Goofing off at Maker Faire
We hosted the second annual Pittsburgh Mini Maker Faire last week. It was a lovely day full of lovely people. I could go on in great detail about all the gadgets and amazing inventions on display. Instead, what I noticed most during the day was a sense of goofiness. Everyone was genuinely having fun. We had so much fun at…
Pittsburgh Mini Maker Faire Recap
This past weekend, the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and HackPittsburgh hosted the second annual Pittsburgh Mini Maker Faire, showcasing makers from the Southwestern Pennsylvania region. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with what makes someone a maker, you’re not alone. A maker is any person who devotes creativity, energy, and time to simply creating. It doesn’t matter if…
Renaissance Faire Field Trip
The day after Pittsburgh’s Mini Maker Faire I decided to take a trip to Pittsburgh’s Renaissance Faire…What a weekend! The DIY spirit was in full force at the Ren Faire. Vendors were selling all kinds of wares, from handmade armor to beautiful ceramics. Much like the Maker Faire, the Ren Faire was filled with people having a good time. I would say…
MakerBot in MAKESHOP
We have a new toy in MAKESHOP — a MakerBot Replicator 3D printer! It’s on loan to us from the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University, and we finally broke it out to play with it! Calling this machine a “printer” isn’t entirely accurate: this isn’t a printer like the one on the corner of your desk or even…
Welcome to MAKESBURGH
I came in to work a couple of days ago to find an entire half of MAKESHOP covered in amazing cardboard structures, such as cars, boats, buildings and bridges. We’ve tried to make a cardboard town in the past, but this one is easily the most extensive. Visitors seemed to be more invested in their projects if they know that…
Katz in the MAKESHOP
Every year, the Museum hosts a team building night for the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School of Business. The graduate students entering the program utilized the entire Museum for a wide range of events and competitions. This year, MAKESHOP was the location for boat building. Students had to work as a team to construct boats using a limited amount of…
Our Floor Loom
Our floor loom has been around since we opened MAKESHOP last fall. I’m not sure why it took so long for me to write about it in our blog, but maybe it just took the right visitor to inspire me. “It caught my eye,” is what I was told by one of our teenage visitors. He spent over an hour…
Hana-Chaser
Two of my favorite visitors returned to the Museum a couple of days ago and created another amazing project. Their first tinkering, electronic project was dubbed the “Hanna-Occupier”. Their latest project was a motorized car made out of simple, recycled parts. They decided to name it the “Hana-Chaser”. I was excited to collaborate on this great project. Since these were…
Community Highlight: Free Workshops!
Constructing Identity: A series of workshops in costume making Interested in costume making and performance art? Want to be in a fashion show? Now is your chance… Sign up now to participate in a summer-long series of FREE workshops at the Pittsburgh Gay and Lesbian Center with local artist Scott Andrew. Youth ages 13-17 are invited to participate in workshops…
Modern Art
Who knew that a bunch of motors attached to some junk could create such beautiful art? Well, apparently it does… We really like to make things vibrate, shake and spin by attaching motors and simple circuits to recycled materials. We decided to go a step further by adding a marker to discover what patterns our shopbots make. The result was…