Art At I3

Recently displayed at Up In The Aether 2013, this watercolor was done completely at i3, and shows off some of the knowledge and materials available in the Craft Room!

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The piece is a student copy of a full-size oil painting by J. A. D. Ingres, a 19th-century French painter. However, it’s been reduced significantly, posing a bit of a miniaturization challenge. (The original is 1 x 1.467 m [3.2 x 4.8 ft]; this copy is 19 x 28 cm [7.5 x 11 in]. The artist put in quite a few long nights working with a fine brush!)

Members, for more information on where to find watercolor materials and equipment in the Craft Room–or basic or advanced advice on working with watercolor–talk to the Craft Room zone warden, Kevin Flory. Or just stop by to talk about Ingres’ technique!

SparkFun National Tour coming to Detroit!

Our friends over at SparkFun are doing a national tour, and we were the first Michigan location to sign up to host them!  We want to help kids in the Detroit metro area learn about technology and especially electronics, so this is a great opportunity.  Our class will be held on Saturday, 17 August 2013.  Here’s a description from the SF site:

“The SparkFun National Tour has one goal – to share our passion for electronics with students and teachers across the country.  We want to … [teach] lifelong skills such as programming, soldering, and building circuits along the way.

“During our tour, we will teach workshops to students of all ages as well as teachers, librarians, after-school coordinators, and other educators, showing how electronics can be a vital part of education. Whether you’ve never played around with DIY electronics or you are a seasoned pro, we will give you the tools, knowledge, and skills you need to explore the wonderful world of how electronics fits with STEAM.”

We’ve signed up for the day-long class using the SparkFun Inventor’s Kit.  This class works best for high school and precocious middle school students.  We can host 20 students, each working with a complete kit.  The cost is $100 per student for the day-long class, which includes taking your kit home with you at the end of the day (but not the laptop you’ll be using with it).  If you want to bring a friend or parent who will work with the same kit, add $25.

Please send reservation requests to sparkfuntour@i3detroit.com  In order to ensure that we make best use of available kits and space,  we ask that prospective students pre-pay by cash or check by August 10th to reserve their spot.

Friday Robot Fight Night (Beta)

Robot Knife Fight is ready for some player testers.  Ted and I will be at the  shop this Friday (2013-06-28) starting at 8pm to help people get up to speed in how to compete and run a game.  Bring your laptop with the Arduino IDE already installed.  If you want to help improve the arena’s python code, clone the git repo. If scheduling permits we will be doing this every Friday until Detroit Maker Faire 2013.

RBCreation; SUCCESS!!!!

After a long weekend full of emotion and sweat, i3Detroit was awarded the Team’s Choice award!!!

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this means they were voted as all the other teams’ favorite!

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They won a pretty BA 40 watt laser cutter from Full Spectrum Lasers!!!

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we are DROOLING back in Detroit; can’t wait to get our hands on this!

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A huge shout-out to our team members Eric and Sean; who actually both missed their first father’s day to compete in the Red Bull Creation Challenge…Great job guys, I’m sure your kids will be proud 🙂

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also…Matt’s hair is doing just fine

RBCreation: Down to the wire–30 minutes remain

 

 

 

We are down to the last 1/2 hour of the competition, an dour team is working so hard!

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Huge thanks to Lincoln Electric and Torchmate for the awesome Plasma-cut logo

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our team is exhausted — but they are finishing right down to the last second

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The “WhirlyTubulator” will go live for demonstration at 6:30pm.

We know our team is really focused on getting their creation finished because we have not received an updated photo of Matt’s hair…

but here’s a snap of it on the live-feed; along with Eric and Sean!

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We’re confident that our team will get rave reviews!