Maker Faire Yearbook 2023
Projects
Found 33 Results
Draco the Juggler’s Variety Juggling Show & Lessons
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Chris Garcia
Home: California, United States
Draco the Juggler is offering free drop-in lessons for families to learn various juggling props starting at 12 pm Sunday (Oct 22). Participants can stop by and try out chinese yoyos (diabolos), juggling balls, spinning plates, and various balancing props. Draco will also be doing a variety juggling show during his time there.
Big Birds Ice Cream Bike
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: James Telfer
Home: California, United States
I built this bike from scratch, based on the turn of the century penny farthing bike. It was originally built to showcase our homemade ice cream; turns out the bike is as big of a hit as the ice cream! This is built as a tricycle so that I could pedal slowly {you don't want an ice cream bike as a get-away vehicle!!} Men, grandmothers to teenage girls to children {in other words, pretty much everyone}- loves the photo opp being up so high on the bike. Additionally being up high gives one a sense of power and confidence. I have witnessed shy kids, break into a big grin sitting on top of the bike!
Caterpillar with Chariot
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Reuben Margolin
Home: California, United States
The Caterpillar with Chariot is 18 feet long, battery powered, and has a top speed of over two miles per week. The chariot has cams that make the caterpillar walk. But it is the caterpillar that pulls the chariot! I made it by hand and it took the better part of a year. Although, I suppose, it would be equally accurate to say that it’s taken me twenty years to make . . .
Vanessa The Robot
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Vanessa The Robot's Managers
Home: California, United States
Vanessa The Robot is a little animatronic puppet with big feelings who drives around on top of an old food delivery robot and performs a variety of angsty pop songs. Her piano contains a multitude of special effects surprises including colored lights, a disco ball, spotlights, and a fog machine.
Acme Muffineering
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Acme Muffineering
Home: California, United States
We are a group of folks who build cupcake and muffin cars. The vehicles are about 4 feet in diameter and are capable of speeds up to 15 MPH.
Most are battery-powered, but some are pedal-powered.
Robomobile
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Russell Wilcox
Home: California, United States
Robomobile looks like a giant version of 1960s-era tin toy robots, with a person inside pedaling an adult trike. It has lights, and can go anywhere and talk to anyone. Despite being boxy and simple, it looks friendly and kids delight in it. Everyone asks 'are you a real robot?' to which I answer yes. I built it out of steel and aluminum, foamcore and plywood, a licence plate holder and trailer lights. It's a hit at Halloween parties.
Spoon Regeneration Station
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Julia Dvorin
Home: California, United States
This spoon-centered art installation is constructed using a 10’x10’ pop-up canopy as a base. All four sides are hung with partially see-through “curtains” made from 1400+ metal spoons of various sizes attached with jump rings and interwoven with aluminum wire. One side has an opening in the middle of its “curtain” as a doorway into the space. Inside, visitors find a simple wooden bench and several camp chairs upon which to sit, rest, and contemplate spoonish things. A spoon chandelier with battery-operated candles hangs from the ceiling peak. A small table in the corner holds an interactive “spoon journal” with an explanation of Spoon Theory and the Spoon Regeneration Station project along with prompts for people to respond to with their own thoughts and stories about spoon regeneration.
Giant Puppets Save the World
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Giant Puppets Save the World
Home: California, United States
For Marker Faire 2023, Giant Puppets Save the World will bring a menagerie of giant flying puppets, featuring creative depictions of Anna's Hummingbird, a Burrowing Owl, and two Monarch Butterflies. The puppets are made by artist and puppeteer, Toni Mikulka-Chang, out of silk, reed, and bamboo. They will create a mini puppet forest for attendees to walk through and under as they rest in their heavy duty umbrella stands when not flying out and about through the Faire. Attendees may pick up the puppets and fly them around and practice flapping their wings and experience their delightful artistic biomimicry in giant form. Giant Puppets Save the World seeks to bring awareness to important species and demonstrates that in teamwork and collaboration, we can create incredible awe-inspiring magic.
RayLights – Audio Activated Lumiere
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Craig Newswanger
Home: California, United States
This dynamic artwork produces ever-changing, mandala-like light patterns that are activated by ambient sounds. The fluctuating, animated light rays range from intense spectral colors to subtle pastels. A sequence of patterns repeats, but when you make sound—talk, sing, clap—the preprogrammed patterns are modified as the lights respond with non-repeating, complex variations of the colors and patterns.
Anderson’s Famous Water Computer
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Glen Anderson
Home: California, United States
Buckets of water, lots of tubes, ping pong balls and flaps moving up and down, what can go wrong? This is an interactive outdoor exhibit that engages all ages: younger kids pour water buckets up to recharge the 'battery', older kids plug and unplug the logic gates on the demo table, and those up to the challenge can learn how NMOS digital logic functions in this faithful water-electrical transistor analogy (water height == voltage)
2019 Maker Faire: https://mfairedev.wpengine.com/maker/entry/69344/ 'How do computers add numbers? We will show you how, using a mechanical computer that uses only water as the power source. Follow the digital logic operations gate by gate as your input ripples through the tubes to compute the answer.'
We won I think 4 Editor Choice Awards and drew a big crowd!
Steamy Tech
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Greg and Lora Price / Steamy Tech
Home: California, United States
Steamy Tech invents, designs, creates, and sells laser cut art and DIY kits for the maker community. What started as a small hobby in a local maker space has become a 10-year-old company making cool kinetic art, electronics, robotic hats, and other incredible inventions for ourselves, the steampunk community, and the Bay Area. We started out building and selling our pre-built projects but soon discovered that we couldn't keep the joy of making to ourselves. Most of our art is available not only pre-built but as kits for everyone to make and enjoy at home. We also sell subscription boxes for the ongoing maker experience and provide events for people to come to make a project with us at local bars and restaurants. Our Maker Faire booth will show all the products that we sell as well as p
Kinetic Steam Works Railroad Handcar
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Kinetic Steam Works
Home: California, United States
Our entirely-shop-built narrow gauge railroad handcar features shop-cast aluminum curved-spoke wheels and cast-iron hubs. Attendees can pump the car down 100 feet of vintage 9-pound rail and feel like they’re on a real track maintenance crew. We’ll print commemorative collectible coasters on our 117 year old steam powered printing press. Our 26 foot steam launch “S.L. Victoria” will be on display as well as our 1898 Stanley Steamer Locomobile.
Mousie and Hedgie
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Margaret Long
Home: California, United States
Mousie and Hedgie have been to a couple of maker faires- they're RC cars modified to be mobile puppets. They roam around the faire, interacting with all humans, particularly the kiddos. They're small, durable, and usually well mannered.
Halloween Haunt…Maker Style
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Scare Makers
Home: California, United States
Our exhibit is a unique collection of DIY radio controlled animatronic props, compressed air driven contraptions and 3D video displays all with a Halloween theme. We present these props and displays in an interactive fashion, with the goal of providing all Faire goers young and young at heart with an entertaining, hands-on and educational experience. We hope to educate Faire attendees about our builds and then allow them to use hand held R/C units to control the multiple props themselves, providing an immersive, enjoyable, noisy (and sometimes scary) dark room event.
Make: Magazine
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Make:
Home: California, United States
Meet the Makers behind Make: and get a subscription to Make: magazine at a special event price! Sign up at the Make: Booth, in the Maker Shed or the Maker Faire Merch Tent. Join the Maker Movement and dive into the first magazine devoted to DIY technology projects.
The IDEA Center
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: The IDEA Center
Home: California, United States
The IDEA Center is a community makerspace located in Ventura, California and built on a core initiative of creating accessible opportunities in STEAM. With an emphasis on empowering disadvantaged areas of our local community, the IDEA Center offers access to a wide range of technologies as well as the classes and training necessary to support them.
Additionally, we provide free scholarships to every student enrolled in our public schools up to the college level to the end of our mission to create expanded and equitable access.
The IDEA Center is a place where young learners, hobbyists, and professionals of all backgrounds can interact and explore the intersections that exist between technology, art, engineering, and design.
Stop by our booth to see our kinetic sculptures!
Pachinko, Clocks and Bots – Art, Electronics and Restoration
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Yolo Maker Guys
Home: California, United States
We're a couple of people who enjoy building and creating interesting things. We have some original design clocks made from 3d printed parts, LEDs, cool neon and other accents. Also a restored early 1970s Japanese pachinko machine, which has all mechanical ball handling mechanism but has been augmented with an Arduino and programmed LEDs. People can try out pachinko and we can explain the history and popularity in Japan. We have 'Copperbot' which is a remote-controlled kinetic art, a sculpture built on a wheelchair base from soldered copper wire structures, large decorative vacuum tubes, over 200 programmed LEDs, several Arduinos, Raspberry Pi, screen, cameras and flapping wings. A few other sculptures and creations fill out the collection.
Making Mobiles
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Bruce Fox
Home: California, United States
I do a 45 minute demonstration on how to make a hanging mobile of aluminum sheet and wire. This done in the original style of Alexander Calder.
3D-Printed Electric Marble Mazes
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Gualala Gadget
Home: California, United States
We have a variety of battery-powered 3D printed marble machines that we'd like to exhibit.
Each model is 3D printed using PLA plastic on consumer FDM printers. This takes anywhere from six to fifteen hours, depending on each model's size and complexity. A model is made from two to seven PLA parts, which are inspected and cleaned of any residual plastic that's a byproduct of the printing process. (None of the models require support material, which simplifies the cleaning process). Once the PLA parts are prepared they, along with the electric parts are assembled into complete models. There's no painting — the plastic is the color it appears.
The models are designed in Blender. They use a variety of different mechanisms to lift the marbles.
TriLeene
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Jana McKinny
Home: California, United States
A mutant vehicle collaboration between Elieen the Pearl Peacock and Grizz the Trimule MKIII. Grizz, the three-wheel base vehicle, is a unique mix of go-kart parts, hydrostatic ZTR commercial tractor powertrain and custom-fabricated components created by Billy Powell. Grizz may not be the fastest tripod at the race track, but he can spin in circles from zero to 60 faster than you can yell vomit! Making Grizz the perfect base vehicle to show off the gorgeous aluminum and LED feathers from Elieen the Pearl Peacock created by Kristen Hoard. Elieen, a fan favorite at Burning Man, takes a team of six a full eight-hour day to assemble with the completed vehicle often being too tall or wide for smaller venues. Elieen and Grizz have truely formed the perfect partnership.
Jumpy the Shark
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Mongoloid Amalgamated
Home: California, United States
Jumpy the Shark is a life size fiberglass shark built around a fully functional sport motorcycle
My Heart Will Go On
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Double X, Carlsbad, Daedalus, Rabbitovski, laëiou
Home: California, United States
Exhibited on the Burning Man Playa this year, “My Heart Will Go On” is a 10ft kinetic sculpture that dances with the rhythm of life and love, lighted up by string of LEDs, powered by the sun and wind. Drawing inspiration from the timeless song, “My Heart Will Go On,” this piece recaptures the spirit of enduring love and courage. Amid a world recovering from pandemic, a world with wars and economic downturn, it stands as a symbol of hope and resilience. As you witness its rhythmic pulse, we hope you find love: love for others, love for our shared world, and most importantly, love of yourself.
Artist Group: Double X, Carlsbad, Daedalus, laëiou, Rabbitovski
Electric Steam Motorcycle, the Solar Surrey
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Empirical Engineering
Home: California, United States
– The Solar Surrey is a robot horse that draws an amish surrey (with a fringe on top)! Driven entirely by solar power, this exhibit goes where the horses take us.
– the Electric Steam motorcycle is a new creation! A1920's Harley front wheel and handlebars, an electric motorcycle battery, and a home-made, see-through steam engine drive this creation around.
The Act of Balancing
Faire: Bay Area
Maker: Al Grant
Home: California, United States
I made a tabletop balancing desktoy a few years ago for a friend, and have built a larger one for everyone that is interested to try constructing throughout the first weekend at Maker Faire!
