MISSION STATEMENT

10/29/2025

I created this website to solve one of the biggest problems with my workflow: the absence of documentation. For years I have kicked myself for not taking pictures of the process of making something, or even of the final product. Whenever people ask what I enjoy doing in my spare time I usually respond with something along the lines of “making stuff” which almost always yields the response: “Like what?”

“Like What?"

To answer the frequent question of “like what?” I usually say “anything”, and usually the conversation ends there.

In all seriousness though-it has been a goal of mine to learn as many ways I can to express myself. I remember being “the kid who draws” throughout my first few years of education. It wasn’t until I met my first babysitter that I actually ventured past just drawing. After watching me create flimsy sculptures out of printer paper and scotch tape, she gifted me a hot glue gun. It was a low temp blue and white glue gun that couldn’t have cost her more than ten bucks, but it meant the world to me, and without it I most likely would have never become as fascinated with how things work as I am today. Shannon, if you are reading this- thank you for everything.

After receiving my first hot glue gun, I began making things with cardboard. At the time I was interested in prop-making. I remember watching youtubers who documented their own processes making assorted items from video games movies and TV shows with materials from around their house. I used to have my dad haul me to back of home depot so I could buy packs of EVA foam to turn into mock swords or armor.

Learning from the internet was, and still is one of the most important skills to me. As I continued through elementary and middle school, I attended several programs that helped me learn how to be a better maker. Summer camps were the most fun to me. I attended Robo-Fun, ID Tech Camp, Construction Kids, and Camp Half-Blood to name a few of the infamous NYC Summer camps I attended. I must say that all of these experiences were also integral in encouraging my creativity in my youth.

After receiving my first hot glue gun, I began making things with cardboard. At the time I was interested in prop-making. I remember watching youtubers who documented their own processes making assorted items from video games movies and TV shows with materials from around their house. I used to have my dad haul me to back of home depot so I could buy packs of EVA foam to turn into mock swords or armor.

Learning from the internet was, and still is one of the most important skills to me. As I continued through elementary and middle school, I attended several programs that helped me learn how to be a better maker. Summer camps were the most fun to me. I attended Robo-Fun, ID Tech Camp, Construction Kids, and Camp Half-Blood to name a few of the infamous NYC Summer camps I attended. I must say that all of these experiences were also integral in encouraging my creativity in my youth.

I attended LaGuardia High School in New York for a year before transferring when the pandemic hit. While my time at that school studying technical theater was brief it did teach me a ton about scene design, carpentry, prop-making, sewing, and teamwork. However the idea of continuing to learn all of these hands-on concepts in the non-hands on configuration that was “Zoom School” had no appeal to me whatsoever.

After transferring to a less artistically rigorous school, I spent most of quarantine working on my own artist practice. This was when I began to take drawing more seriously, and began to think of ways that I could practically continue making things after graduation. I eventually came up with the idea to create an Etsy store where I modified Nintendo game consoles. The store was called “Cole Does Customs” and was pretty successful, but when quarantine ended and I realized I would be asked to leave my house a lot more, I decided to close the shop.

Junior & Senior year of high school came and went, and eventually I was off to Connecticut for college. At the time of writing this I am in my third year, and it has been an amazing experience so far. My university’s open curriculum has allowed me to deepen my understanding of my various interests, and acquire many more skills. As I continue to wonder: “how can I continue ‘making stuff’ while also being able to feed myself”, I thought that creating a website to document this “stuff” I so frequently am asked about was a necessary part of this journey.

Documentation

I have always struggled to properly document my work, so recently I have been experimenting with different forms of documentation. The main one I have been using recently is a journal.

I’m a pretty visual thinker- I struggle at keeping things in my head, and find it much easier to think when I can actually write stuff down on paper. I’ve been setting the goal to complete at least one major project a month, and use one journal to document the happenings of each month.

I wanted to make it a whole thing by binding each journal myself using different colored heavy-weight paper. October’s journal has yellow pages (my favorite color!) and serves as a foundation for the next few journals I will write.

In addition to writing things I have been doing my best to take as many photos as possible when I am working on a project. I have found this helpful since it gives me pause in between the steps in a project. The projects I work on seem immense when first starting out, but by breaking them down into steps and using documentation as a sort of checkpoint, things feel much more achievable.

This website is where both the written and visual components of documentation can be combined to tell a story of how I have completed a project. I have had fun doing the write ups on the first few projects I have completed, and I am looking forward to the next few.

GOALS

I have a couple goals for the future of this site. I wouldn’t like to set any deadlines for them now, but writing them here gets them out of the back on my mind. These goals will most likely change with time. Maybe they’ll get there own section, kind of like a timeline/current goals tab maybe. Who knows.

  • Publishing Resources
    If there is time, I would like to share my project files publicly. Whatever they may be. Sewing projects in particular come to mind, I would love to polish a couple of the patterns I have made and make them free to the public since I find it hard most times to find quality patterns for free.

  • Curated Portfolio
    Getting money is cool, what’s even cooler is receiving money for doing something you love. In my search for gainful employment, most employers ask for a consolidated portfolio which I feel I do not have the work for yet.

  • Consistency
    I hope that by incorporating website updates into my workflow that I can continue to keep this site populated and up-to-date.