Hi, my name is Barb. I’m an educator, maker, and general geek.
Education: I facilitate STEAM learning through making and tinkering for people of all ages, though I specialize in elementary school. I am Director of Programs at reDiscover Center and Tinkering School LA, where I design and lead week-long tinkering camps, workshops, and after-school classes. My tinkering school groups have created superhero hideouts, rube goldberg machines, and a full-size musical playground structure.
I create written and video tutorials (see my Instructables page and YouTube channel Barb Makes Things) for a wide variety of unique projects and tools, including conductive poetry, upcycled creatures, and wearables.
Making/Tinkering: I am a many-flavored maker, and have spent my life exploring a wide variety of media, from 3d modeling to woodworking to electronics; it’s always exciting to expand my making palette. At the 2014 Bay Area Maker Faire, I presented my Hexachord, a mechanical, motorized musical instrument, which won an Editor’s Choice award.
At the 2015 Bay Area Maker Faire, I returned with the original Hexachord and brought my new version, a smaller, single-chambered Hexachord powered by an Arduino and servos, which was again awarded an Editor’s Choice ribbon. Both Hexachords were part of the Kinetic Show LA exhibit at Arena 1 in Santa Monica, CA in fall 2015.
Visual Arts: Having a multimedia artist as a mother does a lot for experiencing all manner of art styles from a young age. I’ve focused largely on varieties of paper, each with their own characteristics and challenges. The fact that there is no single way to bend, cut, or tear makes it a very flexible medium. Within the realm of origami, I’m fond of modular pieces (especially kusudama) and tessellations. Once an art blade found its way into my hand, I just couldn’t let go and papercutting has been a significant part of my work ever since. The morphing and breeding of shapes from the world around us infuences my work heavily. You’ll find basic silhouettes, mandalas, and multilayer 3d papercuts among my works.
Post-Production Sound: I’ve served as sound editor on many films and tv shows, specializing in dialogue. I work frequently with the folks at King SoundWorks. You can see a list of my credits on IMDB. I also have experience recording and mastering effects, synthesizing and processing sound, and working with improv’d, documentary-style productions. I have a great interest in audio for
web applications and auditory interfaces for computer operating systems. You can hear a few recordings on the Audible/Visual page. Anyone searching for an editor or fx recordist is encouraged to visit the contact page and fire off an email.