There’s a wackiness about Hammerspace both is what’s being made and who’s making it, including Dave Dalton and his bomb
White House invited Dave and 200 of his peers to the Office of Science and Technology Policy to discuss federal policy regarding
get a degree from a university and your employer expects you to already know everything about the thing you do.” Dave established Hammerspace to bridge this knowledge and skill-sharing gap — he has experienced firsthand the importance and impact of real-world learning and practice. At 17, Dave became a blacksmith apprentice after his future master smith complimented a piece of jewelry he made in his high school shop class. But his passion to create started much earlier in life as he watched his aeronautical engineer grandfather build a steam engine for a Ford Pinto. “I got the idea from a young age that when you want something, you just make it,” Dave said, and he is not alone in his ideology. Technological ad- vancements have revived this belief and sparked the maker movement. High-quality desktop 3-D printers, computer- controlled routers, and other costly equipment and software that were once only attainable by large corporations have dropped significantly in price. Now, small organizations like Hammer- space can afford cutting-edge tools — and share themwith all types of creative individuals. “The future of innovation relies on communal spaces like this, where you get a lot of unexpected overlap between disciplines that create these unique, new combinations no one would set out to create, but through just serendipity the right components are all in the same place,” Dave said. The bigwigs in Washington agree: The
makerspaces and how the government can help the maker movement — which has grown organically from the ground up — become more like the public library system, which has been supported from the top down. “They really get what we’re trying to do here,” Dave said, “and they’ve done some re- search that shows that the benefits of maker- spaces are transformative.” As for his makerspace, Dave’s vision is to maintain sustainability. Similar spaces have had a mixed track record of survival —mostly because they’re volunteer based and not well-funded or well-understood by local governments and com- munities. He hopes to change misconceptions and show people there are no boundaries to when or how they can get the artistic bug. “[Because] without creativity, we’re just a bunch of boring drones.” For more information on Hammerspace, go to www.hammerspacehobby.com or call 913- 686-6562. ^ Melissa Cowan was certain, at age 5, she was going to be a Rockette in New York City. But, as fate would have it, she reached 5’1” and stopped growing. Instead, she pursued writing at the
University of Missouri–Kansas City and gradu- ated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Jour- nalism and Mass Communications in 2010. Now, she’s a full-time freelance advertising copywriter, writing websites, building brands, and keeping her cat, Carl, fat and happy in Midtown. Website: melcowkc.com. Email: melissa@melcowkc.com.
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