It's the time of year where I get to show off all the cool things our friends make! Check out the 2025 Alpenglow Gift Guide and find something fun for that electronics nerd in your life (and maybe that's you!) www.alpenglowindustries.com/pages/2025-g...

My new book, Skill Seeker: Young Maker Edition is now available! Looking for holiday activities to learn maker skills? This book is the perfect Christmas gift for young learners, and they can show off their progression with video game inspired dashboards, skill trees and activities.

My Keynote talk on 'Skill Trees: Gamifying The Hard Things' from the Everything Open Conference is now available! Have you ever wanted to use video game skill trees for tracking real life skills? My talk is all about my work on the open access Skill Trees Project. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fPW...

Huge thanks to the talented folks who contributed to the Skill Trees Project this month, with topics including Speedcubing, Single Board Computing (Raspberry Pi), Microcontroller (STM32, Facial Expressions and Tone of Voice Skill Trees.

Here's my top 3 projects that levelled up my skills!

It's been a huge effort, but my new kids book, Skill Seeker Young Maker Edition is coming out soon - Perfect for holiday activities! I'm so happy with how it's turned out and excited for kids to enjoy these. Available in mid November ready for Christmas.

Interested in becoming a Book Beta Tester? Skill Seeker: Young Maker Edition is suitable for 8-12 year olds, and covers 12 maker skill areas. Kids will be able to color in sections to show their growth over time. Sign up to be notified of beta testing here: www.makerqueen.com.au/beta-testers

Another great project made in the UniSQ Library Makerspace. I love how this turned out, and a great sustainable, low cost, fun project! #makerspace #cardboard #pepakura #geodesicdome

The Library Makerspace 3D printed goose made a new friend at the UniSQ Expo today! (Tawny Frogmouth Owl, native to Australia)

Love how this one turned out, a powerful resource! Thanks @tomesandtech.bsky.social !!

Yay for January's @everythingopen.au ! @sjpiper145.bsky.social and I have completed an "Academic Research Skills" Skill Tree - github.com/sjpiper145/M... #academicsky

Ever wanted to be able to track your skills like a video game? I now have commercial licences available for software developers to build apps like this. Make it easy for users to level up their skills, build a portfolio and gamify their learning. Check it out here: github.com/sjpiper145/M...

Excited to finally have licences available for software developers to use the Skill Trees Project for digital skill tracking. Thanks for being one of my first sponsors @youyoubilly.bsky.social !!

Time to grab a bargain right in time for the Easter Holidays - This weekend only! makerqueenau.etsy.com

Today I'm reflecting on my goals with my Skill Seeker Book. By coloring in the boxes of everything I've already done in these skill trees, I can track my skill levels. It's made me realise that I want to diversify my projects away from 3D printing and into more laser cutting and CNC projects.

I've created a new soldering kit design for library makerspace students to get inducted on the electronics bench. Needed a larger design to avoid coin cell batteries. A few things to fix but really happy with how this one turned out!

I've been pushing my fundraiser, but I wanna share the incredible supplies we've been given already. Kits from @alpenglow.bsky.social @sjpiper145.bsky.social, @clomads.bsky.social. Tools from @flashingjanet.bsky.social Legends. Look them up. More requests below ⬇️

The template comes from Steph Piper @sjpiper145.bsky.social and you can make your own thanks to Shane Gadsby at schme16.github.io/MakerSkillTr... Not standard, kind of experimental but working significantly better than grades & scores as they pick the next project then see progress immediately.

Today's Awesome Moment in Class: Adv Coding using Skill Trees @sjpiper145.bsky.social for tracking learning. Average over 18 students 40.44skills overall 33.67 skills learned just this term 3.74 skills explored per week Thanks to @alsweigart.bsky.social for his books on Python #EduSky #EduData

Huge thanks to Dave Drodge for submitting the 'Try AI' skill tree, just colour in the boxes of anything you've already done to identify skill gaps and get inspired to try new things. Visit the growing repository of templates up on Github to grab a free copy! github.com/sjpiper145/M...

New achievement stickers are now available! Excited that these have arrived and I had a great time adding these into my Skill Seeker book.

My voice is finally recovering a bit so I made some #audiotour #voiceover to bring my #etextiles work to you. youtu.be/9tK43c3Qt9I?...

Neuer geiler Scheiß von @sjpiper145.bsky.social im Onlineshop. Nähbare LEDs!!!1!! Wie geil ist das denn? shop.blinkyparts.com/de/Glow-Stit... Achtung wir haben vorerst nur wenige auf Lager. Mehr ist unterwegs.

How it started and how it's going: Cardboard geodesic dome build! Super excited to have started to assemble it this week. It's both cardboard and corflute construction and will be 3.5m across and 2.2m tall. #makerspace

Excited to celebrate my Skill Trees Project making it to 3K stars on Github! Today I also set up Github Sponsors, and if you'd like to support my work on this project so I can dedicate my time more sustainably, there's a range of great rewards. github.com/sjpiper145/M...

Awesome to see this out in the world! Congratulations @sjpiper145.bsky.social !

Some good news, copies of my new book, Skill Seeker, have arrived! You can now get signed copies on my Etsy page, plus you can also find it on Booktopia and Barnes and Noble now too. www.etsy.com/au/listing/1...

Today's Awesome Moment in Class: 7/8 Coding class is a mix of advanced students & novices. So we've mapped concepts like loops, variables, functions to Skill Trees (Thank You, Steph Piper). Each class they update their trees to see what they learned. #EduSky #VisualizeLearning #GrowthDataInEdu

My book, Skill Seeker, is now available! I've been working on this for a while and am so excited to finally have it up on Amazon and Booktopia. If you're into Maker hobbies, it's perfect for tracking your growth and goals going into 2025.

The #Finance Skill tree is now up! Just color in the boxes of anything you've already done to visualise your progress, identify skill gaps and get inspired to try new things. Full repository here: github.com/sjpiper145/M...

The amazing Steph Piper will be keynoting our conference. This brings me joy!

I had an amazing chat with @makemagazine.bsky.social on my new book, Skill Seeker, in this Fireside chat! Check it out here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKMk...

Looking forward to speaking at @everythingopen.au this year!!

Here's the phases I went through in writing and refining my book, Skill Seeker. After many rounds of feedback and hundreds of beta testing copies I have a final result that I'm super proud of. Don't expect you're going to get it right the first time.

Today's blog post references the amazing MakerSkillTree project from @sjpiper145.bsky.social. Go check it out, and follow her! github.com/sjpiper145/M...

My new book, Skill Seeker, is now available for pre-order by US citizens! Track 15 Maker skills, including 3D printing, Robotics, woodworking and sewing with video-game inspired real life skill trees. Find out your Maker XP score and use it as a powerful reflection and goal setting aid.

I got to attend a fireside chat with @sjpiper145.bsky.social Steph Piper regarding her new book "Skill Seeker: Maker Edition". This book provides a great way to track and guide your #maker Journey. I've ordered the book and am anxiously awaiting it's arrival. amzn.to/3ZzzOBg

Tomorrow I'm excited to talk more about my Skill Seeker book with Dale Dougherty in a Fireside Chat! Join us live from 10AM, Wednesday 3rd of Dec (QLD / Australia time): events.zoom.us/ev/Aj__9Jd3H...

It's Black Friday Sale time! Get 30% off my GlowStitch range of machine sewable LEDs for wearable tech projects. They are great for general crafting as they are ultra flat, made from flexible circuit boards. Link in bio!

It's been amazing to re-discover all the fantastic and talented folks I used to follow on twitter over here on Bluesky. I missed you all !! 💖💖💖

Introducing my open source Skill Trees project! Have you ever wanted to learn a new skill in a gamified way? I've created a range of printable templates where you can color in the boxes of anything you've already done, visualise your progress and find your skill gaps. 50+ skills now covered!

Getting excited, my Skill Seeker book will be available soon!

Super proud of this bookmark PCB Art I designed for the Library and Library Makerspace. First time I've been charged a design complexity fee, haha. #badgelife

Hi All! As introduction, I make cute electronics kits! You can find them here: https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/makerqueenau