Hands-On Heaven

By sabrina, Oct 8, 2013

The East Bay Mini Maker Faire maybe be “mini” compared to the 125,000 person Maker Faire Bay Area.  But we are MAXI in then number of opportunities visitors will have to try something new, to engage and make.  Take a gander at this list of hands-on making booths and come prepared to get busy!

BUILD IT

• 2×4′ Jenga and Kapla Blocks – Hopi Breton & friends.  Here is your chance to play and to create wild modular sculptures at once with big Kapla planks.
• Nerdy Derby – Park Day School – Create your own creative, innovative race car to launch down our undulating 30 foot track, made by students at Park Day School.
• Riveropolis – create an island temple, tree, boat or just play with the THE RIVER THAT TIME FORGOT.

METAL

• Make a tiny tool box with NIMBY – Our NIMBY volunteers will introduce you to the very basic sheet metal fundamentals. We have kid sizes safety gear to start things of right. We will walk you threw cutting, bending and welding your very own tin tool box.
  
• Richmond Art Center: Learn the Art of Fold-Forming  A combination of origami and traditional metalworking, fold-forming creates three-dimensional forms by continuously hammering, folding, forging and annealing a thin sheet of metal.
• The Crucible – Try your hand at some metal stamping.
  

DIRT & CLAY

• Seed Bombs – Orange Door Properties.  Make seed bombs–small, balls of clay, compost and native, drought-resistant seeds that you can make and then launch into abandoned and blighted spaces like freeway medians, empty lots…or even your own yard!
• Biodegradable Origami Pots  -The Blake Garden. Make origami pots out of biodegradable newsprint. 
• Bowl Making – Park Day School.  Make a clay bowl by the ring method and donate it to Empty Bowl Project which raises much needed funds for the East Bay Food Bank.
• Throw Clay – Studio One Art Center Ceramics Studio.
  
• Mosaic trivets – City of Paris Studios – Mosaics, Tile & Design. Put on the eye protection, hear the sharp shatter as you break tiles with a hammer, Plan and layout origional fesigns onto backer board pre-cut squares, put on rubber gloves and mix cement adhesive to glue, wait a minute for Fast setting cement to dry and then grout the trivet to fill in the spaces in between.

LIFE

• Butter Booth – Park Day School.  Make butter

FIGHTING & FLYING THINGS

• Duct Tape Swords –Pufferfish Swords. Come and make a sword out of foam and duct tape!
• Rockets!  – Park Day School.  Cut, roll, tape, launch, crane neck, locate.  Repeat.

ELECTRONICS

• Electronics Take-Apart and Re-Creation Station – Come take apart your favorite electronics devices to see what makes them tick!  We’ll help you identify DC and stepper motors, LEDs, optical sensors, switches, integrated circuits, transformers, heater coils, and many more.  Then we’ll bring these building clock components back to life outside of their usual life support systems. 
• etextiles with Crafty Avenger. Work with a variety of textiles and electronic components to create small projects that light up! Project include patches, small plushies and more.
• Fixit Clinic – Bring your broken, non-functioning things: electronics, appliances, computers, toys, etc. for assessment, disassembly, and possible repair.
  
• Learn to Solder – Park Day School + Lighthouse Community Charter School.  Try your hand at soldering and make a circuit happen!

PAPER, TEXTILES, LEATHER, FELT

• Screenprinting, sewing & textile hacking in the Swap-O-Rama-Rama Pick some material or some clothes from the used clothing pile and then make a costume, sew a dress, hack a blazer into a murse, silk screen rad designs onto your sweatshirt!
• PAPER PUNK Use your hands to transform 2D sheets of brightly patterned paper into 3D masterpieces with a few simple folds.
• Pen Pop Print Shop Print a poster of your own design using fallen leaves and found objects.
  
• The Cyclocarder – Felt the Sun. Ride the Cyclocarder, a bicycle-powered wool-brushing machine, and practice making felted balls of wool.
• Glovetopus – Come make a Glovetopus, a stuffed octopus made from a pair of gloves.
  
• Make Your Own Yarn With A CD Spindle – Learn an age-old art and make your own yarn out of sheep’s wool with a simple CD drop spindle from Spindles & Flyers, one of the Bay Area’s oldest fiber arts organizations.
• Waller Leather – Sam Waller.  Learn a few tricks of the art of leather craft.
• Monster Dream Pillow – Sticky Art Lab.  Use scrap fabric and simple sewing to piece together a sweet little creature, add button eyes, and fill with lavender for a good night’s sleep, or place in your drawer for good smelling socks!
• Oakland Hand Made – learn how to sew and make a prayer flag/wish banner.
• Paper Bead Making – Carol Tanenbaum Designs. Make paper beads with colorful calendar and magazine pages. Then construct a necklace with the beads you’ve made.
• Tile Art – Brushstrokes. Come paint a tile!
• We Dream in Motion – Community Paper Quilt
• Oakland Museum of California. Create a stop motion animation.
• Free Utopian Projects – make art!
• Mothership Hacker Moms – Design a Día de los Muertos art project.
• Tapigami – Create creatures and landscapes out of masking tape – and then place your creation inside of the exhibit.