Folk Lab Hallunda is a creator space where everyone can come in from the street and create things with 3d printers and laser cutters. I joined the team in February and the first season is now coming to an end. We will do a summer break and come back end of August. Here is a little summary of what happened at Folk Lab these last couple of months.
Innovate or die
Over the last three years, Folk Lab has built up a crowd of regular returning creators — local kids who drop in after school to hang around with friends and to print and cut things. When I come by mid afternoon, the room is buzzing from busy kids and printers.
Funding comes through grants — mainly public money — and are by no means guaranteed. Often decisions about renewed funding come at the very last minute. This makes it hard to plan ahead but also means we are constantly forced to innovate.
Tough audience
My task was to build up activities around board games. Playing games, designing games, and constructing games in a weekly board game night. The target audience was 13-21 year olds; this came with the mandate from our sponsor. It turned out to be a hard audience to grow on short notice. Despite touring schools and posting on every local bill board, not many in that age group found their way to Folk Lab. But some did.
This meant that I had time to work on projects teaching myself how to use the laser cutters. We now have a portfolio of projects that people can pick up and do. We also now have a selection of board games that people can play. And we can use this library of custom built games for events in the autumn.
Crafting games
I explored ideas for several games and three saw it through to completion:
- Xiangqi (Chinese Chess). The general cannot leave his camp and the cannons shoot over other pieces.
- Mijnlieff. A novel take on tic-tac-toe from 2010.
- Hex. A classic path laying game on a hex grid. Every move is both defensive and offensive.
Links will take you to the project pages where you can download files and see instructions.
Taking these from idea to finished products has been a fun challenge. It’s easy to overlook how much skill there is in crafting something, skill and knowhow that come through trial and error and learning from others. How to get a good contrast on the engraving without leaving burn marks? How to cut through exactly this 6 mm plywood that I found in the hardware store? How to engrave game pieces on both sides? You get a feel for what is easy to do and what is difficult to do. The trick is then to avoid doing anything too difficult unless it is really necessary.
I found working in wood on the laser cutters to be so much fun that I didn’t get around to do any 3d printing this first season.
Designing games
We also worked on new games. Draw Stranger, Nine Kingdoms, Petroglyph and several ideas that did not get past brain storm stage — were all tested at Folk Lab.
Most prominently we held the Stockholm qualifier for the SAGA board game design competition in April. We filled the cafe with cardboard and meeples one Saturday as 21 games competed for the finals at LinCon. While most games didn’t qualify — including mine — all got played by devoted board gamers. Every designer got feedback and inspiration to take home to refine their game or to work on their next game. My direct take away was inspiration for Petroglyph which then basically designed itself overnight.
See you next season!
It’s been great fun to join Folk Lab and meet the devoted people working there and the enthusiastic kids who come up with all sorts of ideas that they then get to take home to show family and friends. Thank you for a good first season, Olle, Mats, Sara, Fredrik, and Erik!
Board game nights continue in the autumn. We all have lots of ideas for other events and activities that will happen if we get the funding for it. Wish us luck!
Xiangqi or Chinese Chess.