Hands-On Maker Faire Bay Area 2019

Soldering, lacemaking, cording, circuit-building — there’s no place like Maker Faire to pick up new skills as you try your hand at new tools and technologies. This year, Maker Faire Bay Area offers more opportunities than ever to get your fingers all a-tingle with hands-on making. Look for signs all over the event identifying ways you can engage with Maker projects, and be sure to stop by the ongoing featured hands-on activities listed below.

WORKSHOPS

Learn More & Register in Advance

Join us for over 40 advance-registration workshops for more in-depth, hands-on experiences across the gamut of making: DIY Tesla Coils, rockets and robots, light-up cosplay designs, and more.

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獨角飛馬獸 (Winged Unicorn)

Bartholomew Ting / EPC-M.ZONE

Bring corrugated cardboard to life! Transform a flat design into the sharpest animated creature of the fantasy world.

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Strawbees Prototyping

Erik, Lindsay, & Anouk of Strawbees

Enjoy creative chaos with three Strawbees activities: create (and iterate!) a racing robot; collaboratively build a bigger, better mousetrap, and test drive hovercrafts you’ve designed.

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Fabricating Fun

FabMo

Sweet on swanky, salvaged materials? Come upcycle FabMo's fashionable ribbons & cording, trims & tassels, beads & buttons, fabric & fiberfill into look-alike "wrapped candy" wearable art souvenirs.

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Gemstone Polishing

Local Gem, Mineral, Geology Clubs

Step right up to grind and polish gemstone cabochons (pendants and pins) with members of the Sequoia Gem and Mineral Society, the Peninsula Gem and Geology Society, and the San Francisco Gem and Mineral Society.

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Glow Plushies

Marin Makerspace + Make:

Create and decorate a felt creature plushie that glows when you give it a squeeze. Build a simple circuit with a push switch to live inside your plushie.

Learn to Solder

Make: + Google

Come learn or build on your soldering skills by making your very own blinky LED pin to wear proudly. Learn to Solder is sponsored by Google.

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Learn to Breadboard

Make: + Digi-Key

Makers of all ages can learn or build on your breadboarding skills by making your very own light-controlled theremin. Using the ever-popular 555 timer chip and a light-sensing component, you can create your own instrument of the retro-future! Sponsored by Digi-Key.

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Rocket Launching

Make:

Make and blast off paper rockets. Set a personal altitude record with our megalauncher. Test out Maker Camp's jug-based launcher made of cheap, easy-to-find parts. All participating paper-aerospace engineers take home their personalized rockets.

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Biohacking

Bay Area Community Science Labs

Extract DNA, make polymers for bio printing, try out paper microfludics, use a microscope, and get started hacking biological materials.

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Cording and Lacemaking

The Lace Museum

Wind up a lucet cord of your own making. Get started on braiding Japanese kumihimo cord, and take home the disc to teach someone else! Try your hand at bobbin lace, and watch rotating demonstrations of lace knitting, tatting, bobbin lace, and lace crocheting.

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Knitting, Crochet + More

The NeedleArts Zone

Take a stab at our thimbleful of needlearts: knitting, crochet, needlepoint, cross-stitch, spinning, and weaving. Learn at your own pace with our patient (never prickly) teacher.

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Browse even more hands-on activities available at Maker Faire Bay Area 2019!

MORE HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES