July 2025 Newsletter

New Member Orientation

  (Online) 7/08/2025 6:30 - 8:00 pm

Purcellville Workday: 08/02/2025 9am - 12pm

(There's something for everyone -get those volunteer hours in!)

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Announcements

Letter from Makersmiths President

Diane Bollinger 

I first wanted to thank Nedim Ogleman for his efforts over the last year as President. I am excited to be able to volunteer in this new capacity and see how I can help improve and move the organization forward.

We have some amazing things happening this Summer including some great classes and workshops, some newer teachers and more folks working towards becoming teachers. At the Monthly Member meeting we discussed a variety of topics including the progress on the Printmaking Studio and Fume Room in Leesburg, The Purcellville Art Gallery (see article from Diane Painter), and a new endeavor to have a Sumo Robots competition combining many of our departments. We have made some progress with the Grants committee and have gotten a few specific grants so far, and while our efforts with the Amazon Grant did not pan out, it gave us some groundwork towards applying to future grants. I encourage anyone who knows about grants to send the idea to our Grants Committee chair, Jim Waldron, so we can take a look at them.

We will have some carts in the Fourth of July Parade in Purcellville which is fantastic and I want to thank all those who have put in their time and effort to make that happen.

There has been some discussion on the Ceramics studio as it has gotten to be more popular and with the growth, are some growing pains. I look forward to hearing what that crew decides for the best action going forward, but I do hope the discussion leads to more folks cleaning up after themselves each time they visit and use both ceramics and all areas of the facility. The spaces should all be left as clean or better every time you visit. We all share this space and while our stewards and volunteers will put in extra time, I would much rather see them put that time into their own projects or into improvements on the space.

Our new Bambu 3D printers are getting close to having classes available, please watch for updates as we get those finalized. There will be multiple classes at a variety of times so we can clear many folks on them quickly. We are also working towards some Resin Printer classes coming soon.

Our next Monthly Member Meeting will be both online and in person on August 8th at 7:30pm. I am planning to have some Ice Cream for a build your own Sundae to help us cool off. I hope to see you there!

Thanks to everyone for all the work they do for our wonderful community,

Diane Bollinger

Makersmith President

Board of Directors Meeting: Secretary Report

Jim Waldron

This was the annual meeting of the Board of Directors. New Directors assume their seats at the end of the annual meeting, but in this case all previously elected Directors were re-elected and retained their seats.

• Evin Grano was nominated and elected as our new Chairman of the Board replacing Jonathan White who has served almost as long as anyone can remember. Thank you Jonathan for your outstanding service!

• Jim Waldron was appointed our new Secretary of the Board (the Secretary needs to be one of our Directors).

• Mary Waldron was re-appointed as Treasurer

• Christa Stern was re-appointed as Bookkeeper.

• Diane Bollinger was elected as our new President. We thank Nedim Ogleman for his outstanding service over the past year! There were no motions to consider. Congratulations to all!

Discussion items at the meeting included:

• Review of advice from our non-profit tax attorney.

• Direction to the Treasurer to find a suitable interest-bearing instrument for our capital reserve fund.

• Preparing requests to some of our Stewards to advance some of the high priority new equipment purchases they identified in their annual budget.

• Subscribing to an alternate Grant source website.

• The continuing effort to Trademark our logo and name.

Makersmiths Members’ Artwork on Display at Purcellville Town Hall

Diane Painter and Amie Ware

The Purcellville Arts Council (PAC) is hosting eleven Makersmiths members artwork at the art gallery at the Purcellville Town Hall this summer. Twenty-seven works of art will be on display from July 1 – August 29, 2025, Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. except holidays. The PAC is hosting a meet-the-artists reception on Friday, August 1 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. This reception is free and Makersmiths members, their family, friends and members of the public are invited to attend. During the reception, light refreshments will be served.

Please come to hear from Makersmiths members Sean Adams, Dana Eddy, Russell Kelz, Ren Feliz-Durishin, Melinda Gretsinger, Dawn Martin, Kayl Martin, David Painter, Diane Painter, Jonathon Sheard, and James Waldron. You will be amazed at the wide range of media that they used: stained glass, metal, wood, felt, fabric, canvas, ceramics, cardstock and even computer parts!

Here are a few sneak peeks!

News from Electronics

Dilip Patel and Robert Johnson

Dilip Patel reports that an Enviro+ sensor system is setup in the electronics lab if anyone wants to see a demo or experiment with it. Let him know if you are interested in exploring it. John Jones will be setting up a MakerSmith GitHub account so we will have a MakerSmith community repo.  Dilip has a Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano working and he installed Llama 3.2 (largest version that Orin can handle for now). He will be glad to demo it at the next Electronics Night. He can also demonstrate another set of environment sensor suite from Airgradients (https://www.airgradient.com). He has this one working at home.

Robert Johnson is interested in teaching a class on soldering. Please message Robert on Slack if you are interested in learning this skill.

Makersmiths Tag Sale

John Carter

Save the Date! Saturday, October 11th, 2025. 12pm - 6pm. Makersmiths will be holding a Tag Sale at our Purcellville location. It has long been discussed that we would benefit from a market where Members could sell, trade, and promote their wares. Or even just to clear some old tools from their garages. Well, why not make it a party while we’re at it? Live music, good food, maybe a few games.

While our overall intent is to have a good time and get our Makersmiths community commingling, this is also a good opportunity to invite the public and show off what we can do.

The more hands we have, the better the day will be!

Join the #tagsale2025 channel on Slack to contribute and keep up on the latest updates.

Education Initiatives

Family-Friendly Summer Workshops

Diane Painter

Each year we get requests from students in local high schools for mentors 

to complete STEM-related projects. Some projects are entered into a 

science fair, others in LCPS’s Maker Fair. Most often these students need 

mentors to help them create something with 3D printing or electronically 

such as incorporating an Arduino. So with that in mind, Makersmiths has 

planned two family-friendly workshops for the summer that may appeal to 

youth and adults. Take a look at what we have planned:

Exploring TinkerCad: A Family-Friendly Workshop

Participants aged 10 and above in this 4-session workshop will explore 

Tinkercad, a user-friendly, free web app used by teachers, kids, hobbyists, 

and designers to create models compatible with 3D printing and laser 

cutting. The workshops will be held in the Green Room at Makersmiths-

Purcellville. 07/21/2025, 1:00 PM – 07/24/2025, 3:00 PM.

Register: https://makersmiths.org/event-6207512

Basic Electronics for Kids

In this family-friendly workshop, participants will learn about basic electronic components, tools, and circuits. Then we'll practice soldering by constructing a simple electronics device that participants can take with them. The instructors will provide all materials, including a kit of electronics parts for experimentation and kit for building a working electronics device, both to be taken home.

Parents registering for this workshop may bring up to two youths (ages 10-14). This workshop will take place in the electronics lab at Makersmiths Leesburg. 08/02/2025, 9:00 AM – 08/03/2025, 12:00 PM.

Register: https://makersmiths.org/event-6232452 

Stories

Summer Makings

Diane Painter

The Leesburg bowl turning class was a great success with bowls created by three class participants Glenda, Katherine and Joshua. They used three different wood pieces: Picana, Canary and Walnut!

Dilip Patel and Greg Haines built tables. Dilip made a puzzle coffee table for his daughter. Greg Haines made a small end table with a mosaic top designed by Terry Haines.

Ken Fuentecilla and Jennifer Chu took a basket weaving workshop in Waterford. They made laundry baskets! No excuse for not doing the laundry now!

Tom McHugh made three magnetic cap ballpoint pens, two with fancy blanks filled in with 2-part epoxy mixed with colored powders.

What will you be making in July?

Purcellville Fourth of July Parade, Then to Now

Diane Painter

Since 2019, Makersmiths Purcellville has entered the 4th of July parade that 

the Town of Purcellville sponsors. Member families adopt a handcart and 

decorate it many different ways. At first when we began participating in the 

Purcellville parade, we decorated 50-gallon drums cut out so a person could

be seated in it.

Then we transitioned to using a wooden board attached to the handcart and

building our floats on top of the wooden base. This is one of the 

Makersmiths carts from 2022.

This year Lane Waldren, Isaac Bowser, Tom Hill, Dave and Diane Painter, 

KidWind participant, Natalie Johnson, created the Makersmiths float using 

four handcarts. The theme of the parade was Let Freedom Ring. The 

handcarts represented things we can make at Makersmiths (Tom’s CNC 

sign and Lane’s CosPlay costumes) and we also had a cart that represented 

the parade’s theme, Let Freedom Ring. KidWind team members Max and 

Nick Burrus and Syndney Clough and Truett De Luise and their coach, 

Diane Painter, walked along with the float carrying a KidWind banner.

It is always so much fun to see what Makersmiths members can do to a float

to make it festive. Please let Diane.Painter@makersmiths.org if you would 

like to adopt a float for next year’s  2026 4th of July parade.

Red Tool Classes are an important step in your Maker journey!

MS-L

Wood Lathe Red Tool

07/23/2025 11:00am - 2:00pm

MS-P

Media Blast Cabinet Powder Coating and Paint Booth Red Tool

07/08/2025 7:00pm - 8:30pm

Media Blast Cabinet Powder Coating and Paint Booth Red Tool

07/08/2025 7:00pm - 8:30pm

Woodworking Advanced Red Tool

07/13/2025 1:00pm - 3:30pm

Woodworking Advanced Red Tool

07/13/2025 1:00pm - 3:30pm

07/22/2025 7:00pm - 8:30pm

Makersmiths runs on volunteers!

Consider teaching a class or holding a workshop! check out the #class_planning_and_requests channel on Slack and join a meeting to get some help with your idea!

Tool Authorization Groups

Dean Williamson

Makersmiths has lots of cool and useful tools, machines, and equipment.  Many of them require training or authorization before you can use the equipment.  The training can be as simple as an orientation, to a more formal “red tool” class, to demonstrating proficiency to the tool steward. Such mandatory training helps ensure that all users understand how to use the equipment properly and safely, thus helping to keep the equipment running smoothly and minimize maintenance downtime as well as ensuring the safety of our members.

Below is a link to the list of tools which require training and authorization from a Steward. Please contact the steward for more information about each tool. This list is not exhaustive of the tools available at Makersmiths and is updated regularly as we get new equipment or as needed:

By clicking above, you can view the most current list posted on the Makersmiths wiki. Consider checking it out, you might discover a new tool that you didn’t realize Makersmiths had.

Makersmith Board Officers

Board Name/Officer | Position | Term

Brad Hess | Board Member | 2022 - 2025

Bo Wernick | Board Member| 2024 - 2027

Scott Silvers | Board Member | 2023 - 2026

Evin Grano | Board Member/Chairperson | 2023 - 2026

Jennifer Chu | Board Member | 2024 - 2027

Diane Bollinger | President | 2025 - 2026

Mary Waldron | Treasurer | 2025 - 2026

Jim Waldron | Board Member/Secretary | 2025 - 2026

Did You Know...

You can find the newsletters from the last several years archived on our website?

Makersmiths also has a Blog, Instagram, and YouTube!

The Newsletter could always use some new blood - share your projects, pitch some article ideas, tell us about something cool you've seen in your Maker travels!

Makersmiths Leesburg: 106 Royal St SW, Leesburg, VA 20175

Makersmiths Purcellville: 785 S. 20th St, Purcellville, VA 20132