Name: Ruth Grace Wong
Home: San Francisco, California
Makerspace: Noisebridge
Day Job: I am a site reliability engineer. I work with large software systems, help fix them when they break, and write code to make the system more reliable.
Medium | Instructables | Pinterest
How did you get started making?
My mom bought me a crochet for beginners book in 4th grade, and I learned and started to figure out how to free hand crochet stuffed animals. I also used to make jewelry with Swarovski crystals. Once I reverse engineered a bracelet my mom liked, and then made a bunch for her and her friends. In high school I was captivated by a book called FAB by Neil Gershenfeld, but I wasn’t aware that I had access to the tools in the book until my last few years of university, when I went to hackathons and discovered makerspaces at NYC Resistor and the Western Engineering Bots club.
What type of maker would you classify yourself as?
The kind that tries to do too many things at once! I like baking, sewing, laser cutting, and learning about electronics at my local Fixit Clinic. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out how to spend my time on the things that mean the most at the moment.
What’s your favorite thing you’ve made?
I made an iMac fish tank! I prototyped the sizing of it myself, figured out a process for making it out of acrylic sheet, and published an Instructable so you can make one too! I keep mine on my desk at work.
I recently made a Leave Me Alone Sweater, and it unexpectedly went viral and was featured on Bored Panda, Cosmopolitan, Business Insider, and more. You can buy it from Betabrand , or you can DIY it with my Instructable.
What’s something you’d like to make next?
I’m working really hard on these grow bucket kits, for growing food in your apartment! It’s a family friendly project for plant education, food autonomy, and waste reduction. Did you know that you can get free buckets at donut shops? Donut cream filling comes in buckets and the buckets just get tossed. If you’re interested in this project, you can sign up for my mailing list to get more info.
Any advice for people reading this?
I think that documentation is super important! Document all your projects by throwing them online somewhere, whether it’s clicking the Tried It button on Pinterest and leaving a note or picture, or writing out a full Instructable. Having projects exist in an accessible way is much more valuable than getting your project just right. We can all learn and be inspired by each other’s successes and failures.
We highlight different makers from our broad community to show you the faces and stories behind the projects. Meet all the amazing people featured in Maker Spotlight. Want to nominate someone, maybe even yourself? Send a note with your responses to the bolded prompts above to makerspotlight@makermedia.com.
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