Maker Faire Austin 2008
How-to Activities

Here's a few of the things you can learn at the Maker Faire!

Arts

• » How to carve a peanut
     at Art In A Nutshell
• » How to make art that you give away
     at Art Unto Others
• » How to do felting, stamping, stenciling, beading and silk screening
     at Austin Fiber Artists
• » How to make an indie film on a budget
     at Austin Underground Film Booth
• » How to make a marshmallow shooter, vacuum former, LED business card, and keyboard wallet
     at Best of Instructables
• » How to make cool blinking insects with LEDs, and how to use LEDs in art projects
     at Blinkybugs and LED Art
• » How to forge copper or silver and make jewelry from local seeds
     at Copper Strike and Natural Seed Jewelry
• » How-to blow glass
     at Dragonfire Glass Blower
• » How to free form cast with melted silver
     at Free Form Casting
• » How to make glass and recycled paper beads
     at Glass and Recycled Paper Bead Making
• » How to make a hula hoop
     at HoopCircle
• » How to find fun projects that kids can do themselves
     at Howtoons
• » How to make an art car
     at Karmageddon: An Art Car & Other Groovy Things
• » How metal can be brazed and welded
     at Metal Brazing and Welding
• » How to do linocutting and silkscreening
     at Metamorphosis Design Studio
• » How to crochet and create simple fiber projects
     at Modern Crochet and Yarn Works
• » How to do your own printmaking
     at the amazing hancock brothers
• » How to use X-Bee radios with an Arduino microcontroller to remote-control anything
     at X-Bee and Arduino

Crafts

• » How to make a marshmallow shooter, vacuum former, LED business card, and keyboard wallet
     at Best of Instructables
• » How to make clocks and lamps from bicycle parts
     at Bicycle Graveyard
• » How to make pot holders using cotton thread and a crochet hook
     at Crocheting Useful Items
• » How to make ear plugs
     at Custom Fitted Ear Buds and Ear Plugs
• » How to make shrinky dinks
     at D.I.Y. Shrinky Dinks
• » How to make your own board games
     at DIY Board Games
• » How to make things you can juggle
     at DIY Juggling Props
• » How to transform your old clothes into something you treasure
     at First Samples Sewing and Design
• » How to make a necklace
     at Garden of Flowers
• » How to create a "Peep": a 3" tall alter ego
     at Getting Medieval
• » How to knit or crochet handbags from plarn
     at Grocery Bag Handbags
• » How to make jewelry from electronic components
     at Jewelry for Geeks
• » How to crochet jewelry
     at Knitted Guitars and Crochet Jewelry
• » How to use a knitted-sock machine
     at Knitted socks in two hours!
• » How to make handmade lace
     at Lace Making
• » How to make a kite
     at Make a Kite
• » How to revitalize home decor
     at Pimp Your Rags
• » How to make jewelry from recycled jewelry
     at Recycled Jewelry
• » How to make reusable gift bags
     at Recycled Reversible Gift Pouches
• » How to spin yarn
     at Red Sheep
• » How to thread a serger
     at Robot-themed Bags and Serging Demo and Tutorial
• » How to construct a basic marionette
     at Save Our Springs Puppet Show and Marionette Workshop
• » How to make sock monkeys or pop art portraits
     at Spins & Needles: Mixing Beats + Making Stuff
• » How to turn your old clothes into something new
     at Swap-O-Rama-Rama
• » How to make dolls
     at The Doll Queen!
• » How to make hats
     at Top me off!
• » How to bind small notebooks using vintage paper
     at Vintage Paper in Bookbinding
• » How to knit a scarf
     at Virgin Knitters
• » How to make perfume
     at We Make Scents
• » How to weave, spin, felt and make braids
     at Weavers and Spinners Society of Austin

Engineering

• » How to make a compact air instrument. Make music by playing the air!
     at Airheads Air Drums
• » How to use your computer and Arduino microcontroller to make things happen in the real world
     at Arduino 101
• » How to make antennas and learn about shortwave radio
     at Austin Amateur Radio Club
• » How to convert a gas-powered car to run on electricity
     at Austin Area Electric Vehicle Association
• » how to customize a computer case
     at Austin Modders
• » How to work with radio technology
     at Austin Pirate Radio League
• » How to make a marshmallow shooter, vacuum former, LED business card, and keyboard wallet
     at Best of Instructables
• » How to make a CNC fabrication machine
     at Build Your CNC
• » How to hand solder surface mount chips
     at Cheap and Easy Surface Mount Soldering Demos
• » How to Hack a Wii-mote
     at Cool Glow Wii Mote Modification
• » How to make things from bikes
     at Cyclecide Heavy Pedal Bike Rodeo
• » How to build a house with plywood and CNC machine
     at Digitally Fabricated Housing: Build a house with a computer, a ShopBot, and a rubber mallet
• » How to make your own laser cutter
     at DIY laser cutter
• » How to make key chains and guitar picks from old records
     at Groovy CNC!
• » How to use microcontrollers to hack all kinds of things, from TVs to your own brainwaves
     at Hacking Things with Microcontrollers
• » How to make LED hula hoops and LED camera lights
     at LED Hoop and LED Camera Light
• » How to make a toy robot from a tiny motor and a mint tin
     at Make Your Own Vibrobot
• » How to make your own "OnStar" phone system with a cellphone and microcontroller
     at My Daughter’s Wheelchair Safety System
• » How to build functioning WWII-era model warships
     at R/C Warship Combat
• » How to Build a Combat Robot
     at RoboGames
• » How to create a simple circuit with solar power
     at Simple Solar Circuits
• » How to make an Atlatl
     at The Atlatl: Release Your Inner Cro-Magnon
• » How to create your own workshop
     at The Barrage Garage
• » How to use X-Bee radios with an Arduino microcontroller to remote-control anything
     at X-Bee and Arduino

Food / Beverage

• » How to grow your own 3x3 organic vegetable garden
     at Dirty Dylan's Organic Greenscapes
• » How to make ice cream with liquid nitrogen
     at Hungry Scientist Cryogenic Ice Cream
• » How to paint a pumpkin
     at Sustainable Food Center / Austin Farmers' Market

Green

• » How to create a cargo bike
     at Austin Bike Zoo
• » How to develop green design skills
     at Austin Permaculture Guild
• » How to model the flow of water
     at Erosion Table
• » How to re-purpose and re-fashion your old clothes
     at Greater Austin Garbage Arts: GAGA
• » how to make art from recycled materials
     at JOONWALK
• » How Create a Plug-In Hybrid
     at Lithium-ion Plug-In Hybrid Conversion
• » How to build a pizza oven
     at Sculpt Your Own Earthen Oven
• » How to use the sun to distill water
     at Solar Still
• » How to turn your old clothes into something new
     at Swap-O-Rama-Rama
• » How to make green cleaning products
     at The Down and Dirty of Green Cleaning

Science

• » How To Built a Model Rocket
     at Austin Area Rocketry Group
• » How to use blacklight in new ways
     at Black Light for Animal, Mineral, and Vegetable Identification
• » How to make your own supercomputer
     at Cluster Computing
• » How to model the flow of water
     at Erosion Table
• » How to use microcontrollers to hack all kinds of things, from TVs to your own brainwaves
     at Hacking Things with Microcontrollers
• » How to get started with chemistry experiments
     at Having a Ball with Chemistry
• » How metal can be brazed and welded
     at Metal Brazing and Welding
• » How various special effects are produced in the movies
     at Science in the Movies
• » How to make a windmill
     at Windwheel