Studio Use & Hours

The Prototyping Studio is where your ideas come to life! Our studio is open to anyone on campus—students, faculty, and staff. We invite you to explore making and make projects of any kind. If you have an idea, come on in and we can help you get started by teaching you a machine or assisting with problem solving. In the studio, we have laser cutters, a vinyl cutter, sewing machines, and 3D printers. We also collect a whole variety of scrap foam, plastic, cardboard, and many more random knick knacks that encourage sustainable and reuse friendly making.

Take a Tour with DTI

Open Hours

The building is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m on weekdays and during staffed open hours. Studio Design Partners (SDPs), our student staff, are here to help you during their posted open hours: learn how to use tools and equipment, get a tour of our space, or help you with your creative project.

Open hours run into the evenings and weekends; see the schedule below.

Please note that we are closed during holidays and breaks. Access to the facility will not be available during these periods.

Studio Design Partners

Our Prototyping Studio is led by Studio Design Partners (SDPs)—Smithies who embody all things making! They lead design projects, plan creative workshops for the campus, help maintain a safe and creative making environment, teach equipment use, and provide project support during open hours.

Come on in and say hello to the SDPs during their open hours! Look for them in a tie-dye apron.

Subscribe to our mailing list to find out when we are hiring.

Workshops

The DTI is happy to host your club or group in our space, or lend you our workshop supply kits. Please consider using the OSE Resource Room first before booking the DTI, as our limited space prioritizes open studio use.

Please fill out our workshop form and we will email you back with either a confirmation or suggestions if we cannot accommodate your idea or time.

Exterior view of Capen Annex

Available Workshop Kits

Collage

Magazines, markers, colored pencils, scissors, tape, glue sticks.

Painting

Small tubes of acrylic paint, watercolors, watercolor paper, palettes, brushes.

Fiber Arts

Scrap yarn, crochet hooks, scissors, knitting needles.

Jewelry

Earring hooks, wire, stretchy string, beads, pliers, jump rings.

Things You Can Do

Explore Other Making Spaces

Explore other spaces where you can make things on campus via this interactive Smith Makers Map, made for and by Smithies.

Meet With Us

Studio Design Partner

Ask me about...

Where to get started, questions about your project, mending, safety training, tours, navigating DTI, or using tools and equipment. Come to SDP open hours!

Kathy Guo, Prototyping Studio Manager

Ask me about...

Accessibility and safety, further equipment and software learning, larger project troubleshooting and guidance, power tools and CNC support, or co-curricular workshops with DTI.

Meet with Kathy

Emily Norton, Director

Ask me about...

Anything related to courses or course support, the concentrations, or ways to engage with design beyond Smith.

Meet with Emily

Things to Know & FAQ

Appointment calendar coming soon!

We are no longer giving out OneCard access to Capen Annex. The building is accessible during staffed hours. See the Open Hours calendar.

Most of the materials on display are free to use, If you are unsure please ask! Our materials are shared by everyone so please use materials responsibly and do not use more than you need.

We can’t support mass production and crafts meant to be sold. Please purchase your own materials and give priority to other uses of equipment.

We love material donations, especially:

  • Acrylic or other lasercuttable materials
  • Sewing supplies (thread, needles, unused fabric, scissors, etc)
  • Craft supplies (paint, glue, tape, wire, etc)
  • Tools
  • If you have a question about donating materials, please email us. 

We do not currently have a means of providing direct funding for student projects, but we might have some ideas for where/how to seek out funding. Schedule a time to meet with Emily Norton and discuss.

Our main tools are 3D printers, laser cutters, a vinyl cutter, a drill press, and sewing machines. You can check out the specifics on the Tutorials & Equipment page on our website. We also have the Adobe Creative Cloud, Rhino, and Corel Draw installed on our computers.

To borrow books, tools and supplies from DTI, you must check them out with a staff member. Checkouts are for one week and can be renewed with permission.

We have a color printer that is specifically for projects. If you are unsure whether the DTI is the correct resource for your printing needs, refer to the guidelines below:

  • Printing something for a club or org? Use SGA printing
  • Printing something for a project? Use DTI printing or other Smith printing.
  • Printing something for a class (like papers or readings)? Use Neilson, Seelye, Sabin-Reed, Ford, etc.

We have a Xyron Creative Station that adds a layer of adhesive to the back of any sheet of printed paper.

We also have a Silhouette Cameo 4 Vinyl Cutter for cutting out vector graphics onto single colored vinyl sticker. 

We do not have a sticker printer or allow sticker paper to be used with our copy printers. 

You can send your designs to Paradise Copies, our local print shop.

What We Can’t Do

We don't have equipment or set up to print graphics on t-shirts from a full color picture. We also don't have a robust screen printing set up to expose screens of your design. Here is an example of something we don't have equipment to produce.

Options Available at the DTI

(in the order of most time consuming to least time consuming)

What we do have is a vinyl cutter that can cut stickers so you can mask a screen to screen print one or two colors onto the shirt. Here is an example. We would have to make the screens to do this (possible, just takes some time)

We also have heat transfer vinyl, that you can use the vinyl cutter to cut out and iron on to your fabric. Here is an example. (silly narration) 

We also have rubber stamp making material if you want to individually carve out the shapes you want to print to use as stamps for your t-shirt. Example.

There's also lots of types of transfer paper that you can use the printer to print out and then iron on the fabric. Example. We don't have any of this at DTI though, you'd have to buy them. 

Yes, we have a projector in the classroom (downstairs, Room 101). The screen descends from the far window wall of the classroom and the projector remote control is generally kept on windowsill.

We are very limited in space at the DTI, so please do not store your projects on the work tables. There are project storage shelves in the classroom and at the top of the stairs.

Please label every project with your name, email address, date, and pickup date.

Projects can only be stored for a maximum of two weeks!

After the pickup date has passed, we will recirculate project materials into the space. So please come pick them up!

The DTI hosts many workshops throughout the year. Workshops depend on the time of year and what our Studio Design Partners are planning. Some examples include pumpkin carving, holiday gift making, repairs fair, and printmaking.

Find out when our workshops are happening by subscribing to our mailing list or by browsing the Smith Social Network.

Please fill out this workshop request form and we will get back to you!

Check out the Courses & Concentrations section of our website! 

So many ways! We encourage you to come in during open hours to work on a creative project, become an expert in our equipment, come to our workshops, or take a class here! Subscribe to our newsletter to keep updated with us. You can also join our Slack channel to be a voice in our community.

Great question! This depends on what you’re looking for. We suggest scheduling a time to meet with our director, Emily Norton to discuss your interests in design and making beyond Smith. Additionally, check out our Resources Beyond DTI page.

The studio is prioritized for Smith and not open for general community use, but equipment may be available for specific projects or collaborations.