Guide and how to do

Spark Workshop A Collaborative Space For Making Things

I recently joined Spark Workshop in Sunset Park in order to start building garden elements for clients.

The timing is perfect since winter is around the corner and my urban anxieties start to build-up if I dont have an outlet for my creative energies. This is now my chance to build planter boxes, offbeat birdhouses, 15 foot trellises made from re-bar and recycled wood and anything else that I can come up with.

The space is located on 34th street between 2nd and 3rd avenues and without the oversized freight elevator and loading dock my fabrication goals wouldnt be possible. Blue Marble Ice Cream,  Tumbador Chocolates and Industry City Distillery are all nearby. Getting my work done might be a bigger challenge than expected.

Spark opened shortly before I joined. Back then the space had recently been renovated with a conference room, kitchen, photo studio, education room, gallery space and woodshop. But the rooms were empty except for a chop-box and a few hand tools. The place was eerily devoid of activity. But now the workshop is filled with equipment for drilling, cutting, planing, sanding and connecting materials. Artists and artisans have joined and the sites and sounds of things being produced motivate me to get my latest projects done. Until joining Spark I had never drilled or cut through steel with an angle grinder. I had never used a band saw. Learning how to use new tools and applying them to new projects has opened up new possibilities for GreenZone Landscape and personal projects as well.

Right now the education room is empty except for scraps of wood that Ive been collecting for a future class on woodworking that I plan on teaching as an afternoon class with kids. I also plan on teaching an introductory class to garden design. Work tables will soon be installed and anyone with an idea for a class will have the opportunity to pitch it.

The first big collaborative effort at Spark is a group show that will happen in mid-December. Artists, artisans, and designers from Brooklyn are welcome to participate. Aside from food and drink it will be a great opportunity to expose local artists to a larger audience and expose people to Brooklyns newest collaborative work space.

Link to Spark Workshop Brooklyn

Link to other Industry City tenants