We’re two years into Make San Antonio, and we’re full of ideas and optimism for the future. This past year, we focused on community projects. From working with local makers (such as Crafthouse SA, spare parts, Design Improvised and Morena’s Corner) to building partnerships with the San Antonio Public Library and the Briscoe Western Art Museum, we feel like we’re creating the building blocks needed to create a full-functioning, community-driven makerspace. That’s right, we’re still confident that we can do this. While we work within the community, we’re jotting down ideas from artists and makers of what they want to see in a makerspace. Let us know what you’d want, e-mail us at makesanantonio@gmail.com.
In the meantime, check out what we’ve done this past year. In our next blog, we’ll chat about our goals for 2017.
February
We partnered with spare parts for Make My Valentine, a maker-inspired craft session (special shout out to our friends at CrafthouseSA for the opportunity). About a dozen crafters gathered at Freetail Taproom, and worked on three craft/maker projects.
March-April
We worked with select San Antonio Public Libraries for the workshop, Kick Start Your Fiesta with DIY Fiesta Medals. We held a #DIYFiestaMedals tour, which had us at seven libraries throughout San Antonio hosting Fiesta medal workshops. We made DIY-inspired Fiesta medal kits using laser cut, etched and 3D-printed materials. We estimated that we made some 183 Fiesta medal kits throughout our tour. Also, the San Antonio Express-News and San Antonio Current picked up on the fun times and wrote about our workshop. We wrote a blog for SA2020 detailing our experience, and how we’re moving the needle to create a community well versed in arts & culture as well as exposing the San Antonio community to a “do it yourself” approach.
We also made our inaugural Fiesta medal, which was available on our Etsy account. We still have a few more left. If you’re interested, grab them soon! We’ll be posting our 2017 Fiesta medal in the next few months. 
We were honored to have been chosen to create the 2016 Contemporary Art Month (CAM) CAMMIE Award. We support CAM’s mission to “promote and raise the national profile of San Antonio contemporary art …”
Mission Branch Library invited us to celebrate their 5th birthday, and participate in their festivities. We made small wood planters with laser cut wood.
June
One of our favorite times of year — Etsy Craft Party time! In 2016, we worked alongside CrafthouseSA, Design Improvised and Morena’s Corner for Camp WannaMakeIt. We went back to camp, and made personalized wood burned cork coasters, modern tie-dye tote bags, custom mini wood signs, a giant Jenga set, a cornhole board set and we also made some sweet laser cut craft badges.
July
We participated in Briscoe Western Art Museum’s Briscoe Blast. Briscoe Blast is a free community event that invites visitors to: Create. Explore. Play. Eat. We unveiled our PigBot, cubetto, based on the opensource project — a maker inspired/cowboy-themed activity.
September-October
We made our second appearance at the second Wilson County Mini Maker Faire. The Wilson County Mini Maker Faire invited makers of all different kinds. We brought out our PigBot, cubetto.
Once again we teamed up with the San Antonio Public Library for Hispanic Heritage Month themed activities. One project included decorating a laser etched wood block of Henry B. Gonzalez. This year marked the anniversary of his centennial year.
November-December
We took a brief break to work on our home office, start drafting ideas for our Etsy shop (be on the look out in 2017 for new items each month!) and work on other top secret plans and goals for next year. We’ll share a bit more in our 2017 goals blog.