Making a very big costume…
I’m not an expert at anything, but I am really good at asking questions. I wanted to make a JEDI KNIGHT robe for Halloween. Problem: I have never sewn anything this big or complex before. Thankfully, I was able to ask Rebecca, a fellow Teaching Artist, and Lea, one of our interns, for help. They showed me the importance of sketching…
Marble Maze
What can you make with an over sized hole punch? A couple of days ago a visitor created a really cool marble maze puzzle type thing. He spent a long time just tinkering with all of the different pieces of recycled materials in MAKESHOP. He eventually settled on using several tubes and a cardboard box that already had some holes punched out…
Putting Gears on the Wall
My gear prototype has now gone vertical. A project is never finished, you can always change something or introduce a new variable. I decided to try out our gear setup in a different location in the MAKESHOP. I ended up mounting the entire structure to the wall with some hangers, zip-ties, and magnets. I don’t like it when things stay…
Light Painting Tests
Each month, our staff decides on a theme to help us decide what projects and activities we want to offer to our visitors. Our November theme is “Time” and we’ve been messing around in the shop, brainstorming some fun, open-ended activities that emphasize the idea of time passing. We knew we wanted to do some light painting, so we started…
On the Edge of Your Seat
At the end of last month, Children’s Museum Board Members gathered at the Museum for a Board retreat. How do you get to know your fellow Board Chairs? By dividing into teams and having a “chair” contest of course! A MAKESHOP Challenge was presented to the group: Divide into teams of six and create a meaningful chair using a container…
Animation in the MAKESHOP
Each month, MAKESHOP decides on a theme to help us pick and develop activities. This month our theme is “time.” Stop-motion animation takes time to experience. It also lets you manipulate the timing of pictures, so we decided to do some stop-motion animation this month. Our stop-motion machine got a little bit of an upgrade. The controls are still housed…
Boomerangs. They’re coming back.
I love boomerangs. No matter how much I understand the physics behind them, there’s still something magical and artistic about them. I’ve made a few at home, but wanted to make some with kids here, and no visitor would be up for the many hours of sawing, sanding, testing, sanding, finishing, sanding, and other frustration that comes with making a…
Masks!
Our theme for the month of October is identity. We’ve decided to explore this theme by creating masks and costumes. A mask is a great way to change your persona. We’ve spent the past couple of days experimenting with different materials and designs. As usual, we invite our visitors to share in this prototyping process. You can learn a lot…
Halloween came early…
We started prototyping some projects for October acouple of days ago. It was really hard not to go with a Halloween theme. Alexis and I spent the morning creating some DIY decorations for the MAKESHOP. I figured that it would be really cool to add some electronics to some simple cardboard decorations. As always, this process of prototyping programming is…
Circuit Experiments
We have been working on some new circuit block prototypes lately. Christian is working on a motorized generator that is constructed out of an old bike. Nick built a really cool circuit puzzle using conductive tape. These projects have really got us thinking about the future possibilities of our circuit blocks. I attempted to build a matching game that utilized…