit Peleg

This post is part of a series in partnership with MakerCon, which takes place September 24th in New York. MakerCon connects the individuals at the forefront of the maker movement and taps into ...

Maker Spotlight: Dale Dougherty

This post is part of a series in partnership with MakerCon, which takes place September 24th in New York. MakerCon connects the individuals at the forefront of the maker movement and taps into ...

Maker Spotlight: Peter Ha

Hi Peter! Can you tell us a bit about your background and what you do? Hi! I’m a communication designer that graduated from the Graphic Design program at OCAD University. ...

Maker Spotlight: 3D Hubs

This post is part of a series in partnership with MakerCon, which takes place May 12-13 in San Francisco. MakerCon connects the individuals at the forefront of the maker movement and taps into ...

Maker Spotlight: Stale & Co

We stumbled upon metalsmithing duo – Daryl and Stella – behind jewelry company Stale & Co, and picked their brains about the craft and how handmade goods are growing in ...

Maker Spotlight: Hannah Bass

Our first London Maker Spotlight is Hannah Bass, a contemporary tapestry artist whose urban needlepoints recently caught our attention and we immediately fell in love. Her tapestry kits embody many of the ...

Maker Spotlight: Paige Greene

This week, we took a trip to the flagship store of Toronto’s favourite unisex clothing brand, Muttonhead. We caught up with Paige Greene, one of three of the Muttonhead’s creative ...

Maker Spotlight: Asia Clarke

Asia Clarke is a Toronto jewelry designer and maker. As long-time admirers of her work, we were excited to chat with her about her creative practice. We caught up with ...

Maker Spotlight: Lorena Agolli

This week we caught up with Lorena Agolli, the owner and head cobbler of Sole Survivor shoe repair. Since starting the business in 2013 Lorena has been transforming the shop into a go-to ...

Maker Spotlight: Izzie Colpitts-Campbell

We stopped by OCADU’s Social Body Lab for a tour and a chance to chat with Research Assistant Izzie Colpitts-Campbell about her involvement and their upcoming projects. Hi Izzie! Can you tell ...

Maker Spotlight: Leilanni Todd

This week we sat down with Leilanni Todd in her Spadina studio to learn more about her varied talents and upcoming projects. You may recognize her name from our recent Toronto Makers ...

Maker Spotlight: Greg Van Alstyne

This week we caught up with Greg Van Alstyne the Co-founder & Director of Research, at OCAD’s sLab. Greg is also the Co-founder, of DesignJam, and Associate Professor, SFI Graduate Program at OCAD University. ...

Maker Spotlight: NorBlack NorWhite

Nothing beats the winter chill than the wonderfully bright colours and patterns of the Toronto raised, Mumbai based NorBlack NorWhite. After visiting Mumbai late last year we caught up with ...

Maker Spotlight: Mickey Alice Kwapis

Chicago-based Mickey Alice Kwapis, has turned her unexpected passion for sustainable taxidermy into a niche business through her wildly popular and educational taxidermy classes. She has taught classes for the ...

Maker Spotlight: In-Context

This January we are embracing winter with the Toronto Design Offsite Festival (TO DO), an annual city-wide platform for the exhibition and engagement of independent design in Toronto, showcasing unexpected ...

Maker Spotlight: Erin McCutcheon

This month the Toronto Design Offsite Festival (TO DO) is taking over the city from January 19-25th. TO DO is an annual city-wide platform for the exhibition and engagement of ...

Maker Spotlight: Michelle Lefade

Michelle Lefade’s curvaceous caricatures are a lot of things, but they are definitely not shy. Much like their creator, they have many expressions – sultry, coy, bored, ecstatic, aroused, flexing, ...

Maker Spotlight: Santa Isla

We first came across Jess Sanchez’s creations at the A Home Run pop-up last year. We were instantly drawn to a certain mystique about Jess and her jewelry, something inherently ...

Maker Spotlight: Nomiku

After 4 years of making, hacking, and right turns, it’s clear that Nomiku’s trendy-nerdy co-founders – Lisa Fetterman (CEO), CTO and astrophysicist, Abe Fetterman and Wipop Bam Suppipat, industrial designer ...

Maker Spotlight: Treaty

Collaboration is at the heart of the creative process for Toronto’s Treaty Design. Since their official launch in January of this year they have received many accolades and been afforded ...

Maker Spotlight: Robin Clason

A perpetual traveler, Floral Islands Glassworks designer Robin Clason and her creations are a breath of fresh ocean air in the often-curmudgeonly Toronto weather. Reflecting and refracting, her designs have ...

Maker Spotlight: Hot Pop Factory

We stopped by Hot Pop Factory’s studio this week and had the chance to chat with founders Bi-Ying Miao and Matthew Compeau about their space and some of the services they ...

Maker Spotlight: Corrine Anestopoulos

One of our favourite things to do at The Makers Nation is to get out of the office and meet makers and creative entrepreneurs around the world, especially in our home city ...

Maker Roadtrip: Detroit

Being the maker aficionados we are here at The Makers Nation, we can never turn down the chance to explore a city full of amazing makerspaces. When the opportunity presented ...

Maker Spotlight: The Leather Atelier

Seven years ago, Noelle Hindi bumped into Alex Cirka on the street while walking her dog. Neither of them knew at the time that the slightly awkward meeting – which ...

Maker Spotlight: Elija Montgomery

Part bow tie enthusiast, part dinosaur obsessed, Elija Montgomery is an imaginative and dedicated maker to the core. He recently received some much deserved attention from George Stroumboulopoulos over his ...

Maker Spotlight: Brady Bothwell

Brady Bothwell is a self-described ‘maker, hacker and information sponge’ who lives to create and invent. He’s also an interactive experience designer with Toronto-based mixMotion and a Google Helpouts expert ...

Maker Profile: Amanda McCusker

We sat down with Amanda McCusker of Ladies Learning Code to talk about her path to becoming a maker, her current role empowering youth in Toronto, and her plans for ...

Site Bee Popup Shop

We had the chance to sit down with Erin Rodgers one of the makers behind Site 3’s Site Bee Popup Shop, a Queen West storefront dedicated to showcasing and selling ...

Maker Spotlight: WISP

We caught up with the three minds behind the WISP aerial light writing project to find out more about their nighttime drone flying expeditions in parks across Toronto and the ...

Maker Spotlight: Libs Elliott

We were first introduced to Libs Elliott’s work at the latest PechaKucha Toronto event. Instantly blown away by her work, which uses generative code to create incredible quilt patterns, and ...

Maker Spotlight: Ian Devenney

Tell us a bit about your background, and how you came to design. Originally I had planned to be an outdoor educator, and all through my undergraduate degree in geography ...

Maker Spotlight: The Shop

After last week’s successful launch of the co-working/maker hub MakeWorks we had a chance to catch up with one of their tenants – Marissa Maislin and Michelle Organ of The Shop, Toronto’s ...

Maker Spotlight: Social Body Lab

The Social Body Lab is Toronto’s hub for wearable technology innovation and exploration. The lab, part of OCAD, takes the human body as a starting point from which to consider ...

Maker Spotlight: Hot Pop Factory

We stopped by the new Hot Pop Factory offices a few weeks ago and got a firsthand look at what they are working on out of their new Spadina digs. ...

Toronto Reference Library: Digital Innovation Hub

This Tuesday the Toronto Reference Library is set to open their new Digital Innovation Hub. Reference Library visitors will now have access to: Mac computers, video camera and green screen, ...

Maker Spotlight: Happy Blogger Studio

We had the great pleasure of chatting with Melissa DiRenzo of The Sweet Escape a couple of weeks ago about her new initiative The Happy Blogger Studio, a workshop series ...

Maker Spotlight: Jeremy Bailey

We are very excited to have Famous New Media Artist Jeremy Bailey speak at this week’s Creative Cocktail. Jeremy’s recent projects include performances for Rhizome’s Seven on Seven, Transmediale, the ...

Maker Spotlight: InterAccess

InterAccess, Ontario’s only gallery and production facility devoted exclusively to electronic media art, is celebrating 30 years of operation this year. InterAccess has been a pillar of the arts and ...

Maker Spotlight: MakerKids

In the heart of Roncesvalles lies a place where robots come to life, ideas are printed and prototyped in 3D, and the act of playing/tinkering is not only allowed, but ...

Maker Spotlight: MAKELAB

There’s no question that there is a burgeoning maker movement sweeping Toronto right now; but as more makerspaces and events pop up, how do we ensure the community of people ...

Maker Spotlight: CSI Starrett-Lehigh

The Makers Nation was in New York City last week checking out the maker scene and naturally couldn’t resist stopping in to take a peek at the Centre for Social ...

PechaKucha Toronto: DesignThinkers Edition

Last week we attended the PechaKucha Toronto event at the new MakeWorks Coworking space on College at Dufferin. Serving as the DesignThinkers pre-party, seven presenters shared their creative projects, passions, ...

Maker Spotlight: HackLab Toronto

Tucked away behind an inconspicuous door, beside Graffiti’s Bar and Grill, in the heart of Kensington Market is a community space of hackers, designers, artists, and programmers. We got a ...

Supporting Local Makers with Brika

Brika, the Toronto-based curated online marketplace celebrating modern craft and storytelling, has partnered with the Hudson’s Bay Company to create a pop-up shop within the Bay’s flagship store on Queen ...

Maker Spotlight: The Toronto Tool Library

Have some DIY projects around the house you’ve been meaning to get to? Not sure where to begin with building that bookshelf you just pinned to your ‘For the Home’ ...