Valentine’s Day made me think of the 3,000 chocolate shops that Cocoa Press Founder Ellie Weinstein mentioned in my 2024 Make:Cast interview with her. They are her target market for the Cocoa Press 2, the newest version of their 3D printer for chocolate, which came out in 2025. Here’s part of that conversation:

Ellie: With our machine I would say learning the chocolate side is way easier than learning the 3D printing side. So I will be the first to tell someone if you’re thinking about buying the printer, just know you’re going to have to put a little bit of time into learning how to use it. It’s not going to work exactly like your Prusa or Bambu. It’s a little bit different. And if you haven’t 3D printed before, you can definitely learn it. You can learn anything, but you’re gonna have to put some time into it. It’s not plug and play.

Dale: You need to have patience, that’s the main thing.

Ellie: Exactly. You have to have the patience. I don’t want the angry support emails. I want people to be happy with what they buy. That’s what we’re doing, right? We’re doing it totally for fun. 

(Developing a 3D printer for chocolate) has looked almost like an overnight success, but I’ve worked on it for a decade now.

I want to work with cool people, ethical people, and we just want to make joy, right? Like we do chocolate, we’re going to be doing 3D printing projects so that people who don’t know what to do with their 3D printers can do some really cool stuff.

This week’s Make:Live conversation had an Australian accent. I hosted a conversation with Australian Steph Piper on the launch of her new book, Skill Seeker: Young Maker Edition. We were joined by two maker educators, Daniel Ezell from California and Emma Ross from Australia.

“Skill trees” provide essential structure and guidance for ages 8–12, key developmental years in a young maker’s life. Steph’s system turns learning into a game that challenges kids without overwhelming them. The book covers 3D printing, vinyl cutting, electronics, crafting, robotics, and more. Parents, educators, and makerspace leaders can learn about why skill-building matters—and how kids can apply what they learn in the real world.

One of the key points in how conversation was how these skill trees can help make skill development visible for students, which also allows them to share a list of their skills with others.

Steph Piper, Maker Queen, is the Library Makerspace Manager at UniSQ, based in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. She is the author of two Skill Seeker books that help you track and level up your skills.  She designs beautiful, multicolour circuit boards you can find on Etsy and crowdfunded GlowStitch, machine-sewable LEDs.  She teaches 3D printing, 3D modeling, and Arduino classes, and has a background in biofabrication and 3D printing for medical-grade implants.

Daniel Ezell is the founder and curriculum director of Chronos Academy in Larkspur, CA. He is a long-time organizer of local Maker Camps.

Emma Ross of The Maker Difference has experience across Victoria, Queensland, and the Northern Territory as a classroom teacher, leader, and consultant. She has worked closely with leadership teams and teachers to support STEM programs, establish Makerspaces, and deliver professional development focused on student voice.

Her passion for innovative education, along with a strong belief in the value of STEM programs and Makerspace learning environments, led her to complete a Master of Education and conduct case study research on Makerspaces. This work resulted in the creation of an evidence-based Makerspace Pedagogical Framework that is now used in schools.

While Steph and I both hope you buy her book to learn more about using Maker Skill Trees, you can also download the skill trees from her GitHub repository. There are over 70 skill trees, covering everything from coding and crochet to artificial intelligence.

Link: Maker Skill Trees

With the release of Make: Vol 96, our Digital Fabrication issue, the next Make: Live event (formerly called Make: Launch Party) will take place on Wednesday February 18 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET. Join myself and Keith Hammond, Editor in Chief, and Digifab contributing Editor Matt Stultz as we talk with our panel of contributors to this issue.

Please register in advance using this link: https://meet.zoho.com/vegu-fzu-tju 

Bradley Woods, author of “Never Break the Chains,” is Founder and CEO, The Virtual Foundry, which developed Filamet™ — the first-ever line of metal, glass, and ceramic filaments that allow any standard FDM printer to produce pure, high-density parts.

Steve Peterson is a member of the Voron Design team since 2020 and primarily responsible for the Voron Trident design. He also runs a live-streaming YouTube channel that shows open-source printer and printer-modification build processes, as well as other 3D printing-related projects.

Alder Riley, profiled in “3D Printing for the People,” is Co-Founder & CEO at Itemfarm which deploys modular microfactories, called Orchards.

Victoria Roznowski, featured in “The Stone Must Flow,” is the founder, Addit.Studio. She holds a Master's degree in Architecture from TU Berlin and a Master's in Biodigital Architecture from UIC Barcelona. Her work has gained international recognition, including first place in ICON's Initiative 99 global fully 3D printed affordable housing competition.

On Makezine, Make: Editor Sam Freeman writes a profile of maker Robert Quattlebaum of Lumanoi from Ashland, Oregon who exhibited his interactive light sculptures at Maker Faire Bay Area last year.

Here is the light sculpture in action:

In a press release, MyMiniFactory announced that it had acquired Thingiverse from UltiMaker. On Makezine, Sumrit Basra wrote about the different platforms for downloading 3D models. “Started by MakerBot back in 2008, (Thingiverse) was the first great place to find free files and engage with others with similar interests. Despite the large collection and giant user base, Thingiverse has its issues.” Basra’s favorite site was Printables from Prusa Research.

MyMiniFactory, which offers 3D models for free and for sale, has created a marketplace for 3D designers to sell their designs. “We’ve paid out $100 million to creators without venture capital subsidies or ad revenue,” said Rees Calder of MyMiniFactory who is the new CMO of Thingiverse. MyMiniFactory plans to add the same “monetisation pathways for creators, with an emphasis on verified human-made content over AI-generated and non-printable designs.”

“Every major content platform is now flooded with AI-generated material, and creators are paying the price,” said Romain Kidd, new CEO of Thingiverse. “This acquisition is our answer: a combined platform of 10 million users where human creativity is the product, not the training data.”

Make Things is a weekly newsletter for the Maker community from Make:. This newsletter lives on the web at makethings.make.co

I’d love to hear from you if you have ideas, projects or news items about the maker community. Email me - [email protected].