Kitchener makerspace hosts first-ever holiday market
If you’re still in the hunt for the perfect gift this holiday season, your best bet might be to make it yourself.
In Kitchener, a group of artisans is doing just that.
Kwatzlab, a makerspace in Kitchener’s Rockway area, hosted its first-ever holiday market Sunday.
“We’ve poured a lot of passion and creativity into everything that’s available here today,” says member Elysha Schuhbauer.
“I don’t think you’ll find any of this stuff at a department store.”
Kwatzlab operates as a non-profit collective, open 24-hours a day for its 120 members.
It offers fully equipped facilities for wood and metal working, fabric arts and laser cutting.
“We’re well set up for woodworking projects, metalworking projects. If you need to do it, we’d be able to do it here,” says Kwartzlab board member David Krock.
It’s a place for creators in Waterloo region to turn ideas into reality.
“You get passionate about a hobby, you want to buy all the tools. You collect the things that you end up using for a couple of months and then it sits. Here you have access to a ton of different tools,” Schuhbauer says.
The space is open to the public each Tuesday.
“[You can] drop in and use a lot of our tools. Anything that doesn’t require training,” Schuhbauer says.
Meanwhile, members get full access and fees go back to the group to continue growing a creative community.
“It’s just a passionate group of makers,” Schuhbauer says.
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