Are you interested in Do it Yourself Hands on Learning?.

Join us @ the Maker Education Initiative meetup!

Thursday, May 9th from 7-9pm at Mozilla (163 W Hastings St, 2nd Floor)

Hosted by Emily Smith, Textile Artist, Graphic Designer and Director of the Maker Foundation and Zee Kesler Community Based Artist, Educator and co-founder of the Maker Mobile.

*This meeting is intended for educators, mentors, organizations, innovators, involved parents and community leaders interested in connecting with other likeminded individuals in order to brainstorm new ideas and create potential partners for future collaborations. Please RSVP !

Zee recently spent 2 weeks abroad participating in an Artist Residency in Manama Bahrain. She created 2 site specific musical installations using found materials, and hosted a Shadow Puppetry workshop for the Bahrain Ministry of Culture’s “Spring of Culture” event, at the historic BAB Market.
The project was part of a weekly popup festival curated by Frances Stafford aimed to rejuvenate the market.
Check out some of the photos below!

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Introducing a new project I am working on in association with Vancouver Mini MakerFaire

The Maker Mobile is a travelling inventor’s workshop, art studio and laboratory. Our goal is to explore the endless possibilities of imagination and creativity by engaging young people in hands-on projects and workshops exploring art, crafts, engineering and technology (sometimes all at the same time!)

 We are currently selling DIY kits to fundraise for our vehicle renovation.

This past Wednesday, the girls at MACC Girls Club learned how to Needle Felt with kits created/donated by Emily Smith head of Maker Foundation and Bluemollusc.com

The girls were excited to learn how to make creations by “stabbing” wool and were patient with the process of learning how to properly use a felting needle. Check out our creations below!

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After checking out World Maker Faire in NY, my friend Emily Smith (who heads Maker Foundation in Vancouver)and I headed to the west coast to check out East Bay Mini Maker Faire. It was a very different vibe. Although World Maker Faire did have a large mix of people, IE: Educators, parents, kids, tech nerds, fashionistas, musicians etc, I found that East Bay Mini Makerfaire was almost exclusively families and teachers with some local Makers around my age present as well. It was nice to see how a great deal of families not only attended, but hosted booths and workshops together!

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I just spent the past month travelling around to Maker Faire’s in the United States. The World Maker Faire in Queens was by far the biggest Maker Faire I have seen with 50-60,000 attendees!! From Arduino workshops to Nerdy Derby, to Life Size Mouse Trap, there was literally everything you can imagine!! I had the chance to meet up with Ann Marie from Maker Ed to discuss potential ideas for Vancouver’s Young Makers Program! Needless to say I am full of ideas and there are exciting things to come!

Maker Faire NY @ the New York Hall of Science

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Today,  I tested out some kits for the Young Makers, ie: I built my first basic Synthesizer! I have to say, as long as you pay attention to the instructions, and to what wire goes where,  it’s actually very easy.

Here’s is a not so great picture taken with my cell phone camera

And here’s a video of someone else who made the same thing using an Altoids tin as a case showing off how it works.

Starting in September, The Bright Red Crayon will be holding FREE YOUNG MAKERS WORKSHOPS monthly @ MACC Girls Club @ Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre (7646 Prince Albert St) . The workshops are from held one Wednesday per month from 3-5pm .

Please note: The Club is for girls 10-13 and is generously funded by the South Asian Family Association. Projects range from arts & crafts to basic electronics.

conductive thread led bracelet

Needle felted Mushroom

Screen Printing

Stay tuned to for exact dates!

We just need a location!