Tag: Do it yourself

Have a Handmade Halloween – Halloween Classes & Activities Around Pittsburgh
In addition to pumpkin pickin and hay rides, there are lots of other ways to get into the Halloween spirit around Pittsburgh this week. While the Pittsburgh Glass Center’s blown glass pumpkin workshop has already sold out, there is still plenty of space left in the other workshops. I know the glass workshops are popular and we’re already working on a post about ornament workshops for the holiday season.

Friday. 10/24 – Make-It-Now Workshops @ Pittsburgh Glass Center
- Make-It-Now Halloween Pendants – $25/pendant
- Make-It-Now Fused Pumpkins – $25/tile
- SOLD OUT 🙁 – Make-It-Now Blown Glass Pumpkins
- Follow @pghglasscenter
Friday, 10/24 – Spooky Science Sleepover @ Carnegie Science Center
- Activities include a spooky live science demonstration, a family Halloween laser show, a late-night snack, and a continental breakfast
- $35/person
- More details available here
- Call 412.237.1637 to register
- Follow @CSCPittsburgh
Saturday, 10/25 – Halloween WorkShops @ TechShop
- 11am, 1:30pm, 3:30pm
- Etched rubber stamp treat bags and vvacuumformed chocolate molds
- $100 for 2 people
- Register online here
- Follow @TechShopPGH
Saturday, 10/25 – Halloween Mayhem @ Kelly Strayhorne Theater
- Noon-4pm
- Zombies, a costume parade, puppets, live performances, games and more
- FREE
- Register online here
Monday, 10/27 – Date Night: Laser Etched Pumpkins @ TechShop
- Custom laser etched pumpkins
- $55 for TechShop Members/$75 for Non-members
- 5pm or 7pm
- Register online here
Tuesday, 10/28 – Kids Create: Halloween Masks @ Carnegie Library Sheraden
- 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM
- Design and create your own Halloween mask in the children’s area.
- Location: 720 Sherwood Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15204
- More details here
Tuesday, 10/28 – Tween Workshop Tuesday: Halloween goo @ Carnegie Library Brookline
- 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM
- Come to the library to do crazy science with your friends. This month’s experiment – Halloween goo. Is it a liquid? Is it a solid? Does it bounce? Come find out!
- All are welcome, but this program is especially recommended for ages 7-11.
- Location: 708-710 Brookline Blvd., Pittsburgh, PA 15226
- More details here
Friday, 10/31 – Kids Club Spooky Crafts @ Carnegie Library Mt. Washington
- 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM
- Stop in to make a spooky craft and get a treat.
- Children grade K-5
- Location: 315 Grandview Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15211
- More details here
More Halloween Happenings Around Pittsburgh

Check out these posts from our fellow Pittsburgh bloggers about fall activities…
- Pittsburgh’s Best Halloween Events and Happenings // PlayPittsburgh
- 2014 Fall Activities in Pittsburgh Family Guide // Pittsburgh Mommy Blog
- 2014 Halloween in Pittsburgh Family Guide // Pittsburgh Mommy Blog
October 20, 2014
Steel of the Week: TechShop Membership

This week’s Steel of the Week is truly a steal: membership to TechShop at over 50% off regular price. What exactly is TechShop you may be wondering?

“TechShop is a community based workshop and prototyping studio with locations nation-wide. Our seventh and newest location,TechShop Pittsburgh, offers the Pittsburgh maker community more than 16,000 square feet of workshops equipped with world class tools and equipment, computers loaded with design software featuring the Autodesk Design Suite, hundreds of classes each month, and the support and camaraderie of a community of like-minded makers.”

TechShop is more than just a workspace: it’s a community center where makers of all types can come together and celebrating the creation of new products. The professional tools and instruction the shop offers are unique to the space. We recently featured SolePower, a Pittsburgh startup that has their workspace at TechShop, and we’ve also talked about it here and here.

The steel is available on Amazon Local and LivingSocial (for only 6 more days!) and is for a one-month membership and one Choice class. These classes include in-depth instruction for a specific project, which vary from jewelry making, robot building, art installation, and many other areas. From the long list of classes offered are bound to find your dream DIY project!

If you have an item you would like featured as our Steel of the Week, submit to sotw@iheartpgh.com!

July 17, 2013
Check out a Cheese Printer at the Mini Maker Faire
Image by maltman23 via Flickr

I have been waiting for MakerFaire to come to Pittsburgh for years!!! I have been a follower of Make and Craft – both are magazines/blogs published by O’Reilly Media. The Make magazine folks organized the first Maker Faire in CA back in 2006. It was a live festival of all things creative, handmade, DIY and hacked. Since 2006 – Maker Faires have been held all over the world.

Maker Faires have included demonstrations of all kinds of neat things. I had the opportunity to see Bre Pettis, who is a maker/hacker extrodinairre, give a talk on the 3d printer back in 2009 at ROLFcon. You can check out a video of his presentation about rapid prototyping and the 3d printer at ROLFcon here. I left ROLFcon thinking Pittsburgh needs to have a hacker space of our own.

Fortunately – others were thinking the same thing. In May 2009, HackPGH opened a hacker space in the uptown neighborhood to provide a workshop space where makers could come together and well, make stuff. HackPGH has hosted and continues to offer many classes on things like lock picking, LED Flowers and crafts.

Maker Faires are meccas of making things. I know many a Pittsburgh who has traveled to Detroit or beyond to attend a Maker Faire.

This weekend the fun comes to Pittsburgh! The first Pittsburgh’s Mini Maker Faire is this Sunday, October 23, Noon-6pm at The Children’s Museum. The event might be called mini but they have a mighty line up of makers who will be showing off their projects and offering workshops. You can check out the entire list of makers here.

Here are just a few of the things that will be demonstrated on Sunday:

Cheese Printer – Matt Stultz, one of the co-founders of HackPGH will be there demonstrating the cheese printer.

photo via Maker Faire Daily

Pittsburgh Lock Picking Club

Yes, Pittsburgh has a lock picking group! This city has something for everyone. Not sure about lock picking – I wouldn’t have thought much of it before either but then I read this fascinating article from a 2009 issue of Wired about the Ultimate Lock Picker.

The Traveling Pittsburgh Craft-o-tron Machine

This is an awesome collaborative project of artists and hackers. But what you really need to know is that this is a vending machine where you can get a crocheted pierogi.

Sauerkraut Powered Robots

Jesse Hemminger has created these little guys that run on sauerkraut. Seems like a perfect Pittsburgh technology to me.

photo Ed Luna

Pittsburgh’s Mini Maker Faire
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Noon-6pm
@ The Children’s Museum
Admission is $12

Related articles
- Best of Maker Faire: Like Burning Man for Geeks (thenextweb.com)
- Lava Lamp Music at Brighton Mini Maker Faire (mt-soft.com.ar)
- Maker Faire Freezer Paper Stencils (craftzine.com)
- World Maker Faire in New York to Feature Teddy Lo’s GonKiRin “Art Car” Dragon (prweb.com)
October 19, 2011
Nov. 12 11am-7pm Handmade Arcade – Unusual craft fair in Pittsburgh, PA

Handmade Arcade — Unusual craft fair in Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh is a lucky to have Handmade Arcade. Brooklyn and Chicago were the leaders in these DIY (do it yourself fairs) and now Pittsburgh has its very own venue to buy local handmade goods.

Visit the website http://www.handmadearcade.com
and make sure to stop by Construction Juntion on Nov. 12! A huge thanks from I heart PGH to the great people that make Handmade Arcade a reality in Pittsburgh.

October 29, 2005