About me

Who am I

I studied Graphic Design and followed several courses after that to improve my knowledge and experience in design, technologies, web,... like :

• Webdesign
• Ecommerce
• Magento
• Autocad
• 3Ds Max (I learned that this is not for me !)
• Building a business
• Social Medias
• Marketing
• Communication

As I love learning new stuff, I jumped right in in the Fab Academy when it was offered to me as I joined the FabLab team in Charleroi (Belgium) !

My previous job also had a FabLab but I was working on another project and didn't have the opportunity to test the machines (except for the laser cutter but it was for a personal project).

It was really frustrating for me and I'm really glad to be able to catch up on it this year !

Travel

I'm half Belgian half German thanks to my mom.

I've lived several years in the Black Forest in Germany, 1h away from Freiburg im Breisgau, when I was young and I'm going back there on vacation at least once a year. I brought my husband there once and since then he's the one begging to go as often as possible because he really fell in love with the nature and the mountains, as I did since my childhood.

My biggest travel, and the furthest, was to Seattle, where we lived for 2 years, thanks to my husband who did a post-doc at UW in the Ginger Lab (Chemistry Department).

This was a great experience and I would love to go back !

Hobbies

Outside of work, I love nature, plants, walking (mostly in the Black Forest in Germany), reading, photography (with a digital camera but also with analog ones by using the lomography techniques), sewing,...

But most of all I LOVE CATS ! And mine at first !

Project "My Sweet Neko"

So, as a cat lover and also a craft person (drawing, sewing, DIY-ing,...), I built a little business in pet accessories a few years ago, with the help of a business incubator.

It started with sewed cat beds and now I'm creating several other sewed pet items as bandanas, ties, bowties, Christmas "Paw" stockings,...
All these items are now not only for cats but also for dogs because a lot of people asked for it.

I've chosen "My Sweet Neko" as brand name, "Neko" meaning "Cat" in Japanese.

Agreement

The Fab Academy is responsible for:

• Teaching principles and practices of digital fabrication
• Arranging lectures, recitations, meetings, and events for the class
• Evaluating and providing feedback on student work
• Offering clear standards for completing assignments
• Certifying and archiving student progress
• Supervising class preparation
• Reviewing prospective students, instructors, and labs
• Providing central staff and infrastructure for students, instructors, and labs
• Fund-raising for costs not covered by student tuition
• Managing and reporting on the program's finances, results, and impacts
• Publicizing the program
• Promoting a respectful environment free of harassment and discrimination

I am a Fab Academy student, responsible for:

• Attending class lectures and participating in reviews
• Developing and documenting projects assigned to introduce and demonstrate skills
• Allowing the Fab Academy to share my work (with attribution) in the class for purposes compatible with its mission
• Honestly reporting on my work, and appropriately attributing the work of others
• Working safely
• Leaving workspaces in the same (or better) condition than I found them
• Participating in the upkeep of my lab
• Ensuring that my tuition to cover local and central class costs is covered
• Following locally applicable health and safety guidance
• Promoting a respectful environment free of harassment and discrimination

Signed by committing this file in my repository,

Charlotte Vandenbulcke