This weekend we’re pleased to present an action-packed Tinker, Hack, Invent Saturday in Henry Ford Museum with familiar Maker Faire Detroit faces HYPE, Kettering University and Ben’s Encore. Get to know a little more about Ben’s Encore and the project they’ll be making.
What will you be doing during this week’s Tinker, Hack, Invent, Saturday?
We will be making bottle cap sleigh bells, shown above, with the guests of Henry Ford Museum this weekend. We like to use recycled materials to make instruments that are fun, cheap, and easy. These sleigh bells will be perfect for the upcoming holiday season. For instructions on how to make these sleigh bells and other ideas, download our free instrument building guide.
What are some of the favorite hands-on activities at Ben’s Encore?
The hands-on activity of ours that people like the most is our giant percussion wall. We created it for Maker Faire Detroit this year. We basically took some wood and a bunch of recycled materials that make cool noises and built a giant wall for people to bang on. Unfortunately, it is extremely loud so it won’t be traveling with us to Henry Ford Museum this weekend.
What other projects is the group working on these days?
We are currently building partnerships with music organizations in the metro Detroit area to roll out our 2014 series of grants supporting musicians and music education. In support of these grants, we are having a chili cook-off fundraiser on Dece. 15 at Dragonmead Microbrewery in Warren. More info can be found here.
What’s one tool you can’t live without?
We are all feeling quite a bit of love for our sheet metal punches right now. These punches allowed us to pre-punch holes in roughly 10,000 bottle caps in preparation for this month’s Tinker Hack Invent Saturday. We used to use a hammer and a nail to punch a hole in the each bottle cap, so these punches have saved us quite a bit of time. That method worked fine enough when we were hosting smaller workshops, but imagine trying to use a hammer and nail to punch a hole in 10,000 bottle caps!
What was your favorite part about Maker Faire Detroit 2013?
Our favorite part of Maker Faire Detroit 2013 was easily all of the amazing people in attendance. When you run a small non-profit organization, the power of your work lies in the people that support it. We were energized by all of the people at Maker Faire Detroit that expressed interest in our cause and our work. That is one of the most wonderful things about Maker Faire Detroit: it provides an opportunity for the creative minds in the area to display their ideas and their work, and gives a chance for the community to experience these ideas and interact with them.
