Makerspace Urbana meets a Children’s Maker Summer Camp

Makerspace Urbana meets a Children’s Maker Summer Camp

Yesterday ten Makerspace Urbana members made the trip to the Children’s Discovery Museum in Normal, Illinois to host a Maker Disco Tech for their  Design It, Create It, Make It camp! And just in case you are wondering, Disco Tech stands for Discovering Technology. Which instead of a dance party is more like a maker party where we set up different maker learning stations hosted by our Makerspace members that the kids could wander between.



Barry, Emily, Brian, Colten, and Jeff worked one-on-one with each child to teach them the tricks and safety tips of working with the soldering iron. Above we have a maker summer camp kid showing off that fashionable blinkie badge that she made!



Did you know that you can make a speaker just using some paper, magnets, magnet wire, and hot glue? And that anyone can do it? We certainly didn’t until Jeff attended the Allied Media Conference just last month and brought back this awesome workshop idea (Thanks to Jeff Sturges from the Mt.Elliott Makerspace). We had a blast with the kids making these and testing out each one to make sure they worked.

 

 

Gergana and George taught the kids some origami to create these LED magnetic throwies. And then some of the kids got pretty creative with the supplies…

 

And a few of these creations ended up on the metallic ceiling vent! (Some of us may have been enablers of this “extracurricular” activity).



When I asked some of the Children which workshop they enjoyed the most, a few responded with the t-shirt bag project. We are teaching a whole new generation of kids how to upcyle starting with this project, with which just a few snips and knots turns old unwanted t-shirts into bags the kids could take their creations home in!



Special thanks to Children’s Discovery Museum Education Coordinator Bethany Thomas for reaching out to Makerspace Urbana, and making this happen! And especially thanks to the 19 kids who made this event a memorable one for all of us.

Full photo album here.

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3D Printing at Make-a-tion

3D Printing at Make-a-tion

Our first ever Summer Make-a-tion 3D printing work happened last weekend and we had a wonderful turnout. James and Brian put together a workshop aimed at introducing people of any and all skill levels to our 3D printer.

3D Printing (Summer Make-a-tion) (16 of 18)

With no previous knowledge required all participants were able to find 3D models to print online and personally customize them using free and easy to use online resources.

3D Printing (Summer Make-a-tion) (15 of 18)3D Printing (Summer Make-a-tion) (19 of 18)

After every group had customized and generated their 3D part we loaded them all up into the 3D printing software and printed them all together in one run.

3D Printing (Summer Make-a-tion) (25 of 18)3D Printing (Summer Make-a-tion) (23 of 18)

The Maker Space Urbana Solidoodle 3D printer  is free to use and available for people whenever the space is open (check the calendar or join our facebook group for times). Plastic and maintenance for the printer are payed for by a donation jar sitting next to the printer so please contribute if you are able.

3D Printing (Summer Make-a-tion) (24 of 18)

Now come print something!

More photos from the event here.

 

Resources from this workshop:

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Living Letter Press Workshop

Living Letter Press Workshop

Summer Make-a-tion kicked off this year with a field trip to The Living Letter Press,  one of our favorite local maker friendly resources.  In this workshop we hand set original wood type and created two different one of a kind posters based on famous quotes that we picked out as a group.

Living Letter Press 2013

We all got to browse through their enormous cases of type to pick out the exact letters we wanted for every word. We searched through both their upper cases and their lower cases of type. Yes, that’s where those terms come from – how neat is that! In fact many of the terms used in modern word processing programs have their origins in the physical workings of letterpress shops. Visit the Living Letter Press and you’ll be sure to learn more examples.

Living Letter Press 2013 (18 of 44)Living Letter Press 2013 (24 of 44)

After the type was set we moved it to an an original Vandercook Proof Press.  We inked the press with red and blue ink so that they would merge together and print a red/purple/blue pattern. Then it was time to print!
Living Letter Press 2013 (37 of 44)Living Letter Press 2013 (28 of 44)
We all hand cranked out our own posters and ened up with some pretty beautiful results.
Living Letter Press 2013 (41 of 44)
Living Letter Press 2013 (35 of 44) (1)Living Letter Press 2013 (36 of 44)
Huge thanks to Molly for hosting us and being a wonderful instructor. Find out more about the The Living Letter Press at www.livingletterpress.com.
Full photo album here.
Check out our up coming Summer Make-a-tion workshops here!
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Art at the Market!

Art at the Market!

365 (115 of 1)After last years successful “T-Shirt to Tote Bag” workshop at Urbana’s Market at the Square  we were lucky enough to be invited back to do it again. And it was a huge success, we started with a massive pile of shirts and actually ran out. That means their are now more reusable bags in the world and less old T-shirts. It’s really a win-win for everyone. And the extra T-shirt scraps were even donated to The Bike Project to be used as rags. Here is a brief description of the workshop be did:

 T-Shirt to Tote Bag
Expand your collection of re-usable shopping bags by converting an old t-shirt into a tote.  No sewing skills required, pick a shirt and we will show you how to make the adjustments. Then, fill it with a harvest of Market goodies!

 

And a huge thanks to the Urbana Public Arts Program for sponsoring this event.

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3D Printing workshop session 2

3D Printing workshop session 2

3D printed catFor this workshop, we used Blender to create 3D models intended for printing.  If you missed this session, you can get up to speed by viewing the following online tutorials:

Additionally, the attached shortcut list is an invaluable resource while learning Blender.

 

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3D Printing workshop session 1

3D Printing workshop session 1

Thanks everyone for coming to the workshop tonight!  We covered the basics of 3D printing, including:3D Printed Pattern

  • Making 3D models in Tinkercad, OpenSCAD, and Blender
  • Editing slicer settings in Skeinforge
  • Understanding raw g-code
  • Printing on the Solidoodle
  • Finding cool projects on Thingiverse

Check out the presentation to get links to all the software we discussed:

3DPrinting

More sessions to follow, providing hands on experience modeling and printing.  If you have anything you’d like to see in a future workshop, give us your comments!

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Holiday Workshops – Unique Gifts to Keep&Share

Holiday Workshops – Unique Gifts to Keep&Share

Hey Ho Ho Ho Let's Sew (24 of 17)We are excited to have two exciting workshops happening for the holiday season. One focused on sewing and one focused on glass fusing:

Hey HO HO HO! Let’s Sew

Saturday, December 1, 2012   2:00pm until 5:00pm

With the Holidays right around the corner, forget about commercially produced junk and come make a keepsake ornament of your very own. In this workshop we’ll be focusing on sewn ornament design and construction and the sewing skills that go with it. All ages and skill levels are welcome. No need to bring anything but your love of making.

Ornament options from easy to advanced.

A- Sewn Paper Star
B- Sewn Felt Evergreen Tree with Decorative Hand Stitching
C- Sewn and Stuffed Candy Cane or Snowy Owl
$5 suggested donation.
Sign up online here or on facebook. Drop-ins welcome.
At Makerspace Urbana

Fused Glass Ornaments/Tchotchkes

Sunday, December 9, 2012  2:00pm until 5:00pm

We only have space for 8 in this workshop. SO YOU MUST SIGN UP ON THIS FORM: http://goo.gl/RTMA8
Just joining the facebook eventwon’t guarantee you a space.
In this workshop you will learn the basics of glass fusing and slumping and how to cut glass and piece it together. We’ll all create a blue fused glass ornament/tchotchke with snowflakes and then design our own unique creations. No need to bring anything but your love of making.$10 suggested donation.

This event will not be at the Makerspace, it will be held at 602 E High St Urbana, IL 61801

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Sew-O-Ween!

Sew-O-Ween!

 

SewingSwitchcraft

 

Not done with your halloween costume? How unseamly! But don’t fret as Shared Threads and Makerspace Urbana have teamed up to help you. We’ll be holding a series of sewing-oriented open hours in the weeks leading up to Halloween. If you enjoy making your own costume, come work with others, get help, and share skills.

We provide: a room full of sewing machines and the expertise of an experienced tailor. Plus all the shiny LEDs you can get your hands on.
You provide: Your materials and a love of making.

 

And if you’re still thinking to yourself: To sew or not to sew? You don’t have a choice buddy because Halloween is 3 weeks away! So stop hemming and hawing and come by the Makerspace: Basement room #16 at the IMC.
All Workshop Dates:
Saturday, Oct. 13 2-5pm
Wednesday, Oct. 17 6:30-9pm
Thursday, Oct. 25 6:30-9pm

 

 

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