makerfaire.com: Maker Faire Bay Area 2009: Items by Topic

Maker Faire Bay Area 2009
Projects and Makers By Topic

Green

1 to 39 of 39

Aging in Community Raines Cohen
DIY "Active Adult" EcoVillage Neighborhoods. Learn how to work with your neighbors to co-create sustainable community, designed not just for "aging in place" but to deepen intergenerational connections so you can maintain independence. Learn from community organizers from around Northern California and take home the tools, inspiration, and connections you need for changing aging.

Location: West Gate Grass D

BEAM Robotics and the Solarengine
Learn how to use the BEAM design approach to create nimble robots from simple components, with no programming required! Many BEAMbots are powered by the simple Solarengine circuit using a solar cell and capacitors.

Ceallach Dyes: solar dyed yarn for you and the planet Kelley Dean-Crowley
Between crafting and making, there lies an exciting intersection of possibility where yarn and fiber can be dyed using passive solar for the dyeing of the fibers. My dyeing process uses home built solar ovens built from recycled and reclaimed wood and glass which will be on display, minimizes water usage and contamination from chemicals.

Location: Outside Outside Homegrown Village

Coworking Communities & Hacker Spaces Raines Cohen
Laid off? Visionary? Getting outta the office? Need space to create, connect, invent and inspire? Form your own workplace community, coworking or hacker space where you can work together, share resources, gain inspiration, get business, even share childcare. Meet coworking organizers from around the Bay Area and learn how to create your own.

Location: West Gate Grass D

Cultivating an EarthBox Transformation Urban Roots - Boku Kodama
Urban Roots has been sprouting a small yet significant movement as a growing contingent of Oakland �micro-farmers� who redefine urban farming. Our goal is making EarthBoxes the �iPod� of container gardening because few innovations as simple as these self watering containers address the issues of low-cost foods, saving the earth and workforce development.

Location: Homegrown Village HV07

Electric Cars - Why They're Better and How To Buy Them
An overview of electric vehicle technology. This presentation will explain electric vehicle components, and the different types of electric vehicle designs and their comparative merits. Learn how electric vehicles are superior because of their greater efficiency, reduced environmental impact, and reduced dependence on foreign oil. We'll discuss the electric vehicles that are available today and the many more that will be available in the next couple of years.

Electric Dune Buggy for the Highway Bob Steinfeld
This is the 5th electric car I have built. I built my first electric car in 1972 on the chassis of a 1960 NSU. Extremely lightweight and preformed well on 48 volts DC. Then I built a later model NSU electric, a volkswagen Baja Bug, then a tube frame chassis from scratch covered with aircraft fabric, and now this 1967 VW Dune Buggy Electric. The Electric Dune Buggy is lightweight has 12, 8 volt batteries, a Curtis PMC controller and an Advanced DC motor. I am working on pusher engine that can augment the car for longer trips or just leave that at home and drive all electric.

Location: Sequioa 612

Envirokids: Make a Difference!
Green arts and crafts by kids and for the earth! The Earth Camp Collective is a nonprofit children's camp that teaches sustainabile living skills and offers fun ways to touch the earth, lightly and positively. We create seed balls, solar ovens, dream pillows with herbs, and more - all made by kids at Maker Faire!

Location: Expo Hall 96

Escape From Berkeley (by any non-petroleum means necessary) Jessica Hobbs
"Escape from Berkeley (by any non petroleum means necessary)" is a road rally of alternatively powered vehicles from Berkeley, California to the US-Mexican Border. Part engineering problem, part artistic opportunity, the rally challenges contestants to start their "engines" on something other than petroleum based fuel, and by any means necessary, cause their "vehicles" show up at the border five days later - using only fuels/power/motive force scavenged for free along the route. "Some entries will arrive at the start line with extreme technical innovation. Others will arrive with only creative excess. The best entries, as well as the likely winners, will need to arrive with both." - Jim Mason

Location: West Gate Grass Area G

EV Miata
A classic red Mazda Miata converted to 100% electric drive -- no oil, no gas, no emissions. Not only is it clean and quiet, but it's quick and it handles as good or better than stock.

Location: Sequioa 613

Gasifier Experimenters Kit, ALL Power Labs Jessica Hobbs
ALL Power Labs (APL) in Berkeley developed out of the The Shipyard collaborative art/build space for large scale mechanical, kinetic and electronic art. APL is an R&D facility developing tools for open source power hacking. Our center for Art and Energy has developed on the open software model. This has lead to the development of a facility, information resource and gathering of people engaged in art and creative power hacking. It is this pooling of resources that has developed projects like the Gasifier Experimenters Kit (GEK)-- an open source "biomass thermal conversion lego kit" to enable DIYers to create power and biochar from everyday waste biomass. http://www.gekgasifier.com We use our GEK to convert the Honda you see here today.

Location: West Gate Grass Area G

Get off the Water Grid: Greywater and Composting Toilets
Want a bountiful garden irrigated from your greywater? Learn how to reduce dependence on the water grid with low-tech, low-cost options.

Location: Homegrown Village HV12

Green Zebra Anne Vollen
Green Zebra makes it fun and easy to live more sustainably. 2009 San Francisco and Peninsula/Silicon Valley editions describe and present savings from >150 local green companies. The guide is also a valuable educational resource loaded with green living tips. We�re offering $15 Green Zebra guides (40% off) and $5 mini recycling bins. Test your environmental knowledge on our recycling quiz spinning wheel, and start sending Green Zebra discounts to your mobile phone.

Location: Homegrown Village HV11

Gridbeam Village Richard and Phil Jergenson
Since exhibiting at Maker Faire 2008, we've published "How to Build with Gridbeam". Gridbeam is a standardized building system that allows maximum parts interchangability between users/Makers. We are open source. Exhibits include electric vehicles, shelter, solar energy, interactive historical sustainable energy display panels, etc. All made of Gridbeam.

Location: West Gate North Grass D

Human-Powered Ultracapacitor LED Light Mike Rigsby
In places where there is no electrical grid, this system can supply enough energy (at 120 volts) to light a room, power a laptop computer or run a radio. Because the ultra capacitors can withstand hundreds of thousands of charge/discharge cycles, they will rarely have to be replaced.

Location: Maker Shed Maker Shed

HybridMojo: Human-Electric Hybrid Bikes
Demonstration of several electric bicycles, fabrication techniques and tooling, plus facts, figures and illustrations on this most efficient form of transportation.

Location: Bike Town A9

Learn To Fix Your Bike and Help Change The World LITE Initiatives/Community Bikes
Celebrate Do-It-Your Self Skills & Community Building!

Location: Expo Hall 263

LineDry.com Making Hanging Out Fun
We provide clotheslines & supplies, and make it fun to hang out laundry with poetic clothespins, cute remade kids' clothes-pin-bags, beautiful art photographs of laundry on the line, and a song to sing. A clothesline can be an art object in your yard.

Location: Redwood West Outside Lane

Make It Green
We're turning great ideas that improve lives and help our planet into actual products. Submit an idea of your own and vote for your favorites at http://makeitgreen.yahoo.com At Maker Faire, we're showcasing 'Make It Green' with some of our favorite innovations to inspire makers to create and share their own. Come see the Garduino, a "plantsitter", that gives plants water and light when needed and alerts you if the temperature drops too low; the Solar Cooker, a solar-powered cooker saves energy, trees, the atmosphere, and even lives- And much more. Check it out.

Nous Savons Jocelyn Nguyen
Nous Savons has alternately been described as "the opus of a 114-year-old grizzled sailor back from the heart of darkness," and "If Anthropologie set up a flagship store at Grey Gardens." We always feature reconstructed clothing and jewelry, but our interests often veer off into unrelated tangents that are, somehow, quite relevant. Come delight in the latest indulgence: heirloom seedlings and all the supplies you need for an urban fire-escape garden.

Location: Cypress

Penelope Popsicle rePurposed-Plastic Wallets
Penelope Popsicle rePurposed-Plastic Wallets are made from found plastic bags. Originally thrown away as product packaging, produce bags, or catalog mailers, they are now colorful wallets. Each wallet has six credit card pockets, 2 half-wallet pockets, and a bill fold. The wallets are sewn by hand with top-stitch cotton thread for extra durability. Fun and functional!

Location: Expo Hall 271

Permaculture: The cutting edge of a 10,000 yr-old idea Terrie Miller
Permaculture is an design practice that combines several earth sciences to form sustainable human settlements that have the same natural resiliency as a healthy ecosystem. The term �permaculture� was coined by Bill Mollison who, along with his student, David Holmgren. The word itself is a combination of both �permanent agriculture� and �permanent culture.� Permaculture is founded on three ethics: 1. Care of Earth: care for living and non-living things, including plants, animals, land, water and air. 2. Care of People: providing access to resources that are necessary for existence. 3. Setting Voluntary Limits to Consumption and Population: reinvest surplus and reduce waste to do the work of the first two ethics. Visit this project to learn more about permaculture and some of the exciting projects and permaculture education opportunities in the bay area.

Location: Homegrown Village HV07

Plug-In Hybrid Car Conversions
The California Cars Initiative's fifth Maker Faire appearance turns a Prius into a 100+MPG plug-in hybrid by adding batteries and electronic systems. We're partnering with a company selling conversion systems, 3Prong Power, and local volunteer advocates. Plus we're explaining the next big thing: Conversions of large internal combustion gas-guzzlers.

Location: Sequioa 614

Quickupcamper �
A hand-made pickup truck- based RV that is roomy, stable, handles well and gets 20 mpg at 70 mph, about double the fuel mileage than conventional designs.

Location: Outside Grass H

Recreating Wearable Art from Found Objects Erin Cooke
we all have jewelry or items of clothing we don�t wear on a frequent basis: a bag full of grandma�s costume jewelry or treasure chest of broken jewelry bits & pieces. perhaps this jewelry is an heirloom or something we keep for special occasions. perhaps it�s something we�ve outgrown (even jewelry trends change over time!). vintage cookie strives to bring life back into these �occassional� or �outgrown� items. how? piece by piece of course! we find fabulous elements and items to �re�incorporate into new creations. we've focused on jewelry in the past but realizing times are tight - we've expanded our skill set to include sewing so we can refab clothes to recreate fabulous new creations to dress you from head to toe (not just from ear to neck to wrist!)

Location: Expo Hall 280

rethreaded
Open-source website that allows people to share d.i.y. projects and skills to help counteract the effects of fast fashion.

Location: Cypress

Robotic Solar Electric Chariot
President Barack Obama leads the way with this Solar electric chariot. Solar panels provide shade for the drive and store power in batteries. These drive and electric motor in the chest which in turn power the legs through a series of cams.

Location: Roaming Mobile

Santa Rosa Tool Library
The Santa Rosa Tool Library offers Sonoma County residents hand and power tools for home repair and landscaping at no cost, only an overdue fee if the tool is returned late; Just like borrowing a book from your local public library. SRTL would like to share our the concept of lending programs to Make Fairers.

Location: Show Barn 808B

Seed Saving
Saving seeds from plants that grow in your garden ensures genetic diversity and keeps your garden growing stronger year after year. Trading the seeds you save with friends and neighbors is not only fun, but a low-cost way to grow plants that work the best in your microclimate. Learn the basics of saving seed in this casual, hands-on session with SF Permaculture Guild�s Fred Bov�.

Self Adapting Water Heater Set-back Timer Tim Black
A microprocessor watches the hot water usage at the tank, finds patterns in the usage, and reduces the energy usage when possible. Part of a larger project called ezgreenup.com

Location: Homegrown Village HV14

Solar Touring Bike
Our Solar Touring Bike will allow two riders to travel up to 200 miles per day entirely powered by the sun. Clever use of a geared hill-climbing motor and a silent cruise hub motor will enable us to tackle even difficult mountain touring on solar power.

Location: West Gate Grass K1

Take Back the Tap
Supporting tap water over bottled water and defending our public water resources from privatization.

Location: Homegrown Village HV16

The Garduino Indoor Garden Controller
Learn about gardening with computers, from an amateur at both! MAKE author Luke Iseman shows how he used an Arduino microcontroller and simple sensors to make his Garduino indoor garden controller. Now it waters his plants, turns on the lights, and even alerts him if the plants get too chilly. He'll talk about how we might achieve food autonomy by combining a little tech with a lot of seeds. Feel free to bring your Arduinos, plants, and ideas for combinations thereof!

The Problem with eWaste ifixit
Many people don't know that electronics have all kinds of nasty chemicals in them. You can't just throw those kind of chemicals into a landfill because they contaminate soils and leach into the water supply. Find out how proper recycling and reuse of electronic equipment will help fix the planet.

The Ultimate Crunch
Recycling, at its best. Hands-on, interactive event, encourages individuals to work in their own geographic region (city, school, community). I demonstrate how to build your own equipment and provide DIY plans. This is a masters, green-jacket eco-game. Play for fun, or go for gold. It�s tournament time!!

Location: West Gate West lot entrance

Tim Anderson's Projects
I have an assortment from the 200+ projects I've built and documented online. My projects include a solar-powered golfcart which is also a welder, a sunfish landyacht, various hydrofoils, and 25 foot trimaran built from recycled materials.

Toxic Redemption Alameda County Computer Resoruce Center
Constantly delighted that people think what we do is unique or even appreciably intelligent, we have been recycling household electronics for public benefit for fifteen years. This monstrosity is just the latest example of our obsession to diverting material from the waste stream. Made entirely out of other people�s garbage, we will attempt to amuse gawkers by using simple free linux tricks on artistically arranged toxic waste.

Location: Redwood 450

Urban Rooftop Gardening for Beginners The SF Chronicle Home & Garden Section
San Francisco Chronicle writer Jane Tunks, a novice gardener, writes a beginning gardening column. She and her mentors, San Francisco Permaculture Guild leaders Fred Bove and Kevin Bayuk, will do a workshop on how a beginner can start a container garden the permaculture way. I will be in the Homegrown Village (homegrown.org)

Worms, Worms, Worms!
Did you know that there are hundreds of millions of microscopic soil critters in a teaspoon of healthy soil? Learn how to grow a healthy garden by feeding these soil critters. Compost and create a garden that is life sustaining and less destructive to the environment. It fun for the Whole Family.