I felt super sad to learn that artist and tinkerer Moxie Lieberman passed away last week. She worked with us on and off at the Tinkering Studio over the years and you couldn’t find a kinder, funnier or more generous collaborator. I learned so much from her approach to needle felting and some of the workshops that we created together at the Exploratorium are among my favorite memories there.

I think one of the things that I loved the most about Moxie’s work was the qualities of fun and playfulness. She really embodied the idea of “take the work seriously but not yourself too seriously”. And looking back on her felted animal crackers, cannibalistic muppets and light-up monsters I am blown away by the creativity and humor in these designs.

And not only did Moxie share her projects with us and the world but she also taught others the joy of felting. I remember that the whole tinkering studio group (and even Tim Hunkin visiting for a month-long residency) got seriously addicted to repetitively stabbing loose fibers with a barbed needle until 3D shapes started to form. One specific memory I have of felting was a lunch time meet-up during a period of hard times with museum layoffs and mismanagement where we took out our frustration on the poor defenseless felted fibers.

As we shared the process of needle felting in the primordial Tinkering Studio at the PFA, Moxie also pushed us in new directions. I’ll always remember bringing in a couch, coffee table, warm lighting and robot portraits into the museum space to make a living room setting for learning how to needle felt. This experience really opened our eyes to different ways that we could push the boundaries of helping people feel comfortable and welcomed in our “makerspace” environment.

If you want to experience the joy of learning to needle felt I would definitely recommend seeking out a copy of Moxie’s book, I Felt Awesome! Its packed to the brim with playful projects and starting points. Just thinking about it makes me want to get into needle felting again and experiment with adding hardware, LEDs toy parts.

Speaking of books, I have to also share a bit about the hilarious way that Moxie hacked the Art of Tinkering during a promotion where we asked the featured artists to use the conductive ink on the cover to personalize the book. I was cracking up just seeing the incredible little characters, circuit explorations, bite and scratch marks and all on the book. Let’s just say that she “understood the assignment”.

And finally I wanted to highlight her magnum opus (at least as tinkering collaborations are concerned), the massive and marvelous control panel that hangs on the wall of the Exploratorium at Pier 15. Moxie spent hundreds of hours creating this installation that includes elements such as Darth Vader's chest plate, buttons from Mystery Science 3000 or a piece based on a handheld Coleco game from the 70's among more realistic control panels. It was truly a mammoth undertaking that immeasurably augemented our new gallery space right outside the Tinkering Studio.

I could go on and on about Moxie’s inspiring projects and tinkering approach but I’ll just say that I loved working with her and that I know that she will continue to inspire new generations of makers to pick up a needle and start felting. My heart goes out to her husband Paul who also was a delightful collaborator with as well.

I’ll close by giving the last word to Moxie herself, both through this open:MAKE short presentation and the following quote from her artist statement, “Being a sentient creature is mysterious and terrifying, hilarious and gross, awkward and extremely temporary. I am fascinated by what it’s like to be a person; who we think we are, how we got here, and what we can’t know about each other. I make sculptures out of soft materials and hard feelings. It's a survival-response, an attempt to deeply examine and express pain and wonder, in order to discover what’s universal.”

Remembering Moxie