Every project starts with a spark. This one started with a joke.
The long way around
I’ve been tinkering my whole life — 3D printing, electronics, Raspberry Pi builds, home automation, building a workshop, crochet, robotics — and I’ve been meaning to document it properly for years.
I’ve tried a few times with a few different setups. I’d do well for a bit, then the urge to overhaul the system would kick in, projects would pile up, and suddenly it was easier to just keep making things than fight with the site. So the site sat. Projects kept happening. Nothing got documented.
I’ve had other names and other attempts along the way. None of them quite fit. This is the start — or restart — of getting it right.
The quip that stuck
At some point I was talking to a friend about all of this — the making, the documenting problem, the need for a brand that actually fit. We were also, as it happened, pretty impressed with what Claude could do. Yes, an AI helped name a brand. Deal with it.
My friend made a Tony Stark reference — the obvious one, the guy who builds things in a workshop and makes it look effortless. I quipped back: “More like Teddy Stark.”
We laughed. Then we kept going. Stark became Spark — because sparks are where things start, and because the lightning bolt was already bouncing around in my head as a visual. Teddy Spark. It clicked.
What this site is supposed to be
Not a polished tutorial channel. Not a portfolio for hire. Just a place where I put the things I’m working on — honestly, including the failures — and share what I learn along the way.
Build logs with the disasters included. Honest reviews of tools I’ve actually used. Project jumps when I switch gears, because I always switch gears. And eventually, crochet patterns and 3D print files and whatever else comes out of the workshop.
The through-line isn’t the medium. It’s the itch to figure things out.
Welcome to the workshop. ⚡