Somerville Patch asked if I wanted to blog about the Artisan’s Asylum, so here I will try to give it a go.

As a child I was always told, “you are soooo creative”…. I attended SUNY Purchase, the art school of the SUNY’s but I wasn’t a VA (visual art) major, I did Art History instead.  I got a MA from Mass Art in Art Education, but did I teach? Noooooo, I did admin.  So after I was laid off again, and passed a major birthday milestone, I came upon the Artisan’s Asylum webpage. (www.artisansasylum.com) What I found there was just what I needed. A huge Maker’s Space that had taken over the Ames Envelope Factory on the Somerville/ Cambridge line.

Here’s the quick pitch:

Artisan’s Asylum is a community fabrication and maker space dedicated to making creativity a way of life. It does this by maintaining a community workshop, training its members in the use of all of its professional-grade equipment, and hosting events promoting the learning and practicing of craft and creative expression.  Artisan’s Asylum    10 Tyler Street     Somerville, MA     02141   (617) 863-7634     info@artisansasylum.com  www.artisansasylum.org

The thing is, you can take classes in so many things. You can learn: Jewelry/Metal Smithing, Woodworking, Screen Printing, Sewing & Fiber Arts, Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing, Electronics, Glass/Lampworking, Metalworking, Mold-Making & Casting, PVC Tube Bending, Circuit Bending, Plasma: Build Your Own Tesla Coil! Jewelry  Photoetching, Metalworking, Solidworks: computer-aided design tool, Digital Illustration,  Hot Glass… and that’s just what was offered in November.

Basically, there is a wood shop, metal machine shop, welding shop, bike designers, 3D printers, computer programed routers, electronics, jewlery and glass workshops – all available for you to learn how to use and then create to your heart’s content.

I will stop there, but I’ll be back soon, with more details, stories and epiphanies soon.