Browsing “DiYVR”

DiYVR is a weekly spotlight on all things handmade, done-by-oneself, crafted and hacked around Vancouver, featuring profiles of makers, event announcements, exhibits and general DIY fun. Know someone or something we should cover? Email me!

On the heels of Maker Faire Vancouver, the city will again spend a weekend awash in ingenuity when the World Future Society‘s WorldFuture 2011 conference arrives Friday.

The part I’m most excited about is the Futurists: BetaLaunch, “a technology and innovation ‘petting zoo’ where participants can get up close and personal with new start ups and inventions that could change the way we live.” Most exciting is that Dale Dougherty, founder of Maker Faire and co-founder of O’Reilly Media, will deliver the keynote address at the TechCocktail event.

Featured inventions include Vancouver-based Etalim Inc.‘s thermoacoustic engine, pictured above, “a totally new type of device that can generate electricity from any fuel or heat source (including sunlight, gas or biomass) with extraordinary efficiency, simplicity and reliability.”

Uh, cool.

July 8-10th
Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre

DiYVR is a weekly spotlight on all things handmade, done-by-oneself, crafted and hacked around Vancouver, featuring profiles of makers, event announcements, exhibits and general DIY fun. Know someone or something we should cover? Email me!

I posted a fair bit about Vancouver Mini Maker Faire leading up to the event this past weekend, and I just can’t stop. Mainly because the event blew my mind. The creative, DIY community in this city is SO MUCH cooler than I ever thought it was! To boot, everyone’s friendly and wants to share how and why they do what they do.

The event was two days of parents making stuff with their kids, middle-aged people bugging out in wonder, crafters learning about circuitry and hackers learning to knit. I honestly can’t think of anything more fun or inspiring.

Did you go? Leave a comment and tell us something you learned!

The Express on Shaw TV did a great overview of the event:

After the jump, photos of just a wee sampling of things I was able to snap with my phone. Check out the Maker Faire Vancouver Flickr group for tons more.

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DiYVR is a weekly spotlight on all things handmade, done-by-oneself, crafted and hacked around Vancouver, featuring profiles of makers, event announcements, exhibits and general DIY fun. Know someone or something we should cover? Email me!

Quilting is an age-old craft with a rich history, and in the last couple of years that history has been enriched by what can only be described as a worldwide movement. In 2009, a group in Los Angeles started what they called the Modern Quilt Guild. Just two years later, there are over a hundred chapters of the guild, all over the world.

The Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild celebrated its first anniversary last week, and I went to their meeting to see what it’s all about. (I’ve always wanted to quilt, you see.)

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DiYVR is a weekly spotlight on all things handmade, done-by-oneself, crafted and hacked around Vancouver, featuring profiles of makers, event announcements, exhibits and general DIY fun. Know someone or something we should cover? Email me!

Vancouver Mini Maker Faire is less than two weeks away, and volunteers are getting creative about spreading the word.

Last weekend, after a couple weeks of feverish knitting and crocheting, a group yarn bombed (aka yarn stormed; aka yarn graffitied) a bike rack on Dunsmuir, including information about the event on their tags. Check out the VMMF blog for more. Another yarn bombing is planned for the 20th, just a few days before the event.

Vancouver Mini Maker Faire is a celebration of DIY. Come learn about what people all over town are making from scratch – from robots to quilts, bacon to art.

Great Northern Way Campus
June 25-26, 10am-5pm

DiYVR is a weekly spotlight on all things handmade, done-by-oneself, crafted and hacked around Vancouver, featuring profiles of makers, event announcements, exhibits and general DIY fun. Know someone or something we should cover? Email me!

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of spending the sunny morning with my friends Chris and Kyla in their backyard garden, talking about their first experience cultivating some serious edibles. Chris got started gardening on the patio of his apartment last summer; now that he and Kyla have an entire backyard to work with, they’ve gotten… ambitious. Their goal is to, at the very least, grow all the ingredients for some serious salsa. Given that they’ve planted over fifty varieties of edibles already, I’m confident they’ll meet their goal.

I admit it’s a little late in the season to write about getting started with gardening, but it’s been such a cold spring this year, it’s not too late to start growing some food for yourself. So if you’ve been intimidated by gardening, or if you simply don’t know where to start, read on for some great tips from these green-thumbed DIYers.

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DiYVR is a weekly spotlight on all things handmade, done-by-oneself, crafted and hacked around Vancouver, featuring profiles of makers, event announcements, exhibits and general DIY fun. Know someone or something we should cover? Email me!

In the spirit of Bike to Work Week, June being Bike Month, and the general amazing feat that today it was warm out, I thought I’d make this post an open thread about DIY bike stuff.

Tell us, Vancouver, what are your brilliant bike-maintenance tips? Have you come up with a wicked bike hack? Share your smarts in the comments – we’ll make this a page people can bookmark for inspiration and learning!

I’m afraid I don’t actually know a thing about my new-last-season lovely red bike. But I did come across this great video from Etsy on super basic bike-maintenance. I actually feel like I can do something with my bike now. So that means I’m even more eager to learn from you all. Speak up!