What Makes a Maker: Meet Gordon Gueydan
Meet Gordon Gueydan. Gordon has a background in electrical engineering, woodworking, machining, programming and restoration. He also is an aircooled Volkswagen enthusiast. Gordon made and demonstrated a Rubens’ tube at Lafayette Mini Maker Faire in March 2018.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started making things.
My parents encouraged creativity. I can think of numerous examples when I was a kid. When I was six, I remember making an arcade out of cardboard boxes. I kept the cardboard pinball game for the longest. I remember making a bowling game with a jump ramp, a basketball, some pieces of wood and some old bowling pins my neighbor gave me and my brother. My brother and I made trailers for adult tricycles to haul stuff around the yard. My dad taking me to garage sales, tinkering with engines, electronics and computers, accidental fires, constantly blowing breakers, stitches, burns….a combination of curiosity, creativity and failure are the initial building blocks of any maker.
What does the term “Maker” mean to you?
Growing up in the early days of the internet, A hacker was someone who understood at such a fundamental level that they could exploit a system or device to do things they were not intended to do and they shared it. People existed without skin color, without nationality and without religious bias (paraphrasing The Mentor). Compared to the “real world” I grew up in, I saw the internet and these hackers with their understanding of it as the ideal. The maker community is, as I see it, an extension of that world. People coming together to bring their knowledge and understanding to share with others.
Who or what inspires you?
Doing something of purpose. People who share their failures, as well as their successes, so others can learn from their mistakes.
Is making your hobby or your business? How does it relate, if at all, to your day job?
Both. My “day job” is a combination of IT work and building things for people.
Why is making important to you?
Making is not just building something. The path to discovery and understanding. The research and learning is what I find fulfilling.
What have you made that you are most proud of?
I can’t think of a single thing I am the most proud of. I am proud of my plasma antenna.
What would you make if you had unlimited resources?
A Makerspace.
What advice can you give someone who wants to get involved in the Maker movement?
Don’t let failure discourage you. Find a community, don’t stay secluded.
Tell us something surprising about yourself.
I don’t understand how to keep a house clean.
