Thank you for visiting this website for
Mind's Eye Manufactory
School/Gallery/Community Workshop
(The website and Manufactory are both works-in-progress. Please check back often.)
(The website and Manufactory are both works-in-progress. Please check back often.)
Mind's Eye Manufactory has been many years in the making; growing, morphing, and always expanding within the imaginations of Marc and Leah Daniels. Marc, a life-long woodworker and tinkerer, became infected with the idea while teaching high school woodshop in a small village in the Central Bering Sea region of Alaska. After dismissing his regular students each day, Marc would usually stay in the shop working on one project or another. On one of these afternoons a small band of rough, wind-burned fifth-grade boys showed up and started poking around the shop, asking questions. Rather than kick the little buggars back out into the cold, Marc asked them what they wanted to make. "Swords!" they shouted, and it wasn't long before the rowdy boys were busily absorbed with sawing, pegging, sanding, and polishing. The very next day after school there were something like fifteen more curious and eager kids waiting at the woodshop door, and it was clear that something amazing had begun to happen. Those kids were discovering for the first time the primal joy of "making". At the same time, their teacher was realizing the profound richness of sharing that joy with others.
From that point forward, Marc and Leah began laying out a plan to create a unique place where over-the-top imagination, inventiveness, and mechanical exploration would be able to thrive; an extra-ordinary place where anyone could have access to the finest of tools, an inspiring atmosphere, and expert guidance. What began as the spark of an idea over a decade ago has grown into a passion for Marc and Leah, and is now set to take shape in the quiet town of Ferndale, on northern California's "Lost Coast".
From that point forward, Marc and Leah began laying out a plan to create a unique place where over-the-top imagination, inventiveness, and mechanical exploration would be able to thrive; an extra-ordinary place where anyone could have access to the finest of tools, an inspiring atmosphere, and expert guidance. What began as the spark of an idea over a decade ago has grown into a passion for Marc and Leah, and is now set to take shape in the quiet town of Ferndale, on northern California's "Lost Coast".
What we aim to do...
Mind's Eye Manufactory is to be part multi-material workshop and part science laboratory; a melding of old-time boatshop and cutting-edge proto-typing shop. The Manufactory will be a fun and fantastic school where imaginations can flourish, as well as a community workspace where anyone can have access to all of the tools and guidance needed to manifest his or her most creative ideas. At Mind's Eye we advocate for the actual as opposed to the virtual; for taking what's in one's imagination and making it with one's hands. We strive to make The Manufactory a place -- and indeed a culture -- that inspires a sense of wonder and delight with the physical and material world.
Mind's Eye Manufactory is to be part multi-material workshop and part science laboratory; a melding of old-time boatshop and cutting-edge proto-typing shop. The Manufactory will be a fun and fantastic school where imaginations can flourish, as well as a community workspace where anyone can have access to all of the tools and guidance needed to manifest his or her most creative ideas. At Mind's Eye we advocate for the actual as opposed to the virtual; for taking what's in one's imagination and making it with one's hands. We strive to make The Manufactory a place -- and indeed a culture -- that inspires a sense of wonder and delight with the physical and material world.
How?
The Manufactory shop is fully equipped for working in a variety of materials, and the instructors are experts at their craft. Student-participants will have many opportunities to unleash their minds and expand their skills through fascinating projects in wood, metals, textiles, stone, molten glass, plastics, and other materials. Multiple activities may be underway at any given time at the Manufactory, from group projects to individual creative endeavors. Visitors to Mind's Eye Manufactory will find participants engaged in many traditional crafts like woodworking, blacksmithing, and foundry work, but will also see ultra-creative activities like a thing we call "Gizmology and Contrapting", in which young participants de-construct mechanical "junk" and re-purpose the parts into fun new inventions. Over time, as participants acquire skills and gain knowledge, we'd like for them to think of the Manufactory as their shop.
Who is it for?
Mind's Eye Manufactory is for you. It is for adults and for youth; for parents and their children; for grandparents and grandchildren. It is for anyone who has the natural curiosity and the desire to make something with their hands and mind. A wide variety of classes and events with a broad range of complexity and requisite skill levels will be aimed at providing "maker" access to everyone.
We say: “Dream it…
Leah and our hound pup. Ranger
Why create?
First of all, creating something beautiful or functional is just plain fun! But in addition, some of the not-so-visible benefits of hand-making include:
a) A sense of pride gained through building a beautiful, fine, and useful item.
b ) Strong character from disciplined goal achievement, patience, and long-term skill building.
a) A sense of pride gained through building a beautiful, fine, and useful item.
b ) Strong character from disciplined goal achievement, patience, and long-term skill building.
c) The confidence possessed by those who understand the things in their world and know how to make or fix them (think MacGyver).
d) Cognitive growth through real world problem solving and hand-eye exercise.
e) A deeper sense of connectedness that comes from close involvement with elders and other community members.
We believe that...
The urge to make things is a basic and natural human urge, as anyone watching a group of preschoolers at play can easily see. Left to their own imaginations, children will invariably begin building things; fitting this thing to that thing; plucking parts off of toys; putting the parts back together--often in a different way. Through play, they're exploring the physical world and beginning to unlock the secrets that will lead them toward a rewarding relationship with that world. Think about the most confident, independent, and resourceful people you've known and read about, and chances are they got their start as child tinkerers and gizmo makers (and breakers). That's the way it has always been throughout human history and in every culture.
Although this remains as true today as it ever was, it is becoming less common for children to have access to the kind of free-range exploration that has inspired great minds throughout the ages. We can only guess at the reasons, which are complex and many, but it seems that television and virtual technology are playing a role. We seem to be becoming a nation of spectators to life itself, often placing a higher value on image than on substance; on the virtual rather than on the actual. In addition, our natural inquisitiveness and inventive potential is being increasingly squashed by the fear of personal injury and legal liability.
However, even now, that ancient human longing to create real and beautiful things using our hands and minds continues to pull at us all. At Mind's Eye Manufactory we believe that many of today's humans (you, for example) would choose a path of engaged creativity, invention, and genuine experience if only given the opportunity. What we're offering to you and your children is simply that: access to all of the profound benefits of creating that inventors, artisans, and craftspeople have long enjoyed.
We say: “Dream it…
Make it."
Share the vision?
Keep in touch!
Marc and Leah Daniels
95536
Keep in touch!
Marc and Leah Daniels
PO Box 1461
Ferndale, California95536
(707) 834-3893
Abigail Sylvia
Leah and our hound pup. Ranger