SCALERE’S WORKSHOP
Words by Kaila Hu
It’s finally winter at Syracuse University—the snowiest time in the snowiest place. While other students are cramming for final exams or scrolling through Amazon for last-minute gifts, Olivia Scalere is in her own little North Pole: the SU workshop. She’s the Santa Claus of upstate New York, if Santa traded his elves and reindeer for 3D printing and a losing football team.
Scalere is now a junior industrial design major, but unlike her peers, her career aspirations lean into whimsy. She hopes to work in the toy-making industry, bringing joy to others just like her toys did for her as a kid.
Scalere has always been a creator. Growing up making things, she has always been hands-on; painting and drawing throughout her childhood, creativity has also always been the family business. Her mom works as a toy designer and she said her love of toys and toymaking stemmed from the playfulness with which her mom raised her.
“I feel like I have really loved and understood toys on a deeper level," she said. Growing up, Scalere’s mom would tell her all about the excitement of the job, even having coworkers and other makers create customized accessories and gadgets for her toys.
One of her biggest inspirations for her work is her favorite childhood stuffed animal: a little plush dog.
“Everyone has some sort of comfort thing, whether it’s a toy or something else, that they’ve held onto forever,” Scalere said. “For me, it’s my dog, and I think there’s something really meaningful about that.”
She often connects this time of year to creativity and making.
“Last winter, I was in the woodshop every single day,” she said. “So I guess I associate winter with creation as much as I do with holidays.”
Scalere’s philosophy is that play isn't a sign of immaturity or something one grows out of, but rather a positive mindset.
“There's something really special about keeping that playful imagination going throughout your life,” she said.
That energy bleeds into everything Scalere makes. Her style of toys and other designs leans playful, pulling inspiration from childhood memories and nostalgia. She says that even in college and adulthood, we all “play” in our own specific ways, and that having toys as kids helped shape how we learn and grow.
Scalere says that despite being in an academically driven place, SU still embraces a silly, playful kind of culture. People here take their studies seriously, but they definitely have a fun side too, taking the “word hard, play hard” mentality to another level.
These days, Scalere is experimenting with Computer Aided Design (CAD) and 3D printing, mixing traditional toy-making with technology.
“Right now, I’m just exploring all these different fields and trying to grasp what it is that I eventually want to land on,” she said.