It was Super

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Wow!  What an inspiring day.  Thank you Makers of the East Bay Mini Maker Faire!  Your creativity and curiosity is  profound, fun, and thoroughly entertaining.

As an organizing group (almost entirely made of parent volunteers of Park Day School), we really feel like we hit our stride this year. Logistics, permits, equipment, volunteer organization…  It all came together to enable us to share this day with 170+ makers and  5000+ attendees.

So many people and organizations make this event happen that it’s hard to single out thanks.  At the risk of making an omission, we pay tribute to:

• Makers.  You are it.  There wouldn’t be anything to talk about if you didn’t make.
• Park Day School staff, parents, teachers and community.  This is an entirely volunteer-run event, and hands-down you all worked unbelievably hard to make it happen and run so smoothly.  Thank you for being so game, for spending all of your time and energy, and for sharing Park’s incredible campus as a venue.
• Studio One Arts Center for joining up with us and for activating their front yard, ceramics, glass and jewlery studios.
• MAKE Magazine and O’Reilly Media for having the vision to share (and license) Maker Faire to community organizations.  Read MAKE Magazine. Maker Shed for bringing kits and cool stuff to the faire.
• The MAKE interns and Lighthouse Community Charter School students Javier Gonzalez, Oscar Martinez and
  Juan Carlos Montes for running our Learn to Solder booth.
• Several Individuals from outside the school community supported the East Bay Mini Maker Faire in a big way.  Katy Bell for stage managing the Music Stage.  Scheffer Ely for helping with set-up.  Tricia McGillis for web design.
• And thanks again to our sponsors (see right).  Special props to Ranahan Production Services for all the production gear, and Aidells Sausages and ACME bread for making the maker lunch happen.

We’ll be sending out surveys to makers and attendees in the next few days—we’d like to hear your feedback so that 2013 can be even more fabulous.    And we’d love to see your photos and videos (please tag with #ebmakerfaire); post them via Twitter and Facebook.

Phew.  Smile.  See you next year!

The Low Down and Big Up on Studio One Art Center

This year for the first time Studio One Art Center is activating their really great art and craft studios for the East Bay Mini Maker Faire.

If you’re not aware, Studio One is a City of Oakland public arts studio.  They offer classes, after school care, summer camps and all kinds of amazing hands-on arts and making programming throughout the year.

Besides hosting the Maker Shed, BioCurious, MakeSF, Mothership Hackermoms, Ace Monster Toys, Workshop Weekend, the Swap-O-Rama-Rama and more tomorrow, Studio One will be showing off their facility and teachers:

• Janet Hiebert will be demoing stained glass, glass fusing & glass beads (upstairs)
• Karen Ehrhardt demoing metal jewelry and Alyssia Cartner on found object assembly (upstairs)
• Blanca Soltys on wheel throwing demos & hand building demos in the Ceramics Studio (downstairs) + glaze your own bisque ware in the side courtyard

Sounds like there will be drum making and building of terrariums too.  Help Studio make a mosaic for their new garden.  And experience first-hand this City of Oakland cultural hub + resource.

What to Bring to the Faire

It’s tomorrow! I hope you’re as excited as we all are.  Here are a few things you need to know.

WHAT TO BRING

• If you are pre-registered, bring your paper tickets (they were attached to the email confirmation you received when you bought the tickets)
• If you don’t have tickets yet, you have until late tonight (Saturday) to buy them at the current rates.  Starting Sunday morning, prices go up to $20 for adults and $15 for kids & full-time students. Discount codes don’t work onsite, so if you show up to buy tickets, expect to pay the full rate.
• Bring cash for the awesome food trucks and crafter shopping
• Bring clothing for the Swap-O-Rama-Rama screenprinting and textile hack zone
• Misbehaving small appliances for the FIXIT Clinic
• Hat and/or sunscreen, as a lot of the event is outside

GETTING HERE

The main entrance is at 360 42nd Street in Oakland.  (map)

Best options are BART to MacArthur Station and 10 minute walk (see map of route here), or bike.  There is attended bike parking at the Faire.

If you drive, Emerson Elementary School, 2 blocks away at Shafter & 45th, is offering parking for $5 as a fundraiser for their PTA.  There is limited street parking.

See you on Sunday!

Kirk Lombard: Pursuing the Elusive Monkeyface Eel

Kirk Lombard worked for 7 years as a fisheries observer for the CA Department of Fish and Game.

Onboard rockfish boats off the Farallones I counted rockfish; on the piers I checked herring, jacksmelt, stripers, pile perch; on the beaches I saw how surf and night smelt were captured; in the hidden coves I checked in on goose barnacle poachers, (not because I had to, because I wanted to); in downtown San Francisco I watched homeless, drop-line-wielding grandmothers, pull rockfish after rockfish out of storm drains.

You want to get deep with fishing in an urban environment? Come to Kirk’s workshop on the Homesteader Stage, 12:30PM: “Poke Poling 101.”  Learn to make your own poke pole so you can catch monkeyface eels, rockfish and cabezon on the California coast.   Informal discussion on other “underground” fisheries of SF Bay will continue after the demonstration–time permitting.

Kirk also has 10 years as a (third generation) equity actor in NY, and is the lead singer of local band Rube Waddell—so you can make a good guess that his session will be great theater as well.  Even if touching an eel freaks you out.

And if you miss the session, Kirk now leads field tours on urban fishing regularly through his company Sea Forager, so you can get out in the field with a real expert.

Make a Book, Tell Your Story

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Oakland International High School is a new public high school for recent immigrants to the US. Located in Temescal, there are over 330 students speaking over 32 different languages, and most of them have only very recently arrived here. These students are all English-Language learners at the same time they are trying to learn all their high school curriculum, and many of them have never had any formal education before OIHS.

Some of OIHS’ 9th and 10th graders are coming to the East Bay Mini Maker Faire with a very cool project–a mini book lab.

With their Art teacher, Brooke Toczylowski, they have created personal Art Journals, and in World History with Teacher Verónica Garcia the students have made geography books about their home countries. They’ll show you theirs and they’ll teach you how to make some too.

This is an example journal from the students’ art class. This is used as a sketchbook and research workbook. This student is from Yemen, and has placed the US flag on one cover and the Yemen flag on the other, to tell a story about her identity and journey.

Come on down and meet some inspiring Young Makers!

MAKE and Maker Shed in the House! Raspberry Pi, MakerBots, Parallax +++

We’re lucky! Because we’re in the Bay Area, near enough to the home of Maker Faire founder, MAKE magazine, the MAKE crew will be trekking from Sebastopol (and parts all over the Bay) to come enjoy the Faire on Sunday.

But not just the magazine—since we’re so close to home, the retail front of MAKE, the Maker Shed, gets to come set up shop. They will be bringing a great array of kits for kids, Maker Faire and MAKE gear, Maker Media books—plus Parallax Elev8 QuadCopters, MakerBot Replicator 3D printers, and hard to find $25 RasberryPi computers.

AND the MAKE interns will be running our Learn to Solder booth, along with students from Lighthouse Community Charter School.

If you don’t know the background behind MAKE and Maker Faire:

Maker Faire started back in 2006 as a spin-off of MAKE magazine.  MAKE is a quarterly magazine that brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the exciting projects in your life and helps you make the most of technology at home and away from home. It’s full of projects from beginner to expert.

The original Maker Faire entertains over 100,000 visitors in San Mateo over a weekend at the end of every May.  The other flagship event happens every fall in New York City (this year 55K attendees).  Mini Maker Faires have started to sprout up around the United States and the world, including events in Ann Arbor, Seattle, Tampa Bay, Kansas City, Shenzhen, Dublin, Brighton—and the East Bay!

Matt Heckert and Walk and Peck

Way back in the age of video tape, in the time before the Internet, a machine named Walk and Peck roamed the earth.

One of the stars of the seminal Survival Research Laboratories film “Bitter Message of Hopeless Grief” (1988), Walk and Peck (AKA The Centaur) also had a feature role in the 1985 performance, “Extremely Cruel Practices: Designed to Instruct Those Interested in Policies That Correct or Punish.” 

Walk and Peck’s maker, Matt Heckert, will be bringing the old W&P out for a little walkabout at the East Bay Mini Maker Faire this Sunday.

In the world of art+robots, Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) is considered to be the pioneer of the “spectacle” form of underground robotic art.” (Wikipedia). Remote control machines, often the size of small cars, interact with props and each other, producing mayhem, surprise, and destruction.

Heckert came to machines and engineering pretty early.  Obsessed with cars and Formula One racing, Heckert got his first car when he was 13 years old.  “It was a little Volvo 544 that I was going to make into a racecar. I was done with the lawnmower and the outboard motor; I wanted to have something to work on.”

Matt’s dad had seen this Volvo out in the country for sale, and tracked down the owner.  It turned out that this guy, Paul Krot, was a photographer and a professor at the Rhode Island School of Design (as well as founder of Sprint Systems Photography—still in biz), and had in fact raced the Volvo in some Sports Car Club of America runs.

Krot wouldn’t sell the car.  Instead he said, “I won’t sell it to you but I’ll give it to you if you will race it.”

Krot proceeded to take 13 year old Heckert to the junkyards to look for just the right motor.  “The motor was tired and bell housing was shot. I took my money that I had earned and bought this motor for $220.”

“He showed me how to port the manifold and what cam shaft to get and what grinds to put on the cam shaft.” Heckert was in business.  Re-reading the owner’s manual, Heckert would check in with Krot and follow his advice—but continue the work and progress on his own.

The point all of this is that this guy was that this guy dealt with me as if I had a brain, had the ability, and was an adult.  He never talked down to me. 

 I never forgot about Paul and my Volvo but I never really got a perspective on how important it was for me developmentally until I was reminiscing about it recently. That I had taken the initiative to get the car and then met Paul and his attitude was “you can do this,” without faint praise or hand-holding, and then completing gave me a sense of accomplishment that I carrier forward to future projects.

Heckert made his way from there to an award winning art career with exhibitions around the globe.  He is currently Chief Engineer for TCHO chocolate in San Francisco, having re-engineered their vintage East German chocolate manufacturing equipment into a full-scale production line on Pier 17.

He’s also currently saying goodbye to Walk and Peck, which has just been acquired by a museum. Come and pay a little homage Sunday at the Faire.

P.S. Check this shot below, the original wiring notes from the control box:

Riveropolis: A Watershed Installation for Boat Making and Magic

San Francisco artist Gregory Gavin says that since he was a kid he has “returned to creeks to feed my imagination.  Finally it occurred to me . . . it was the creek itself I wanted to return with from the forest.”

In a presentation at San Francisco’s de Young Museum in 2006, Gavin proposed perhaps the world’s first company specializing in the creation of miniature rivers. Since then, he has been creating rivers all over the Bay Area under the name Riveropolis. This Sunday, you’ll have the chance to experience two amazing undertakings:

First, Gavin will set up a kinetic, quiet large and fast moving play river to build and experiment with boats.

Then, inside the geometry of the Park Day gazebo, Gavin will construct  an idiosyncratic “archipelago” of floating islands “that I discovered this summer while teaching river camp.

Gregory will also participate on the 12PM “Maker Programs in East Bay Schools” panel presentation/discussion session in the Studio One Theater.

Gavin has been commissioned by National Endowment for the Arts, the de Young Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Seattle Public Art Program, the Potrero Nuevo Fund Prize, and the Bay Area Discovery Museum. He teaches intermittently at the California College of the Arts and is a California Arts Council Fellow. He also teaches summer RIVER CAMP sessions at CAMP 510 at Park Day School, and the San Francisco School. We’re really excited to have him at the Faire!

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Mr. and Mrs. Maker: Jon Sarriugarte and Kyrsten Mate

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Did you get that enormous, weighty Restoration Hardware catalog (I mean “magazine”) about a month ago? Heavy as the heaviest September Vogue?  Maybe you noticed in there a giant feature spread on their new lighting designer,  “Oakland Oilpunk,” blacksmith Jon Sarriugarte.

Or maybe you saw The Avengers, Brave, War Horse, The Incredibles, TRON Legacy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Peter Pan, HULK or Lord of the Rings?  Then award-winning Skywalker Sound sound editor/sound designer Kyrsten Mate might ring a bell if you are in the local movie biz or a film credit junkie.

Better yet—maybe you went to Burning Man over the last 5+ years and saw the Serpent Twins, the Golden Mean snail car, or the Electrobite Olenoides?

Kyrsten Mate and Jon Sarriugarte are the dynamic power maker couple behind these extraordinary art cars.  They do these projects with (talented) friends on top of holding demanding day jobs and being parents to their Zolie Mae.

Their combined aesthetic prowess and extreme craftsmanship—along with the strength of their greater team—result in just plain stunning projects.  Come meet Jon and Kyrsten at 2PM in the Studio One Theater, see more of their work, hear some great stories… and get inspired!

Have You Found What You Love To Do? Workshop Weekend Will Inspire You

Gil and J.D. Zamfirescu say they feel lucky to have discovered “a few of our own passions early on in life.”

Which led both brothers to MIT, where Gil earned his degree in economics and J.D. earned degrees in computer science. Gil went on to found FertilGas, an initiative dedicated to sustainable energy technology in Honduras. And J.D. co-founded Appjet, which was acquired by Google in 2009.

“Our experiences growing up inspired us to create Workshop Weekend,” the Zamfirescu brothers say. “We think everyone, young and old, should have the opportunity to discover [their] passion, and that belief has driven us to put together Workshop Weekend: It’s a way to encourage that exploration of passions.”

Workshop Weekend you ask?  Workshop Weekend is a pop-up maker university.  Take (or teach!) 1-3 hour workshops on science, technology, engineering, art, and more.  The next full-scale Workshop Weekends coming up is:
» November 10-11, 2012 at Tech Liminal and other venues in downtown Oakland

HOWEVER…  We’re excited to announce a “mini” Workshop Weekend at the East Bay Mini Maker Faire! Workshops will run through the day Sunday in their room upstairs in Studio One.  Workshops include:
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Accessorize Your Style: Clay Jewelry Making and Button Making

Patrick Schmidt is the owner of a brand new art gallery in Berkeley. The art of millefiori (pronounced mil-uh-fee-awr-ee) — employed in Patrick’s clay jewelry workshop — was first discovered in Ancient Roman times. The technique was subsequently lost for more than a thousand years until the 19th century, when a couple of crafty folks where able to figure out the process from scratch!

You’ll learn the technique in this workshop, and, as a bonus, you’ll be able to make your very own button.
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Sewing Up a Storm! Machine Sewing, Hand Sewing, and Using a Serger — Halloween Style! (pictured above)

Michelle Adam — a magnificent fashion maestra specializing in scrapcycling, the art of repurposing old or worn-out fabrics into completely new items — is currently working on her master’s degree in fashion design at the Academy of Art University.

“I like to make a game out of it by trying to see how much I can create from irregular pieces of fabric that others would consider useless,” Michelle says.

Michelle will teach you three essential sewing techniques: hand-sewing, machine sewing, and using a serger. You’ll use your skills to sew together a Halloween-themed item which you can take home with you!

“One of the first fashion pieces Michelle ever made was a dress made entirely of Post-It notes,” Gil says. “It was meant to represent women’s ability to multitask, and one of her professors fell so in love with it that she bought it off of her!”
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DIY Extraction: Getting Vanilla Flavor Out of Vanilla Beans!

Oakland-based Andrew Milmoe is a maker and educator extraordinaire. He founded the “Make:SF” community of makers and explorers, and has taught or assisted in over 100 workshops over the past few years.

You’ll take home a bottle of your very own vanilla extract to use in homemade cookies, ice cream — whatever you like!

FIND WORKSHOP WEEKEND UPSTAIRS IN STUDIO ONE.  See the SCHEDULE page for complete lineup and times.