North County Mini Maker Faire

Paul~ He is a friend and champion of Mechathulu, our frequently evolving robot beast.

Alex~ He brought his newest tent, with the temporary covering that I whipped up for the occasion.

Paul and Maria~ Maker Faire is all about making and sharing, but none is possible without good friends.


Simon, and his family, are here with Junkade.

Besides Mechathulu, we also brought the Infernal Percussion Engine, a glockenspiel that plays, powered with a bicycle pump!

Our robots are favorites with visitors, because we hand over the controls! And maybe you noticed? FIRST 2102 Team Paradox is at their first North County Mini Maker Faire... great outreach, Paradoxians!


Bex is a natural with needle felting, and she only got better! I love her chicken, and when she started a taco-cat, I had to make one, too.

Alex shared his woodworking art, and introduced robots.

William and Geoff have been making a lot of new experiments with resin 3d printing, mold making, developing metal alloys, and casting.


Maria and I had our hands full with our hands-on activity... teaching needle felting at a faire, to all ages and skill levels is a big undertaking! Bex was a quick-study and we soon had her help, too.

Michael, Darlene, Seth, Gary, and David~

Simon and Geoff~

FIRST 2120 Team Paradox's newly elected president of outreach can solder! Great seeing you at Maker Faire, Natalie!

William and I solder our own Makey Makes, too. And we hope these won't be our last... I am too sad to talk about this, just yet.

Gary, David, Michael~

Ido and Matt talk programming and 3d printing programmable robots.

Lucas and those clever little diy robots.



Here is something awesome... Maria's art and design, 3D modeled by William, and then cast in our own alloy of bismuth and tin. That's a Parrot Ox... Paradox!

Mike, Geoff and William talking about casting metal, and our own alloy mix, which we are calling BoomNerdium.

A nice thing about exhibiting a tent at a faire, is having a place where you can duck out for a bit.



And after the faire closes for the day, and we've secured our gear, we can treat ourselves to good eats and great company.

June 16 :: Day 2 at The Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum and Mini Maker Faire, on Father's Day
Before the gates open the makers have a chance to visit and enjoy each others' exhibits, and this morning concert with Bruce Thompson was one of my favorite times of the day. He took requests, and shared back stories about the music. It was beautiful.

Leslie and Bex got an introduction to Geoff and William's casting projects.

James< too, got to see firsthand what we have been up to lately. And we continued our discussion about the future of Maker Faire and our hopes and ideas, going forward.

One of the skills that goes well with needle felting is hand sewing and embroidery, and since it was a quiet morning, I had time and focus for teaching a couple of children how to sew little felt pockets and bags.


Maria has been exhibiting at Maker Faires since 2011, when she taught wet felting in San Mateo. This year she was very happy to exhibit something personal and all her own... her projects she made at home, and at school, in her metals class. The Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum has an awesome blacksmithing barn, and so there were plenty of makers and visitors to appreciate and admire her skills in metal working.

Doctor Artemus Peepers... aka Dean LeCrone (IG @deanlecrone)

Lucas, who we've met at Scratch Day, and Ido, the Junkade master... we're basically just hanging out with our friends, enjoying a nerdy Father's Day.

More samples of William and Geoff's projects with modeling, photogrammetry, resin printing, casting. It's all learning, making, playing, failing, trying again, and sharing!

And making new friends! Sitting across from Sawyer Cigar Box Guitars was lovely, because we were hearing little concerts all day.





Look who's here for some Father's Day fun... Paul and Amira. Another kind of making that's great at this event is definitely the food, like this roasted corn, and the corn bread they made in the wood burning oven from the corn they milled on site. We love all the making!



TACOCAT... thank you, Bex! Thank you AGSEM and San Diego Maker's Guild! Thank you, Maker Faire, for dreaming all of this up in the first place. Thank you, BOoMNerds, and all of our maker friends and family. Good things are better shared, and we love to make, play, and share.

Our Mission in Making

Our family began this Make club inspired by Maker Faire, and our need to address learning with consideration for neural-diversity. For nearly a decade we have been bringing our projects and hands-on activities to STEM and art events, and school functions, including Maker Faires, Burning Man, FIRST Robotics, Fanime, ComicCon, The Science March, and International Scratch Day. We also host our own events where we mentor and peer-teach sewing, soldering, metal forging, design, CAD, CnC, 3D printing, cooking, gardening, art, sculpting, crafts, crochet, wool felting, embroidery, cosplay, shelter making, electronics, programming, construction, and robotics. We love to make opportunities for sharing skills, and helping people find answers, support, and resources for making things. We especially want to support young people, and people with limited resources and opportunities. We do all of this out of pocket, in our free time, between schools and jobs.

A few years ago I found a box of note books in a thrift store. They were small and plain, and what I consider very handy, because of their size, and being well made, but not so expensive or fancy that they were too precious. I love small things and notebooks, so I was super stoked about my find. Then I started using my Scout books and felt a greedy panic! I loved them, found them convenient and helpful, and I worried about finding more, and whether I’d have to conserve the few I had. Fortunately, I discovered more in shops, and breathed a big sigh of relief.

I use my Scout books to gift, and for travel notes that include important numbers, flight info and reservations and then each book can become a little scrap book of the trip, and I add stickers and any ephemera I collect, sketches, and observations. I have a Scout Book for birding, and another with class notes for oil painting. They slip in my small purse, or back pocket; compact and convenient!

This is not a paid endorsement. No one asked me to promote Scout Books. I just happened to find them on IG today, and it got me thinking about our club branding, how we present Benevolent Order of Makers on social media. We had a logo for our initial blog and club, when we were "Love & Rockets, Art & Engineering." But for years we have been promising ourselves an updated logo, business cards, a Look. And those thoughts lead me to revisiting ideas about who we are, what our club means to us, and where we would like to go. I've been a bit neglectful of this blog, but posting quite regularly on IG at @BOoMNerds... this seems like a good chance to revisit our mission, our ideals, here on the blog, and to share my thoughts on considering using Scout Books as a tool and outreach connection.












When we mentor, or share our projects, we love to instill the idea in people’s minds that their interests and ideas are worthwhile and achievable. No matter the age or skill level of the people we are connecting with, we want them to feel encouraged and capable, and so we put tools in their hands, we listen to them, and explore their ideas with them. I’m thinking of how nice it would be to put a Scout Book into a child’s hands and say, “Let’s make a drawing of your idea, and write down some thoughts. An engineer, an artist, always keeps notes.” Our notes, our ideas and plans, written down, committed to paper have such a dignity and permanence; it gives us credibility, some empowerment. In Benevolent Order of Makers, all of our projects begin with a conversation that inevitably moves to paper where we sketch, doodle, write lists, make plans, and Scout Books make an ideal tool for this stage of the process.

For myself, I have found that when I feel unsure or tentative, I write small, I draw small. Sometimes, children feel their lack of expertise means they aren't capable of contributing, or having a "legitimate" voice in a process. A Scout Book is small and intimate, a private and personal space, and with its quality of design, it gives credibility and "officialness" to a person's ideas and efforts. I’m thinking about ordering Scout books to use as a tool, a calling card to represent our mission and ideals. I like to believe that it would be a nice way to introduce our club, and it would initiate and support what we believe in, what we want everyone to believe... we have good ideas, we can develop plans, and learn, we can make, we can play, and we can share.

Making An Unboxing Video :: Electroforming Kit

We came home from San Diego Maker Faire with an awesome gift from our friends at Enchanted Leaves, and we made an unboxing video (our very first!) to share our electroforming kit!


And hey! Through Cyber-Monday, you can enjoy the sweet sale going on at Enchanted Leaves, where they sell beautiful jewelry, including electroformed designs by Nedda!

Another Scratch Day

Scratch Day 2017

Remember last year, when we celebrated Scratch Day?
Or maybe you haven't heard of Scratch? This link will take you the page About Scratch, and this will show you where events celebrating Global Scratch Day are taking place.

Scratch Day 2018

Maria is still writing programs using MIT's online program that teaches computer programming. Her favorite Scratch activity is illustrating in vector lines. She's also learned to animate, and she likes using code to create games. Last May she volunteered, again, to teach what she knows about vector line illustration and graphics in Scratch, at the Global Scratch Day event in our area. As a group inspired by outreach, peer-mentoring, and making, playing and sharing... we love Scratch Day, and we are gratified to see our young maker, Maria, bring her skills and enthusiasm to this event where she enthusiastically and skillfully teaches new and intermediate programmers about the exciting possibilities in computer programming.

This year saw an even greater turn out for Scratch Day, compared with last year. There were more participants, and happily, more volunteers. Everything is overseen by Ido Tuchman, with help from Leslie Goldman, and a lot of professional engineers and programmers.

They've got a great venue, but if this continues to grow, we may need an even bigger space for next year!

Ido welcoming everyone to Scratch Day!

Maria's class, Vector Graphics, was in the second session of the day, so she stepped in to give one on one support to a beginning Scratch student. In no time, they had finished the tutorial, then moved on to developing an original game.





Not being too sure what the skill levels in the class would be, Maria decided to let her class be interactive and spontaneous. She shared her background and interest in Scratch, and then announced that she would like to share how games and programs can be enhanced with custom art and animations. Taking suggestions, and answering questions, she developed a lesson for a vector graphic animation. There was time to keep everyone caught up in the lesson, while adding more to the project, as the classe's skills and interests developed. The class and lessons stayed fresh, and engaging.

By applying her patience, practical knowledge, and her love of the subject, Maria was able to effectively teach and motivate, and make the lesson fun. And since the classes were larger than last year's classes, Maria was happy to have an assistant, Lucas, a Boy Scout, familiar with Scratch. They made a good team.

Maria brings her love of learning to her class, and it's infectious.

Every layer, and line of code used, created this vector graphic and animation, and was developed on the spot, based on ideas and questions from the class.

Scratch is a free learning tool from Mitch Resnick and the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. If you've ever wondered about writing code, creating software, being a programmer, we hope you will, no matter your age, visit Scratch, and give it a try. It's simple, encouraging, and made for sharing.

Here's what a local newspaper had to say about Scratch Day 2018. We can't wait for Scratch Day 2019!

Maria continues to enjoy Scratch, to illustrate, write code, to create games... this one was my Mother's Day gift! Move the teacup to catch falling chamomile flowers, and when the cup is full of flowers it becomes a cup of tea! She wrote this for me and my love of chamomile. And here she is sharing the game with her Tutu.




On a long train ride, Maria used Scratch to illustrate this original character...



And today, after we talked about the senseless death of a young woman, Maria, quietly reflecting, went to her desk, where she made art, in memory of Nia Wilson.

We send our deepest sympathy and kindest thoughts to Nia Wilson's family. We ache to think of anyone missing the chance to follow their dreams. No family should have to experience losing a child, and for it to be such a vicious and dark act, a crime of hate, makes the loss even more heartbreaking. We hope that there is even the smallest comfort for them knowing that their loss is felt, and mourned, that we are speaking Nia's name, lovingly, respectfully, and with grief for her family.