Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic
Arthur C Clarke
Our Mission
We are excited. As lifelong Makers and Hackers, we have soldered away in a virtual vacuum for years. This is all changing now. There is an Electronics Renaissance in progress and our reason for being is to help it along.
[quote style=”boxed”]Every young person is going to be inspired to be a maker from now on. It’s like how everyone used to want to be a musician, an actor, an athlete – but a maker is what people are going to want to be[/quote]
will.i.am Wired July 2013
Release Your Magic
At Spell Foundry we are dedicated to developing and supporting your inner creativity. To help you forge your own technology, your own Magic. There has never been a better time to learn to be a Maker and we shall strive to help you wherever we can. We shall endeavour to:
- Develop and sell “groovy” open source projects.
- Share our knowledge and experience in Tutorials and Tips.
- Locate and resell technology that excites us (and we hope you too!).
- Highlight new, interesting, and exciting technologies.
- Link with the best of the Maker Community.
We are fellow Makers, we would love you to share in our journey.
And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.
Roald Dahl: The Minpins
Who we are
Hi, my name is Jon Watkins and this is my blog and shop window. We’re a small, family-run company about 40 miles west of London and currently consists of my wife and I, my kids, and Poppy the dog (and some unwelcome mice – I will revisit this!).
I started professional life as a Biologist before moving into Image Processing and then to Software and Hardware engineering (there is a common thread there – honestly!). This has included spells creating a company to sell ultra-high intensity LED lighting for Machine Vision applications and Lasertag Combat systems as featured on Channel 4’s “The Gadget Show“.
Most of what I’ve learned along the way is self-taught and thus I’d class myself as a bit of a Hacker, in the modern sense of the word. To quote a favourite book of mine (Design for Hackers)
…a hacker values knowledge and learns whatever he needs to learn to achieve his vision…..They can learn whatever it is they need to learn to solve the problem at hand.
I’ve been fortunate enough to work in an area that I love and with a number of brilliant engineers along the way. However, it’s fair to say that a lot of “professional” engineering can be a bit staid – not everything can be wildly “exciting”. But, when you design for yourself, excitement and fun are the central themes. This is a window into my fun. I hope you have fun too.