*This post is part of Free for All’s “Making Magic” series, which will focus on Kelley’s exploration of the opportunities in the library’s Creativity Lab.

Recently, I’ve been listening to the audiobook of Neil Gaiman’s The View from the Cheap Seats. In the essay I heard on my drive home yesterday, he said, “Try to tell the stories that you cannot help but tell, the stories you would be telling yourself if you had no audience to listen. The ones that reveal a little too much about you to the world.” Pretty awesome advice, right? As readers we know that the best stories are the honest ones, the ones that reveal the deeper truths. As writers and artists, we know that creating the work that touches on those deeper truths can be terrifying.

When a friend published her first work of fiction, the first thing I told her after congratulations was that I admired her for being so brave. Every work we create reveals a piece of ourselves, and the courage it takes to share those pieces is, in my opinion, the most essential core strength of the best writers and artists. The fact is, sometimes it’s when we step completely out of our comfort zones that we create our best work. Which brings me to this week’s Creativity Lab adventure.In the Creativity Lab, there is a fire extinguisher next to the laser cutter. It is there for a reason, a good reason, and you can probably guess what it is. The laser is a very narrow beam of controlled fire. When we built the lab, one of the biggest design hurdles was the installation of the duct work we needed to put in place to vent the machine. The result is an unassuming looking metal box that says “Full Spectrum Laser” attached to a wall of broad piping that looks more like it belongs in a factory than a library. My first thought was, “It’s nice that we have this machine available for people to use.” My second thought was, “I am never going anywhere near it.”

Fast forward to now, two years later, when I decided to write this series for Free for All. Exploring the tools in the Creativity Lab means exploring ALL of the tools in the Creativity Lab. Always being one to jump off the diving board to get the shock of cold over with right away, of course I chose to start with the tool that scared me the most.

The laser cutter is a tool that requires training in it’s use, so the first thing I did was sign up for a class to learn the basics of operating the machine. The instructor gave us a demonstration of how the machine works, both for etching and cutting, along with essential operating and safety instructions. With the limited time leftover, we were given the opportunity to find a photo or draw a simple design ourselves, so that we could each laser cut a project of our own before the class ended. My design was thrown together quickly in Adobe Illustrator, a simple and unimpressive flower, but I really wanted to get in there and try the machine for myself. What surprised me was that, even though I was completely underwhelmed by my simple design, it felt pretty incredible to see that flower get carved out of wood by the laser beam. Actually, I was so excited that I made a video of the process:

Since that class, I am obsessed. I started a Pinterest board of more laser cutting projects than I will ever have time to make, and have spent more than one lunch break laser cutting during Open Lab. I’ve cut earrings and necklaces, etched trees on wood and cork coasters, and even etched on a piece of driftwood that my dad found at Crane Beach. If you went to the library’s Starry Starry Night event, you might have seen the earrings I made for sale there. In my search for new projects, I found that the things people laser cut also include Christmas tree ornaments, wall art, placemats, and journal covers. You can even use the etching feature to decorate jeans!

This little machine is capable of a lot more than most people realize, and if you have a creative eye and a little bit of experience with Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape, it provides a fantastic opportunity to explore new ways to use your original art. Remember, before the class, I not only hadn’t used the laser cutter before, I also found it intimidating. In the end, I learned that the laser cutter is easier to learn and safer to use than I ever expected. Most importantly, by stepping out of my comfort zone, I was introduced to endless new possibilities that have re-energized my enthusiasm for making good art.

Would you like to learn more about the laser cutter and how to use it? Check out the Creativity Lab’s Events Calendar for a list of upcoming classes. Intro to Laser Cutting, offered multiple times each year, is a required class for those who want to use the laser cutter during Open Lab time and, if you’d like to try your hand at a specific project, I’ll be teaching a class on how to laser cut bamboo bookmarks this winter. Hope to see you there!

*This post is the first in Free for All’s “Making Magic” series, which will focus on Kelley’s exploration of the opportunities in the library’s Creativity Lab.

There are certain words that always stop my breath for a moment, not so that I’m gasping for air, but just enough to make me pause to recognize the hint of excitement, expansiveness and longing they instill. Two such words are imagination and creativity. I italicize them here because in my mind those two words are always said with emphasis and reverence, relished like a chocolate that you hold in your mouth as long as possible to savor every last bit of the flavor that makes your taste buds shimmer with life. With imagination and creativity anything is possible. At the risk of sounding entirely corny and cliche, if you can dream it up, it can happen. Well, maybe not really happen- I assume the odds of my sprouting fairy wings and an ability to fly are slim at best- but the idea is there and it is real. Creativity is what you will do with that idea. How will you make it real beyond your own mind? In imagination lies ideas, and in creativity lies possibility, another word that stops my breath for a moment.

I’ve recently been compelled by a need to create. Sometimes the creation comes in the form of words that build essays like this one, and sometimes it becomes something visual and, more importantly for the purpose of this blog post, tangible. For those of us who need to create, there is nothing more satisfying than the moment when we get to see the result of our hard work. Whether it be through writing, painting, graphic design, wood carving, or any number of other ways in which our imaginations come to life, when self expression is achieved through artistic mediums, the thing that makes the sigh of relief upon a project’s completion so powerful is that the soul is the one doing the sighing.

The human need for art, to create it as well as to appreciate it, echoes back for centuries. At it’s best, art helps us understand the world, each other, and ourselves. I won’t even explore the flip side of art at it’s worst because art is subjective. Even if you think a piece is bad, chances are it made you think and more importantly it made you come alive in some way, and that is art’s greatest achievement: it makes us feel.

For those looking for opportunities to bring their imaginings to life, the library’s Creativity Lab is a place where wonder, another one of those breath-stopping words, begins. Tucked away in the Main Library’s lower level, the Creativity Lab is a makerspace filled with tools like 3D printers, a laser cutter, a vinyl cutter, sewing machines and countless other things that you can use to create. Many people know we have these tools at the library, but they don’t know what they can do with them. Not to worry though, this Free for All blogger is here to help.

This is the first post in Free for All’s Making Magic series, which will explore the opportunities available in the library’s Creativity Lab. The focus will not be on the technical details of the machines and tools available there, but rather on the types of things you can create with those machines and tools.  Although I do have some graphic design experience, upon starting this series I had never used any of the machines in the lab before. I was a complete beginner, just like you might be if you decide to try them out, and that means that if I was able to learn so can you. Hopefully, the upcoming Making Magic posts will help you understand why I’m so excited about the Creativity Lab. It is a place to explore the endless possibilities that await the moment you choose to put your imagination into action.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a Free for All post if I didn’t leave you with some suggested reading for inspiration! Read on, and remember, you’re never too old to exercise your imagination.

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
Published in 2002 and an international bestseller, The Artist’s Way has inspired countless readers with Cameron’s enlightening descriptions of the creative process. A great option for those looking to get in touch with their creative side.

The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
Renowned choreographer Twyla Tharp encourages making creativity an everyday habit, and her book provides a number of exercises to help readers overcome creative ruts. The New York Times called it “an exuberant, philosophically ambitious self-help book for the creatively challenged.” Whether you want to become a more creative person, or just spark your natural creative juices, this is the book for you.

The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman
Described by Junot Diaz as “a glorious love-letter to reading, to writing, to dreaming,” this selection of Gaiman’s non-fiction pieces is guaranteed to inspire. Take my advice and go for the audiobook on this one. Gaiman reads the book himself, and he is a true storyteller.

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
Kleon is a believer in the idea that nothing is truly original, and that art builds on art that came before it. Based on this knowledge, he encourages artists to look to other artists’ work to find inspiration for work of their own. Formatted around 10 tips the author wishes he knew when starting out, The Atlantic describes the book as an “articulate and compelling case for combinatorial creativity and the role of remix in the idea economy.”

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Whether you’re a writer already or an aspiring one, Lamott’s Bird by Bird is a classic guide for getting started and finding your voice. From getting the initial words on paper right up to publication (or rejection as the case may be), Lamott has helpful suggestions that will help you get there one step at a time, or “bird by bird.”

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
Yes, this is a picture book for children, but no one does imagination better than kids, and this classic story of Harold’s entirely self-invented adventure is worth reading for people of all ages. The simple illustrations perfectly underscore the power of imagination to take us anywhere.