We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tiffany Amirkhanian. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tiffany below.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

The easiest explanation is – we are a gym, for hobbies. We have day passes, monthly memberships and classes. Our main goal is to make our equipment accessible to community members, so they can find a hobby they enjoy!

We offer a wide variety of equipment for community members to use: Button Presses (pins), everything you need for stained glass, silhouettes for intricate cutting of vinyl, stickers, cardstock, etc., color printer, color copier, sublimation printer (full color images to heat transfer), heat press, sewing machines, single-needle embroidery machine, 3D printers, Resin Printer, Laser cutter/engravers, small-scale woodworking tools – ban saw, scroll saw, bench grinder, drill press, mini-lathe, pottery wheel and kiln. We are always working to respond to community needs and we are currently working on adding a second kiln, a CNC machine, and large-scale printer.

We also offer classes on all of our equipment and have enjoyed inviting local artists to teach their skills as well.

We have noticed that our space can be a bit overwhelming, you just don’t know where to start, or what to use. So, I’ve been increasing the available drop-in projects. A drop-in project gives you a chance to be creative, but not have to start from scratch. This can be paint pouring, or painting some of the laser cut wood decor we have, to simply soldering some prepped stained glass pieces.

I’ve also been increasing the number of classes we offer. It’s been great to see the people attend class, like stained glass, a few times, and then get a membership and continue that hobby on their own!

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

My business partner is a my husband. We met at a picnic in a mutual friends backyard. I was actually there to be set-up with someone else! We both bring different strengths to our business, that we feel complement each other well.

The Makerspace has really been put together with both of our interests combined. He is definitely the tech-guy. We have the 3D printers, laser cutters and CNC due to his interests. I have learned to run almost everything at this point, but he is the one doing the maintenance on the machinery. I was hesitant to include all the tech-based hobby equipment, but now I’m so glad we have it. I will admit, the laser cutter has quickly become one of my favorite things to use at the Makerspace!

My hobbies don’t need all the fancy equipment, for crochet all I need is a hook and yarn – maybe a comfy chair too (which we have a loft set-up just for this purpose). However, I’ve been utilizing all the equipment we have to further other classes we offer. I can 3d print almost anything I need for doing paint pouring in different ways. I’ve laser cut wooden looms to be able to teach a weaving class. I’ve used the woodworking tools to prep materials for some other workshops we’ve offered. All this to say, it’s been great having the wide variety of equipment and materials in one place, as they often benefit one another.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

If you would have asked me ten years ago if I would own a business, I probably couldn’t have even imagined that. I have been a middle school teacher, and a stay-at-home-mom, with a brief stint of substitute teaching in there. My husband, and Co-owner of the Makerspace, has gotten his doctorate, completed a post-doctorate position, and is currently a professor with a professional engineering license in three states.

While completing all of that we have moved cross country – twice! Once with a 2 year-old, and myself extremely pregnant, and again with a 4 year-old, 2 year-old, a pregnant self.

All of that to say – you never know what your life experiences are teaching you, or where they will take you. Given the many life changes we’ve faced, we have needed to adapt to a variety of situations, often forming new local support systems, as we had family afar. These situations really showed us our strengths, and our desire to always have a welcoming community.

So, as my youngest starts school, I came back to work with Druid City Makerspace. It was born out of the desire to foster community, and grow peoples creative interests in a variety of ways. As those experiences have always been beneficial to me – I want to facilitate that for others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://druidcitymakerspace.com/
• Instagram: @DruidCityMakerspace
• Facebook: Druid City Makerspace