What is something people might not expect about you as a maker?

Other than taking blacksmithing classes 20 years ago, I’m mostly self-taught. I learned to build a foundry and melt metal from a library book about casting replacement parts for old cars, which meant I had to adapt a lot of the details and learn a lot from trial and error. The first time I poured molten metal into a vertical mold, it split apart and the metal went running down my driveway, missing my car tire by just a few inches. It turned out I hadn’t accounted for the steam pressure from vaporizing the water in the sand. Scary, but I didn’t make that mistake twice. That kind of learning really appeals to the scientist in me. I think a lot of would-be makers get stuck watching YouTube videos instead of learning from their own mistakes, and I think the mistakes can be some of the most valuable parts.