I bet you didn’t know that you could build a GIANT Lyte Bryte (yes, that kind of Lyte Bryte) with some pretty LEDs, some cleverly designed 3D printed holders, food coloring, and a whole bunch of plastic PET water bottles. That is exactly what the clever team behind Maker Faire Orange County did for the Dark Room at their September 14-15th event. Do not despair if you missed this extremely simple yet clever (and very fun) interaction! It is coming to Maker Faire Bay Area on Mare Island from October 18 through 20th and is ready for your wackiest designs. Come play with us!
A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of visiting #MFOC, held in Costa Mesa at the OC Fair & event Center. This was the third year of the event and its been impressive to see how much it’s grown and to observe the community the vent is building in action. Their graphic design for the event (created by brother of producer Ethan Coulter) was particularly exceptional, as we’re the awesome custom Learn-to-Solder boards. Makey surfs!!
Some other Maker Faire OC friends are also coming up to Maker Faire Bay Area to share their work–its always a pleasure to see makers travel to different Maker Faire events and really illustrates the collaborative nature of the maker community and the role of Maker Faire in it.
A scrapped together polar drawing robot in action, powered by Raspberry Pi and Arduino, along with some fun examples of using Processing.org in the development of photo filters and image translation algorithms. Doug will be exhibiting his DrawBot on Mare Island and illustrating (ha!) how you too can use a bit of ingenuity and a whole lots of scrap parts to create something fun.
This drawing bot alternative, made by former Make: editor Matt Stultz was also at #MFOC to provide contrast. Its less janky and a bit speedier. The Pi-Casso is a Raspberry Pi powered fully automated portrait drawing robot turned out drawings of Maker Faire attendees throughout the weekend.
If you can't get enough of drawing machines....
Come listen to Pablo Garcia talk about them at Maker Faire Bay Area on Sunday, October 20 @ 2pm on the Make: Live Stage. This talk will connect the dots between the drawing machines of today and our history of human-machine creative collaborations to inspire the creative art machines of the future! LEARN MORE.
Making Math with NonScriptum
Another double act coming from #MFOC to Maker Faire Bay Area this year are the maker math wizards NonScriptum also know as Joan Horvath and Rich Cameron. They’ve published the amazing series of math learning books (as well as a manual for teachers and other educators) published by Make: – read more about those HERE. Joan and Rich focus on teaching educators and scientists how to use maker tech, together they have authored ten books for Make: and other publishers, as well as numerous courses for LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com). Joan is an MIT alumna, recovering rocket scientist and educator, and Rich is an open-source 3D printer hacker who designed the RepRap Wallace and Bukito 3D printers. If you missed them at maker Faire OC, come visit their table and play with complex shapes in Coal Shed 4 on Mare Island!
More Fun From Maker Faire OC...
This year Maker Faire OC was helpfully organized into sections that represented different avenues of making. The grouping by topic allowed both makers interested in the sa,e things to talk shop and also a visitor to really get an idea of how many ways these technologies and ideas can be explored. Particularly storng were the robotics section — supported by an extensive number of competitive school age teams — and a contingent of noisy, exhilarating, and punked out Battle Bots.
Ghostbusters!
Last but not least...makerspaces!
One of the best parts of any Maker Faire is representation by local or regional makerspaces. Digging deeper through a hodgepodge of projects in all states of “doneness” reveals these thriving local communities of creatives, technicians, scientists, artists, educators, and collaborators.
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