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Walk-In Workshops
Get hands-on with Maker Faire workshops. Try your hands (and your mind) at welding, robot hacking, pin-hole photography, water rockets or dozens of other unique DIY projects.
These walk-in workshops require no registration; just stop by while you're visiting the rest of Maker Faire!
You can also list workshops with limited seating (registration recommended) or all workshops. And be sure to see our full program for more great exhibits, presentations, performances, and more!
Build a Spud Gun
Build your own potato cannon. Participants will learn to safely construct and operated a spud gun. A spud gun is a potato shooter made from PVC plastic parts and a lantern sparker.... [More Details] [Electronics]
Materials Fee: $10
Maker(s): William Gurstelle
Day/Time: Saturday, April 22 12:30 PM (60 minutes)
Location: Fiesta Hall Workshop
Build a Tensegrity Tower
One look at a tensegrity tower is enought to start anybody thinking "how does this thing stand up?" The next thought is usually, "how can I build one myself?" In this session we'll learn how to make a tensegrity tower from dowels and elastic cord. We'll break up in small groups of people to do this project. Material costs are about $4 dollars/tower. This is an open workshop that will start roug... [More Details] [Arts]
Materials Fee: $5
Maker(s): William Gurstelle
Day/Time: Saturday and Sunday 10:00 AM
Location: Fiesta Hall Workshop
Bunnie's Breadboarding Station
This open workshop will help you learn how to build simple circuits using breadboards. We will have breadboards and a large bin of through-hole components, We will have examples of projects that you can build in ten to twenty minutes, involving circuits that make sound, play music, or flash lights. ... [More Details] [Electronics]
Maker(s): Bunnie Huang
All Day Saturday and SundayLocation: Oak Hall
Car PC Hacks
Learn what you can do if you had a PC in your car and how you might install it. Then we'll look at the ways you might hack your car. ... [More Details] [Garage]
Maker(s): Damien Stolarz
All Day Saturday and SundayLocation: Sequoia Hall
Cardboard Creations
We'll show you how to use orrugated cardboard to make all kinds of play things. Cardboard is a light, sturdy, recyclable and inexpensive construction medium. It can be used for quick prototyping of 3D objects, as well as for more fun projects, such as building robot costumes or action figure playsets. Best of all, this material is brought to your door with each purchase of new gadgets, furnitur... [More Details] [Games and Play]
Maker(s): Anca Mosoiu
All Day Saturday and SundayLocation: Cypress Fun House
Chopstick Clock: A ReadyMade Workshop
You can make the chopstick clock from the ReadyMade book. There will be a kit you can buy to get started. In addition to the hands-on workshop area, ReadyMade will be displaying ReadyMade Magazines and have ReadyMade books, kits and other items to sell.... [More Details] [Craft]
Maker(s): Darci Andresen and Mike Senese
Darci Andresen is the Marketing Director of ReadyMade Magazine and Mike Senese is the Product Manager
Location: Cypress Fun House
Electro-Graf Workshop
The Electro-Graf workshop will consist of a short introduction to graffiti culture and the G.R.L, a 15-minute tutorial on designing a tag or creating a stencil and cutting it on the laser cutter, a 15-minute tutorial on making a simple electrified graffiti piece, 10 minute tutorial on soldering (for those who need it) and then individual design, fabrication and installation time. With assistance f... [More Details] [Arts]
Maker(s): The Graffiti Research Lab - The Graffiti Research Lab is dedicated to outfitting graffiti writers, artist and protestors with open source technologies for urban communication. The goal of the G.R.L. is to technologically empower individuals to creatively alter and reclaim their surroundings from corporate visual culture in a time of aggressive, paramilitary policing tactics. G.R.L. agents are currently working in the lab and in the field to develop and test a range of experimental technologies for the state-of-the-art graffiti writer
G.R.L. projects, like LED throwies, the electro-graf and the night writer, have been featured in print in publications like the Village Voice and all over the web at sites like Make Blog, BoingBoing, Wired News, MSNBC and the Wooster Collective.
Location: Cypress Fun House
Grand Idea Studio Open Lab
Drop in and meet Joe Grand, hacker extraordinaire. In this open lab, he will show you some of the things he's working on, including a new circuit board kit that will allow you to create your own version of the game "Simon".... [More Details] [Electronics]
Maker(s): Joe Grand
All Day Saturday and SundayLocation: Oak Hall
Kite Making
Kite-making for kids and for grown-ups. Learn how kites work and how to make them yourself. ... [More Details] [Games and Play]
Maker(s): Tom McAlister
Day/Time: Sunday, April 23 10:00 AM
Location: Outside Maker
Laser Cutter Workshop
A laser cutter is 45 Watts of pure cutting power. It slices, it dices, it makes french fries 20 different ways! The system can cut two-dimensional patterns into wood, plastic, paper, foil, chocolate, glass, cake, etc. We'll be engraving our faces into the sides of pumpkins, making origami, designing microfluidic chips, and anything else that we happen to come up with while fooling around.... [More Details] [Engineering]
Maker(s): Colin Bulthaup
Day/Time: Saturday and Sunday 10:00 AM (60 minutes)
Location: Sequoia Hall
LED Throwies Workshop
The LED Throwie workshop will consist of a short introduction to graffiti culture and the G.R.L. We will then introduce participants to the LED throwie concept, give a 5-minute tutorial on making LED throwies and, after 15 – 30 minutes of individual participant fabrication, we will cover a school bus with LED throwies and play throwie games. Underneath all the chaos and fun, the workshop will... [More Details] [Arts]
Materials Fee: $20
Maker(s): The Graffiti Research Lab - The Graffiti Research Lab is dedicated to outfitting graffiti writers, artists and protestors with open source technologies for urban communication. The goal of the G.R.L. is to technologically empower individuals to creatively alter and reclaim their surroundings from corporate visual culture in a time of aggressive, paramilitary policing tactics. G.R.L. agents are currently working in the lab and in the field to develop and test a range of experimental technologies for the state-of-the-art graffiti writer.
G.R.L. projects, like LED throwies, the electro-graf and the night writer, have been featured in print publications like the Village Voice and on the web at sites like Make Blog, BoingBoing, Wired News, MSNCB and the Wooster Collective.
Location: Redwood Hall
Make Play Day
The goal of Make Magazine is to help YOU make things, so after wandering around the Maker Faire and getting inspired by all the creative projects you see and creative people you meet, come on over to the Make Play Day all-day workshop and be creative yourself. I specialize in helping people who don't yet realize that they too are capable of making things. I will provide electronics, constructio... [More Details] [Games and Play]
Maker(s): Michael Shiloh
All Day Saturday and SundayLocation: Oak Hall
My Country Squire - Buy, Live, Tune and Die with Old Cars (Section 1)
My Country Squire proves a compelling car can be purchased while garage saling for $750. With my actual junkcar as evidence, I will give you a plan to get the most from the least. Thrilling activities like compression tests, ignition timing and carburator tuning will be performed LIVE!... [More Details] [Garage]
Maker(s): Mr. Jalopy
Day/Time: Saturday, April 22 1:00 PM (90 minutes)
Location: Sequoia Hall
My Country Squire - Buy, Live, Tune and Die with Old Cars (Section 2)
My Country Squire proves a compelling car can be purchased while garage saling for $750. With my actual junkcar as evidence, I will give you a plan to get the most from the least. Thrilling activities like compression tests, ignition timing and carburator tuning will be performed LIVE!... [More Details] [Garage]
Maker(s): Mr. Jalopy
Day/Time: Sunday, April 23 10:30 AM (90 minutes)
Location: Sequoia Hall
PIE@Exploratorium's Toy Automata Workshop
In this open workshop, developed by the Playful Invention and Exploration program, as part of Exploratorium's Learning Studio, learn to create working automata out of simple parts and hot glue. Toy automata are delightful, wind-up or hand-crank machines that preceded the age of electronic toys. It's a fun way to learn about simple machines and mechanical models. This is a drop-in workshop wi... [More Details] [Games and Play]
Maker(s): Karen Wilkinson, Mike Petrich, Nicole Minor, & Walter Kitundu
All Day Saturday onlyLocation: Fiesta Hall Workshop
Swap-O-Rama-Rama
SWAP-O-RAMA-RAMAEarth Day, Saturday April 22nd (12 to 4) & Sunday April 23rd (12-5) With a Recycled Fashion Show Saturday @ 5pm Bring $5 and a bag of your unwanted clothes ($10 w/o clothes), all workshop and DIY materials are provided Located in Redwood Hall OVER PACK for Maker Faire! It’s time to clean out your closet and get rid of those unloved items to get re... [More Details] [Craft]
Maker(s): Wendy Treymane
Day/Time: Saturday and Sunday 12:00 PM
Location: Redwood Hall
Z's Stop-Frame Animation
To make a stop-frame animation, an object is moved a little bit, photographed with a digital camera, moved some more, then photographed again. This process is repeated many times. When the photos are played back in quick succession (e.g. 5 pictures per second), the object appears to move by itself. The digital camera is mounted firmly in a stand made from PVC tubing, a door hinge, rubber band... [More Details] [Games and Play]
Maker(s): Thomas Zimmerman
All Day Saturday and SundayLocation: Fiesta Hall Workshop
Zeum Stop-Motion Animation
Come by for a few minutes to add a few seconds to a collaborative, all-day project in stop-motion animation. It will star objects you find around the Faire and clay-characters you build yourself.... [More Details] [Arts]
Maker(s): Michelle Hlubinka and Lana Nguyen
Michelle and Lana run the education and public programs at Zeum, an arts and tech museum for kids and families. Zeum hosts a monthly Howtoons workshop. Michelle is a graduate of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab.
Location: Fiesta Hall Workshop
