http://www.twincities.com/family/ci_28206335/tinkerers-and-diyers-twin-cities-maker-faire-is Tinkerers and DIYers: Twin Cities Maker Faire is this weekend By Richard Chin 05/28/2015
[image http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site569/2015/0528/20150528__MakerFaire.jpg Undated courtesy photo of Andrew Tubesing, a St. Paul man who created the VikeBike, a "Minnesota Biking ship," made by bashing together an adult tricycle and an old Alumacraft canoe, and outfitted pot lid shields, LED lighting and a 250 watt sound system. Tubesing will be one of the exhibitors at the Maker Faire, an expo for tinkering, invention, hacking, entrepreneurs, at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds on Saturday, May 30, 2015. Photo courtesy of Andrew Tubesing. ] There will be drones, catapults, robots, 3D printers, electric cars, electric motorcycles, electric bikes and an electric woman's skirt that displays tweets in LED lights at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds on Saturday. It's all part of an invasion of tinkerers and crafters, coders and hackers called the Minneapolis/St. Paul Mini Maker Faire, organized by Leonardo's Basement, a Twin Cities nonprofit youth workshop. Billed as the first Maker Faire in the state, the expo is being put on in conjunction with Make: magazine and Maker Media, which have been sponsoring Maker Faires around the world to showcase 21st century community tech enthusiasts, DIYers, gearheads, inventors and artists. Steve Jevning, executive director of Leonardo's Basement, said about 120 exhibitors have signed up for the event, ranging from a University of Minnesota solar vehicle project to something called "Darth Vader's Arduino-controlled arm." There will also be booths teaching soldering, coding and how to make something useful out of the "noxious weed" known as buckthorn. Contributing to the festival atmosphere will be appearances by the Minnesota RollerGirls, a giant cardboard Tetris game and live performances by two local musicians, Thomas Spargo and Vaughn Rowles, of soundtracks from video games like "Legend of Zelda" and "Xenoblade Chronicles." A post-festival party will have three bands: Paul Metzger, who performs on a self-modified 23-string banjo; RuDeGiRL, a female tribute band devoted to The Clash; and Savage Aural Hotbed, a group that creates music with "found object" percussion instruments and power tools. Jevning said he expects 5,000 to 10,000 people will attend the expo Saturday. He said about 500 junior high school students from around the state will be at a special education event Friday where they will try to set a record for the most simultaneous baking soda-and-vinegar volcano eruptions. Andrew Tubesing, lab manager for the University of St. Thomas electrical engineering program, will teach junior high school students how to make LED torches at the education day. But he also will be at the fair with his VikeBike, a sort of rolling Viking ship made by bashing together an adult tricycle with a storm-damaged Alumacraft canoe. The VikeBike is a combination of low- and high-tech with shields fashioned from pot lids acquired at Goodwill combined with LED lights and a 250-watt sound system. Tubesing, 46, of St. Paul, completes his "skol warrior" look with a Viking helmet made from a mixing bowl sporting faucet handles horns. Tubesing, who has degrees in art and electrical engineering, said since he built his "biking ship" a year ago, he's pedaled it in May Day and art car parades and rolled it on frozen Lake of the Isles during the Luminary Loppet. He once tried to take it on light rail, but at over 10 feet long, it was slightly too big to fit in the train. Kristina Durivage, 30, of Minneapolis, will be at the fair to display her TweetSkirt, which combines a tiny, wireless, Internet-connected computer, a 240-light LED display and a skirt. The result is a garment that is can display scrolling illuminated Tweeted messages. Durivage said the TweetSkirt isn't quite ready for purchase by consumers. "I'm a software engineer, not a fashion designer," Durivage said. "I do like to show what's possible. I love showing ideas. All my code is open source." Presley Martin, a 42-year-old artist from Minneapolis, said he attended a Maker Faire in California where he showed how to turn a pest into something useful. He used garden snails as collaborators in creating art from the abstract patterns the creatures created by chewing on colored paper. Martin will do something similar at the Twin Cities Maker Faire with his "Dye Buckthorn Dye" project, which proposes to use buckthorn berries as a source of dye. Martin said harvesting the fruit of the invasive plant will control its spread at the same time creating color for art projects. "The idea is to tweak our relationship to the buckthorn," Martin said. IF YOU GO The Minneapolis/St. Paul Mini Maker Faire will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at the southeast corner of the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, 1265 Snelling Ave. A Maker Party will be held from 8 p.m. to midnight for those 18 and older. Tickets to the event cost $20 for adults, $10 for youth 6 to 20. Tickets to attend just the party will be $10 at the door. For more information, see makerfairemsp.com. [© twincities.com] ... http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_27775782/like-tinker-minneapolis-st-paul-mini-maker-faire Like to make stuff? 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