Howdy! Jay Moores here.
I have taught arts and crafts to kids between the ages of 8-15 since 1984. I work in all media from paper to plastic, metal to wood. I love to make resin toys and I design for laser cut wood, which merges computer based scalable vector graphics with hands on crafting. I like to create modern takes of old wooden folk toys by designing toys and games for my Glowforge laser cutter and my Cricut Maker. The blend of old fashioned ideas made on modern equipment gives the work a whole new feel.
Toys and games are a great way to expose people, especially kids, to technology. The playfulness helps to decrease the intimidation of learning how to use the high tech gear. Your brain keeps thinking, “we’re just playing, right?” It doesn’t know how much it is learning! I hope to help others learn how to design vector files for their crafting machine; it’s so much fun. Oh yeah, I live in Maine. It is cold here.