Maker Faire 2014 by keithbraafladt

Makies

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-21 18:55:25 UTC

Cool presentation by Alice Taylor is CEO of Makielab, a London-based startup that 3D prints personalized action dolls called Makies talking about how she learned to make toys / start a business

Strawbees

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-21 18:59:53 UTC

Peggy Monahan from the New York Hall of Science introduced me to Erik Thorstensson, one of the creators of the Strawbees. This is a very nice new construction kit - especially since it incorporates straws which we seem to use in a lot of our activities. The other cool thing about Erik is that they are open to selling the dies and die machine for making these - as an alternative to buying lots of kits

Aquaponics system

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-21 19:32:01 UTC

I wandered the Faire looking for aquaponic and hydroponics systems that we might learn from for the Bits2Bits project I did not meet the builder - he was talking to other folks but here are some photos of their disblay - a big system that had towers for the plants all with PVC piping. What was really nice was that the build a mini-scale working prototype that they do all the adjustments and testing and actually programming and once it works they can use the same changes in the full-scale system

Tapigami

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-21 20:02:11 UTC

I met the maker Danny Scheible who is an social artist who uses all sorts of kinds of masking tape to create large scale social sculptures - he teaches you how to do tapagami and then you add to the big installations. Danny also creates mythologies about the work. I got a How to Book to help us try this in activate

Notes for this page:

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-22 16:04:18 UTC

I went to the Faire with a pretty specific agenda to find activities for our Activate program (simple materials, construction kits), to meet Makers who were working on interesting projects, to look at activites that might ressonate with our Making Connections grant and to do some geeking out

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-22 16:36:48 UTC

While we were talking he was making something with the tape. He stuck this little pipe on my shirt when we were done talking

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-22 16:40:00 UTC

a slide from the presentation - about a book she read that really helped her think about this work

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-22 16:47:37 UTC

Agponics DIY blog

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 14:55:48 UTC

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 14:57:27 UTC

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 14:57:48 UTC

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 14:59:40 UTC

the working scale model

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 15:00:06 UTC

the plant towers

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 15:00:29 UTC

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 15:00:50 UTC

tower connecting to fish tank

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 15:01:16 UTC

they did not have edible fish in their system

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 15:03:26 UTC

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 15:03:45 UTC

Cool textile area - Make a hotpad by weaving recycled t-shirts

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 15:04:40 UTC

This was a simple activity made engaging from the facilitation of a 12 year old. As she put it "its a sustainable and fun" activity that the really young and older can do. She helped to create the wood frames for weaving ( art canvas frames with sheet - metal screws all around the frame) The t-shirt cuffs and neck were all removed and hung on one series of hooks, and the rest of the T's were ripped/cut into strips and hung on another diy rack. From there you sit down and start weaving

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 15:18:21 UTC

This activity was in the parking lot area... and they used a launching station with compressed air tank launcher - rockets flew 50-100 feet! notice the button for launching

Paper rockets

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 15:19:13 UTC

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 15:24:40 UTC

the template - its great because it has a nosecone template - something visitors want to make - a pointed cone

Swap O RamaRama

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 15:56:06 UTC

in this cool area collected clothes are available to take and remake right there with folks to teach you to sew by hands, machines and alternative approaches

Otto - RasberryPi - based hackable animated gif camera

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 16:01:46 UTC

Cool project for the inexpensive Rasberry Pi computer

Paper Engineering with Lindsay Balfour

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 16:16:31 UTC

Lindsay was in the Young Makers area sharing paper engineering with rolled paper structures(roll paper around a dowel, then tape it - thats it - start building! She was a Maker Corps member in 2013 and helped to produce an amazing cookbook of their activities (paper engineering is one)

Tech's Makerspace book

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 16:33:37 UTC

(link to a 30mb PDF

Circuit Stickers by Ji Qui who developed the paper circuit work

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 16:38:13 UTC

I hoped to meet Ji, but she was surrounded by folks making circuits - but I did get to meet Patricia Ng the Managing director of their new business

Little Bits now with an Arduino Module

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-23 16:42:56 UTC

Played with the new module - they had a demo up and running that sent back sensor input to the Processing app... it also lets you compose with the Synth Kit

Dan Haeg at the Tech Booth

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-24 18:08:40 UTC

Dan was nice enough to let me couch surf so I could visit the Maker Faire

3D printers ....

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-24 18:11:43 UTC

here are a couple I saw demoed that looked very promising

Ultimaker

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-24 18:11:57 UTC

Printrbot

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-24 18:12:08 UTC

Young Makers

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-24 18:31:47 UTC

This was a giant dance floor with each section that was powered by an arduino - they all communicated to eachother through cool copper connectors

Quad Copters

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-24 18:33:30 UTC

Two copters fight in a netted-in area. Pretty amazing and the crowds went wild with each crash

Short videos...

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-24 18:35:31 UTC

IR shooting gallery

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-24 18:36:26 UTC

very very popular - really nice interface - each target had an IR receiver with a motor that made somthing happen

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-24 18:41:59 UTC

Circuit blocks with facinating de-furred stuffed animal toy movements

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-24 18:42:08 UTC

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-24 18:42:18 UTC

This was an exhibit that spins up a giant larriot loop

Exploratorium had its own tent

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-24 18:42:46 UTC

Luigi, Lianna, Ryan and others, they also had what looked like road-kill dissections

Tech Museum Makerspace

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-24 18:52:55 UTC

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-24 18:54:26 UTC

Dan in the Makerspace

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-24 18:57:21 UTC

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keithbraafladt — 2014-05-24 18:58:33 UTC

keithbraafladt — 2014-05-24 18:58:43 UTC