This year, once again, the Tinkering Studio organized the Exploratorium’s booth at Maker Faire. Throngs of people joined us at the San Mateo Fairgrounds as we took Tinkering outside of the museum, and into the wonderfully chaotic environment of the Faire!
Maker Faire is a chance for the public to meet the makers at the Exploratorium, and a chance for those of us who like to make things to share that aspect of our passion with the public, whether or not it is part of our every day job at the museum.
All day long, we played with Marble Machines and Wind Tubes, we had some experiments to try in the dark, and brought a retrospective sampling of activities from past Open MAKEs: plastic, cardboard, metal/wire, and wood.
In addition, we featured Earl Stirling’s amazing Harmony Swing Set prototype, Charles Sower’s beautiful caustic drop, and our own Stop-Motion Animation Station.
Check out portraits of Makers and the things they made from day 1 and day 2. Also, we have a large set of photographs from the Faire on Flickr. Scroll to the bottom of the page for a selection of our best photographs!
Here is what happened during the weekend, in detail:
Saturday, 10 am — 3 pm
- Soldering Workshop – with the Tinkering Studio
- Science Workshop – with Curt Gabrielson and Gustavo Hernandez, Watsonville Community Center
- Magnetic Experiments – with Paul Doherty, Exploratorium Senior Scientist
- Plastic Forming Tools – with Antonio Papania-Davis, Learning Studio volunteer
- Toothpick sculptures – with Scott Weaver, Toothpick Artist
Saturday, 3 pm — 8 pm
- Cardboard costume making – with the Tinkering Studio
- Science Workshop – with Curt Gabrielson and Gustavo Hernandez, Watsonville Community Center
- World’s simplest motors – with Sebastian Martin, Exploratorium
- Plastics by the Numbers – with Lori Lambertson, Teacher Institute
- Toothpick sculptures – with Scott Weaver, Toothpick Artist
Sunday, 10 am — 2 pm
- Designing Animal Slice Forms – with Sandra Robins, Teacher Institute
- Paper marbling – with Jessica Henricks and Nina Rubin, Lifelong Learning
- Influence Machines – with Anja Ulfeldt, Artist in Residence
- Sound Experiments – with Julie Yu, Teacher Institute
- Toothpick sculptures – with Scott Weaver, Toothpick Artist
Sunday, 2 pm — 6 pm
- Pinwheel Winch – with Cassie Byrd, Lifelong Learning
- Paper marbling – with Jessica Henricks, Lifelong Learning
- Circuit Boards – with the Tinkering Studio
- Plastic Forming Tools – with Antonio Papania-Davis, Learning Studio volunteer
- Toothpick sculptures – with Scott Weaver, Toothpick Artist
Its wonderfull to see that crafts still live on.
Sometimes it seems that people only wants to buy consumerproducts.
One day we will all have forgotten how to create things by ourselves.