10 Charging Station Projects

Fun, clever, and useful projects to help keep your mobile device batteries charged and raring to go.

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Launching A Kickstarter: Behind The Scenes

What really goes into running a crowdfunding campaign? Here's step 1.

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What if Different Artists Made This Sculpture? Using Drones to Find Out

Using photogrammetry and fancy software, you can change the style of real sculptures

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How DJ Sures Built EZ-Robot from the Ground Up

How DJ Sures built the EZ-Robot empire in just five years, aiming to build the world’s first complete integrated robot building platform

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Review: “The Hardware Hacker” by Andrew “Bunnie” Huang

Intriguing insight into hacking and manufacturing from the eyes of Bunnie Huang

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Math Monday: Triangular Trial Run

now with even more triangles!

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Quick Tip: Give Your Tools Away!

Play it forward and give unused tools away for free to friends, neighbors, and local maker groups.

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This Week in Making: Suspended Kickstarters, REI’s Boot Drying Build, and More

news from the world of kickstarter and new entries into the DIY mindset

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Weekend Watch: Unfold These 5 Origami Channels, from Simple to Complex

you could fold all day long and not get through all these tutorials!

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Maker Pro News: Pitch Your Project, a Palm-Sized Drone, and More

Plus, read about product pitch tips from IoT platform Brinc, Google's maker survey, and unique laser-cut business cards.

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Marvelous Mechanisms with Ben Light

Fun and clever designs for various physical mechanism by artist, designer, and mechanical engineer, Ben Light.

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Linkubator Roundup: Week of January 22 2017

Being a librarian is a political act– one that takes as its identity radical inclusivity, and which strives to help everyone in a community meet their information needs. It values accurate information and free and open access for everyone. These values are under attack in the most blatant way we’ve seen in our lifetimes, but it’s facile to suggest that “the resistance starts now.” Just by being librarians, we are fundamentally part of resistance to systemic ignorance and intolerance.  Think hard about the fact that the Library Bill of Rights was first adopted in 1939, as the world was crashing toward war, information was controlled by fascist and dictatorial rulers, and minorities of all descriptions were dehumanized by vicious propaganda.

Everyone deserves to be literate, to have access to the best and most accurate information available, and to use this to inform their civic and personal decisions. You are already part of the resistance.   ~Erinn

Top Features

• We re-visited the GORGEOUS winter pop-up gardens created around Pittsburgh by Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and community volunteers.
• Don’t forget to send us your stories of  #InclusiveCreativity in your library / art practice.
• Lots of #PittsburghPride this week– the brilliant folks at The Labs @ CLP are back with a report from The CLP Music Department

Around the Web

• #DidYouKnow? The first American opera company was an African-American company. 
• ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom is tracking hate crimes at libraries (along with materials challenges). Learn more about how to report them.
• Hands down, this week’s best follows are the brave citizens who run the Rogue / Alt Twitter accounts that are challenging climate change denial– including @AltNatParkSer The Unofficial “Resistance” team of US National Park Service, @RogueNASA, and @BadHombreNPS. FOLLOW. 

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3 Tips for Throwing the Ultimate Maker Party

introduce a maker aspect to your party

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Tie Dye Flowers

Liven up a floral arrangement with tie-dyed flowers you can do in a day.

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Inspiration Flows From the Global Maker Faire Summit

Maker Faire producers really love to share what they've discovered.

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The Glowforge Is Almost Here and it’s Worth the Wait

Everyone has been clamoring for a Glowforge since it was announced a year and a half ago. Now it's here, and its features make laser cutting easier than ever.

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Turn the Crank and Watch This Mechanical Camping Scene Come to Life

A gift for a long distance partner shows a great use of mechanical design

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This Autonomous Boat Went from California to Hawaii and Beyond

After Damon met his autonomous boat in Hawaii after launching it from California, he set its course towards New Zealand.

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Pop des Fleurs Winter Pop-up Garden with Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

This post originally appeared on the LAIP in January 2016. 

Pop des Fleurs at Arsenal Park

by Suzy Waldo

After over a decade of working in libraries, I have embraced the idea that sometimes the best projects happen totally by accident. Early in January 2015, my friend and fellow South Side Community Council member Jennifer Holliman asked me if Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh- South Side would be interested in participating in an art project.

Of course I’m interested in a public art project! Who doesn’t love art?

That art project was Pop des Fleurs. Or more accurately, practice for Pop des Fleurs:

Pop des Fleurs was originally conceived by Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh member, Annette Sandberg. The idea was born during the cold and dreary Pittsburgh winter. Annette was trying to remember how her friends and family had remained up-beat and connected during long, cold winters in her birthplace, Norway. The image that came to mind was her family home, filled with flowers and candles and warm conversations in front of the fireplace.

Its creation will create color and bring delight during the dark season of February and March through handmade, pop-up flower bouquets and gardens. It will also raise awareness for the internationally renowned exhibit of contemporary fiber art happening here in Pittsburgh in May 2016.

The Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh is well-known for their amazing 2013 community project Knit the Bridge. The guild wanted to have another community outreach project to celebrate the Fiberart International 2016.

This is how we ended up making 1,000 flowers in a month.

CLP- South Side was a test installation (along with Arsenal Park in Lawrenceville) to see what (recycled!) materials would survive the harsh Pittsburgh winter. We made flowers out of plastic tablecloths, newspaper bags, coated paper, wool, acrylic yarn, shower curtains and any other material we thought would work. The result was a gorgeous, colorful installation of flowers (and some soggy coated paper.)

We didn’t do this alone. In fact, the South Side community embraced the project from start to finish. Community groups like the South Side Community Council and South Side Chamber of Commerce held workshops, library customers made flowers at home and even opened up their homes for workshops (with wine!), the CLP- South Side Crochet and Knitting Club made crocheted flowers every week, and to top it off, we installed on my birthday!

Our neighborhood loved the flowers. The Chamber of Commerce and a local senior center were inspired to have their own installations, meaning that the South Side was covered with flowers for the three worst months of winter. I was sad when we took our installation down.

A few months later, Jenn said, “Hey Suz, want to do a bigger art project?” And of course I agreed.

So in February of 2016, all 16 branches plus the Main branch of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh will be covered in flowers. And the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Dippy the Dinosaur will have his own 18 foot handmade scarf.

So stay tuned!  My next blog will include details of installing this year’s Pop des Fleurs art in 16 different library locations!

 

Suzy Waldo is the Library Services Manager at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh-South Side, which is her dream job. She’s left-handed, loves symmetry, presents, bike-riding and bacon. She hates birds. Her favorite books are The Life of Pi by Yann Martel and Microserfs by Douglas Coupland. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and has worked for Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh since 2004.

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Open Sourcing Plans for “Low-Tech, High-Thinking” Water Filters

OHorizons works on providing access to clean drinking water by teaching local communities to build and maintain their own water filtration systems.

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The Labs @ CLP: The Music Department Gets Seriously Synthesized

 

Miss Irene Millen and Mrs. Ida Reed during the early days of the Music Department

by Tara Goe

The Music Department at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh celebrated its 75th anniversary a few years back. It’s recognized as one of the largest and most diverse music collections housed in a public library, offering everything from books and music scores, to sound recordings, periodicals, as well as numerous special collections and resources related to the ongoing history of music in Pittsburgh.

Every day we, the librarians in the Music Department, serve an eclectic group of musicians and researchers; we find scores for musical theater students, working musicians, parents and music teachers, as well as people both young and old who want to get started playing music. We have learning resources — instructional DVDs, guides, and music scores for pupils of all levels. But aside from the electronic piano in our department (which I assure you gets daily and frequent use) one thing we have not historically had on offer are musical instruments for practicing and borrowing.

About a year ago I began doing some research into the feasibility of loaning out musical instruments; it seemed a natural fit for our department since we’re all about lowering barriers to musical exploration.

About a year ago I began doing some research into the feasibility of loaning out musical instruments; it seemed a natural fit for our department since we’re all about lowering barriers to musical exploration. Initially I was looking at traditional musical instruments — guitars, ukuleles, mandolins, accordions — but then I came across the Music Tools collection at the Ann Arbor District Library and it completely expanded my ideas about what might be possible. Our department has long thought about how we might bring some of the Music Department’s resources to the Labs @CLP, but what would it mean to bring some of what The Labs provides into the Music Department?

Drummer and Music Librarian extraordinaire Tim Williams makes beats with the Roland TR-8

Pittsburgh has a really creative and diverse electronic and emerging music scene. It occurred to us that this might be an audience that has traditionally not visited the Music Department and that maybe by providing them with electronic musical instruments and gear, as well as educational classes and programs that meet their interests, we might be able to build meaningful relationships with a new audience of music creators.

Our first step was to reach out to local musicians to help us build this new collection. The items we ultimately decided to purchase were based on votes cast by local creators and sound-makers.

This past October the Music Department was awarded an Innovation Grant to explore some of these ideas and circulate electronic gadgets and gear. Our first step was to reach out to local musicians to help us build this new collection. The items we ultimately decided to purchase were based on votes cast by local creators and sound-makers. Additionally, an important partnership with local instrument manufacturer Pittsburgh Modular Synthesizers was established with help from our IT Department. We will be circulating one of their SV-1 Blackbox units, as well as having one on offer in our department for in-house exploration.

Coming soon to CLP’s Music Department: Pittsburgh Modular Synthesizers SV-1 Blackbox

The collection will launch in February 2017, and while the Music Department does not currently have an in-house classroom ideal for musical exploration, we’re thinking about other ways we might act as an “incubation space” for local and emerging musicians. One possibility we’re considering: while we can’t currently offer a traditional Musician-in-Residence Program perhaps we could do the next best thing and commission works by local musicians, ideally inspired by the people and places of Pittsburgh, such as different neighborhoods, historical figures, sports teams, or even the library.

Taking a cue from our historical Pittsburgh Sheet Music Collection we are thinking about how we can connect the old with the new, the analog with the digital. Musical works have long been inspired by or commissioned to celebrate the many wonders of Pittsburgh, and now we’re wondering what it would look like to take that into the electronic and seriously synthesized realm. Perhaps in the coming year we will be able to engage some of our local avant-garde musicians and sound-makers in creating some new works that celebrate Pittsburgh.

Just a few of the locally-inspired works to be found in our Pittsburgh Sheet Music Collection (l-r: Duquesne Garden Waltz, Kennywood Park Waltz, Lucky Bits Are Haunting Me: Theme Song Written for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

We’ll be returning here later this year to discuss what we’ve learned from this project — both successes and failures. And perhaps we’ll even have a few sound pieces (or a Carnegie Library theme song) to share with you!

 

Want More?

• Check out all the posts in our ongoing series on The Labs, starting in 2012, when the initiative was still in early planning!
• Connect with The Labs @ CLP crew online, on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram.

 

Tara Goe is the Film Specialist in the Music, Film & Audio Department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh – Main. She previously worked for the Oakland Public Library and was a founding member of that city’s Rock Paper Scissors Art Collective. Her burgeoning curiosity about electronics and programming inspired her to build her first musical instrument — a miniature synthesizer that fits in an Altoids can.

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Linkubator Roundup: Week of January 15 2017

Hello Hello.  This was a shit week, not gonna lie.  Things we care about are under fire.  We continue to do what we can with what we have– keep an eye out for new features that respond to our Inclusive Creativity call, and consider submitting your own.

~Erinn

Top Features

• We are enthralled with the site-specific installations by Anne Wu, now on display at the Midmanhattan Library’s Corner Room.
• We love these intensely personal, international artist books from featured artist, Ioulia Akhmadeeva.
• We are impressed by The Story Center at Mid-Continent Public Library— they are pros at facilitating community writing! 

Around the Web

• 100% AGREE: Carla Hayden Think Libraries are a Key to Freedom.  She is gem. 
• OH LOOK. The incoming administration wants to eliminate the Nat’l Endowment for the Arts, among other travesties. Fuck. That. Noise.
• Once you stop hyperventilating and calling your senator: Badass literary tattoos accompanied by the books that inspired them.
• #DoesItFart? Scientists are building an animal fart database …& 4th graders everywhere finally get answers.

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Stick Together a Durable Duct Tape Hammock

Always wanted a hammock? Now you can build one with just a wooden dowel and some duct tape.

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3D Printing Topographical Maps from Space Shuttle Data

Here's how I wrote a program to convert the Space Shuttle Endeavor's geographical data into topographical 3D printed maps.

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Learn the Double-Stitch Technique to Handsew Leather

This basic technique will propel you toward custom tool coverings, bags, apparel, and more.

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Math Monday: Tons of Triangles

Triangles Everywhere!

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This Week in Making: High Voltage Heat, Makerbot Loses a CEO, and More

This week, Makerbot undergoes a big change, we discovered an awesome science channel on Youtube, Maker Faire comes to Chicago, and more!

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Weekend Watch: Model Railroad Construction with Luke Cowan

Learn how to make realistic scale models with this fantastic series.

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Terrific Tips from the DiRestas and Darbin Orvar

15 super-handy shop tips, tricks, and shortcuts from three top makers.

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Maker Pro News: Lily Robotics Crashes, HAX Heats Up, and More

Lily Robotics' "follow me" -style drone doesn't deliver, how one maker built a DIY Mars rover that blew away the competition, and more.

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Program with Robot Operating System for Smooth Servo Movement

Learn how to use the open source ROS platform to bring your robot to life.

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Measuring Magnet Strength with a Dual Sensor Gauss Meter

ever wondered how strong your magnets really are?

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3 Robots That Help Kids Learn to Code

Knowing how to program is an increasingly important skill in the world we are making. Thankfully, it’s never been easier to learn. Block-based languages like Scratch make it simple to start acquiring the base concepts of creating software. Python, a language I personally believe should be required for graduation from […]

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Retro Gaming in Style with a Laser Cut, 3D Printed Case

This cool looking handheld gaming system packs tons of retro gaming goodness

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Maker Faire Is Coming To Chicago and Needs Makers

Windy City, here we come!

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