Fashioning the Future With: Jen Schachter

Welcome to our 50th interview edition of the Makers & Shakers blog! Flickering frittatas, it's true — we've now featured fifty formidable females from #WomenInSTEM to SciArt creators to forward-thinking founders and even awesome activists. We think that's pretty darn cool, and we thank all of our interviewees for sharing their stories and advice. And we couldn't be more delighted for you to meet our 50th interviewee because she's an amazing, multifaceted maker who is savagely cool!

Jen Schachter is an artist-turned-maker who works as Director of Special Projects for Savage Industries. Jen's work with celebrity maker Adam Savage spans from her role as fabricator on the explosively rad show Savage Builds (read on to hear all about the nitroglycerin episode!) to creating a variety of projects on Tested.com and much, much more.  

Jen is also the mastermind behind many mind-blowing collaborative builds from a Rosie the Riveter project to huge letters on Obama's White House lawn and even a spaceship hatch. In case you're wondering what a 'collaborative build' is, it's the result of several individual makers coming together to produce a single, complicated project. Each maker contributes a piece to the project, which is then assembled all at once. One particularly out of this world example is actually in the National Air & Space Museum right now. 'Project Egress' is a painstakingly accurate (and life-size!) replica of the actual Apollo 11 command module hatch. It took over 40 individual builders (including our first ever interviewee Sophy Wong!) and was assembled in real time for the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.

It's no surprise that Jen's work is often showcased in Make: magazine, and she's also been featured by a ton of other outlets such as Hackaday, the Cool Tools podcast, BoingBoing, and more. We were excited to ask Jen about her philosophy as a maker, about her collaborative builds, what it's like working at Savage Industries, who inspires her, and much more. Meet our fierce 50th interviewee, masterful maker Jen Schachter!

When did you know you were an engineer?

Am I an engineer? People have been calling me that lately, but I don’t feel I’ve earned the title. I know lots of engineers — mechanical, electrical, software, and I don’t scratch the surface of the amount of schooling and knowledge they have! I think my brain works in very spatial ways, it’s what makes me good at drawing and painting, and I suppose I’m something of a social engineer in coordinating these large community projects. I would love to pursue a more formal education on the practical applications of physics.

What was your transition like — from art student to maker? 

This is still very much an ongoing process — to be taken seriously — and take myself seriously as a maker. I have a degree in fine art, so I feel confident in that skillset. But after I graduated, I began to realize that I was more interested in building functional or entertaining objects rather than pictures, and I have been acquiring and teaching myself those skills for the past 10 years or so. When I started working at Digital Harbor Foundation (a youth tech center in Baltimore) that was sort of my initiation into maker culture. Within the first month, I participated in (and won) a hackathon, went to my first Maker Faire, and I suddenly realized I had found my people.

What was your first project as a maker?

That’s a hard one to trace. I have been making things for as long as I can remember without knowing it was a part of my identity. The first I can recall were things I built for my toys — furniture out of plastic packaging, outfits and sleeping bags I sewed for my stuffed animals or my brother’s GI Joes. I made maps of worlds for them to explore based on the layout of our house. One of my first “inventions” was an idea for a time machine that also cleaned your room. I was probably about 7 or 8.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever built?

A life-size ET out of duct tape. A few years ago, I went as Elliot from ET for Halloween, which was a pretty minimal costume, just a red hoodie and jeans, but ET was my “prop”. I made him out of packing material around a wire armature wrapped in brown duct tape. I sculpted and hand painted eyes out of clay and wired an LED and a pressure sensor into his hands so his finger would light up if you squeezed it. I’ve dragged ET to all kinds of events and parties, and he’s a little worse for wear, but always a good conversation piece. People are always surprised to hear how I made it.

From #WeTheRosies to #ProjectEgress you’ve made it possible for makers around the world to contribute to really awesome projects. What does it mean to you to facilitate such large crowd-sourcing efforts with such cool final project? 

Making things in collaboration with other people who share the same kind of passion is so fulfilling. Seriously, I live for these kinds of projects! I remember watching the special features on the making of some of my favorite movies and seeing how the art department and cast and crew really go into battle together and live on set, consumed for months or even years in a project.

That kind of creative camaraderie at the scale of a theater production or a film is such a special feeling, and so different than the practice of a solitary studio artist. I love that so many people have had a chance to participate in builds like Rosie or Egress. I’m excited by work that brings so many different perspectives and expertise to the table and sort of gives many collaborators a role in authorship.

What was the experience like assembling Project Egress while the world watched in real time? 

I’ve done a few builds like that in front of an audience, but this was the first one that was actually streamed live. We had a hard stop because there was an event on the same stage after us, and the room was packed right up around the edges of the platform. It was definitely stressful. Because of the nature of the project, none of the parts could be test fit until that moment, so we just had to go into it expecting things not to work. I think that’s part of what made it enjoyable for the spectators — watching us solve problems in real time with real stakes. This may sound cheesy, but there’s a state of almost transcendence I feel when we’re immersed in a build. I expect it’s similar to the experience of a theater actor or athlete. You reach a level of focus and almost telepathic communication with your collaborators and the audience becomes invisible. It’s just you and your work.

How does it feel to have #ProjectEgress on display at the Air and Space Museum?

It’s still pretty surreal. People I know have visited and sent me pictures, and right there on the first floor of the museum between two enormous rockets is our little hatch, with 45 names on the plaque. At one point early in my career, I applied for a job as Exhibit Designer at the Air and Space Museum. I was way underqualified and needless to say, I didn’t get the position, but if 18-year-old me could see that I had a piece there now… I am pretty dang proud!

Do you have a personal philosophy as maker?

Maybe not so much a philosophy as a personal mantra, but “Trust the process.” There’s a point in every single project, large or small, where I doubt whether I can actually pull it off or execute it the way I envision it. I constantly have to relinquish the idea that a project will turn out exactly how I imagine, and expect that it will be different and better because of the challenges - in material behavior, time constraints, etc. In planning every big community build, there’s a day or even a week when I think, “this cannot actually be done by the deadline,” or, “we’re not going to have enough collaborators,” or “parts will get lost in the mail... pieces won’t fit and it’s going to look horrible.”

 But whatever comes up, we always find a way to make it work. I’ve yet to come up empty handed at the final hour. And, so, I learned to recognize when that feeling of crisis arises, to embrace it as part of the process, and push past it to find a solution. Things will usually turn out better than you could have planned.

What was your favorite thing about being the Director of Special Projects for Savage Industries? 

Oh, so many things! Working with Adam and the team at Tested is such a delight. The expertise and personality each member of the team brings to the table really complement each other. I have learned more from Adam in the few short months I’ve been working there than I have in any other job.

He is so generous with his knowledge and time, and his enthusiasm for making is infectious. The man has seemingly boundless energy. It’s also really gratifying to finally be working closely in the field I have always wanted to work in, to get paid to make things and manage projects I’m passionate about. I feel very lucky indeed.

What’s been the most unexpected thing to happen on Savage Builds?  

We shot an episode about nitroglycerin. I’m not on camera but I was there on set for most of the shoot. Early in the testing phase, the whole crew was out on the bomb range with the explosive technicians, and a hammer drop apparatus set to crush a tiny 1oz bottle of nitro onto a steel plate. Everyone was in place behind barricades with ear and eye protection when the pin was pulled to drop the hammer. In an instant, there was a HUGE bang and the steel plate launched several hundred feet into the air above our heads!

The hammer was obliterated. It was such a massive and unexpected reaction. I always felt very safe on set, but there are some things you just can’t prepare for. We learned over and over again that things almost never go as planned, experiments fail, weather throws a wrench in an entire week shoot. It was interesting to watch the producers figure out how to wrangle a narrative out of completely unknown outcomes!

What advice do you have for people who want to become makers? 

Work hard, be nice. Seriously. I feel like the way you get noticed and move ahead in this field is by being a quick learner and great to work with. The single best piece of career advice I can give is be indispensable. Be the person who people think of and wonder how they ever got anything done before you came along. Being genuine and generous helps too. I guess that’s just general career advice, but for making specifically, I recommend getting involved in a local makerspace or theater group - any community that exists around a creative pursuit. You can usually sign up for classes or just volunteer your help and your time, and you will learn a ton by being around the tools. Ask questions, offer to do gruntwork in the shop in exchange for training and access. YouTube is obviously also a great resource, there is so much excellent content out there, but it’s hard to beat hands-on experience. I think finding your local maker community is the best way to get started.

Do you have any upcoming projects you can tell us a little about?

A lot of what I do at my day job is under NDA but there will definitely be more live collaborative builds like Project Egress and We the Rosies! My biggest personal project of late is building out my studio space in the loft where we live, organizing my collection of tools and materials and setting up a good workflow.

I have so many ideas living in notebooks right now I’m itching to get to! By this time next year, I’m hoping to have a fully functioning home shop, and have launched an online video channel and written tutorials that fall somewhere at the intersection of making and entertainment, with a quirky sense of humor and design. I have no idea if that’s viable as anything more than fun for myself, but we’ll see where it goes.

What are some of your hobbies you enjoy in your free time?

What free time? My hobbies blur so much into what I do for work, that’s how I spend most of my time. When I do come up for air, I like hiking around the gorgeous Bay Area. I love camping and really enjoy the novelty and utility of backpacking gear (I’m kind of a gearhead). I also voraciously consume audiobooks in the historical fiction genre.

Who (modern day or historical) inspires you? 

This is a hard one to pinpoint because I get inspiration from so many people. There are too many names to name! In terms of contemporaries, I’m really blown away by a lot of maker women these days. The ingenuity and the sense of style in their projects, their sheer technical prowess, and the volume of their output. It amazes me how much work people produce! It pushes me to work harder.

There is also a really wonderful attitude in the maker community, but I feel it especially among female-bodied makers, that we are all trying to lift each other up, introduce new people to each other's work, share opportunities and praise. I had a hard time being friends with girls growing up, but I finally found a community of these incredibly badass women who I am humbled to call peers. I feel seen and challenged and supported. Gah, I could gush about it for days.

Do you have any favorite fictional STEM/maker characters in books/movies/other art forms?

Hmm. I’m thinking of a lot of real STEM historical characters, but I can’t think of anyone fictional at the moment. Rosie the Riveter as a symbol I guess could be one. I did a ton of research for our We the Rosies project on her history as a pop culture icon and the famous “We Can Do It” poster. It’s not as, uh — rosy — as one might hope. The factories were often racially discriminatory, women were underpaid, the poster itself was essentially workplace propaganda as part of a campaign to drive productivity. But I love the way that image of a woman rolling up her sleeves has been co-opted as a symbol by so many other movements. It’s certainly a complicated history, but it’s worth researching. On a side note, this is super nerdy, but my favorite fictional character ever has got to be Lagertha as portrayed in the History channel show Vikings. She is a real historical shieldmaiden in Norse sagas, and the way her character is written and acted is just brilliant: terrifyingly fierce, but also sensitive, dynamic, and very real. She’s my secret fictional hero.

If you were a superhero, what would your go-to wearable tech device be? 

I guess based on my logo, it would have to be drill hands, right? They would of course be functional hands by default, but when in need of a drill and driver they would deploy, Inspector Gadget style, with the right type of bit for the job. They could also be used as a weapon for fighting crime!

Where can people find you online?

I’m mostly on Instagram, because pictures, but I’m hoping to start a YouTube channel in the next few months, so keep your eyes peeled.

Web: jenschachter.com

Twitter: @schac_attack

Insta: @schac_attack

YouTube: @schac_attack

Facebook: @schac.attack