The Makerspace Shift: Creating with Cozy

What is a makerspace? And where did the plushies go?

If you’ve been around for a minute, you’ll likely have noticed that we had the cards stacked against us. With each new challenge, Cozykins has evolved through it all! (Unfortunately, that doesn’t bode well for marketing or community efforts, when you’re having to change what you’re doing.)~
As I come out of my hiatus, I wanted to take a moment and set the intention, and share a bit about what has been coming to fruition.

For starters, we’re building a makerspace. A makerspace is a shop or workshop that offers customers access to various machinery, tools, and materials to create and build functional or artistic works for personal use or sale. You know how the Natrona County Library has its Creation Station makerspace, with a GlowForge, sewing machines, and a 3D scanner? You can go get a library card and access those things! Pretty easy, eh?
The goal here with Cozy is to offer the space, materials, and machinery to allow someone to make a living off of their work. There is no aim nor intent to compete with our awesome library, but rather compliment it; while some machines may be similar, the experiences are set to be quite different. We’re going for the tight-knit community vibe, with recreational options for those spending some long hours in our studio shop. Imagine setting the embroidery machine, and hopping over to the photography area to take photos of the pieces you just completed, or sliding into the computer chair to edit photo/video content— or relax on a game. There will be a small shop area up front!

Speaking of shop, we will be the only makerspace in the state of Wyoming (and within a radius) with room enough for you to work, play, AND sell your creations! We already have a system in mind that would allow us to place inventory on our website, where you will be able to log into a portal to fix your own stuff without having to organize with staff.
If you grow so large that you have to cancel your membership and go invest in yourself, then we’ve done our work well. Truly, the goal is to help folks succeed. That’s why in addition to scaling support, we’re working on a lineup of excellent mentors for workshops for our members. Don’t worry! If you’re more of a Master of your craft, you’ll be able to host your own workshops in our space as well.

Members will be able to host full events, by themselves, as a community, indoor/outdoor, with or without outside vendors and food trucks. We’re planning a mix of both member-only and community events, pet-inclusive events, experiences like live music, and more.
Sounds almost too good to be true, I know. I would say the tradeoff is truly giving us the grace to grow within this community. Offer feedback, share what you create with everyone, and don’t fault this new thing that’s developing on your terms. Give this time, be optimistic, and let’s see how far we can take it, together.

It’s been a wild THREE YEARS of development, pushing, pivoting, just to get to this point. Here in April, we will have been Cozykins for two years, building fun and camaraderie through events, toy donations and adoptions, and we helped our kids come up with slime for Dragon Dreams. For the past year, we have been building the actual infrastructure that will carry us into brick-and-mortar business. Now it’s slowly all coming together, as we work our way into a new space and new focus.
As for where all the plushies went, the hope is to continue sewing! But there’s been growing interest in reborning (painting reborn kits) as well as this massive move and pivot for Cozy, so it may take some time for me to find my way back into the chair to make more precious friends for you. Rest assured, other creator and artisan members will have various mediums and methods to the things they make; keep your eyes peeled for your next treasure!

Casper will have a new makerspace, with some different options and goals than what currently exists, you’ll be able to have a workspace that isn’t your home, a community of other makers that you actually get to hang out with and create or even collaborate with, and very real business support with some pretty cool resources for members.

We will add to our options over time, adjusting according to what everyone is needing and what’s not fitting those needs. I already have toys, books, clothing of all genders/sizes, and toys for the donation area, where members will be able to pull items to recycle, repurpose, recreate, or use as-is. There’s a lot of fun stuff planned, but it takes opening our doors and having folks start coming by— so we’re pushing for that now.

The vision is that we build up to the point that you can come create and work in most mediums, that creating with Cozy means you are able to hit that flow state in your work, that you are able to take care of yourself. Snacks, inspiration, ways to take breaks from your projects. That you wake up, stoked to come out and make your next cool thing with us, and that you get so into it we have to figure out overnight hours.

You might see socials and this blog slow down for a bit as we dig in, but we are hard at work and will be right back as soon as we are set up and ready to have you!
Thank you immensely for the support while we complete this transition!~