Join our Maker Club

Hello maker friends!

We invite you to join our Maker Club, which meets every Wednesday from 6 to 9pm, to create cool projects together. We make all sorts of things: wooden pens, buzzers, interactive art, robots, home gadgets, you name it.

This month, our Maker Club includes these new beginner activities:

  • Make a wooden puzzle using hand tools.
  • Make a pen on the lathe, to give it a beautiful wood body.
  • Make fun buzzers to turn on lights and make things move.

Would you like to join us? You are welcome to make any project you like — and we’ll help you with it. If you’d like to try it for a month, we invite you to sign up for our next series of four workshops, starting on Feb. 8. No prior experience required.

To learn more, we hope you’ll come to our free meetup for Tam Makers this Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 6pm at the Tam High School woodshop in Mill Valley. We’ll give demos and talk about our new Maker Club. This is a good opportunity to meet some of our creative members, watch them build things and ask them questions.

Hope to see you there!

Learn more about our Maker Club.

Sign up for our next Maker Club.

 

Take a class at Tam Makers

Come learn new skills at Tam Makers!

Our fall classes start next week and they are filling up fast.

Here are the classes that are still open this month:

You Can Make It – Aug. 31 to Sep. 21

Laser Cutting – Aug. 31 and Sep. 7

Arduino 101 – Sep. 14 and  21

Create a Haunted House –  Sep. 28 to Nov. 16 (ages 10-15)

Read more about these classes below. Be sure to sign up early, before they fill up. We hope to see you there!

You Can Make It

Come make your own interactive gadget, robot or wearable art at You Can Make It !

This weekly maker workshop takes place every Wednesday from 6 to 9pm. You can build your own maker project in our space, with guidance from instructors and other participants.

Here are just a few examples of projects you can make: Halloween Costumes and Props,Magical Mushroom Lights, NeoPixel Jewelry, Your First Robot and more. See our course page for more ideas.

Sign up here for our first monthly series of four Wednesdays, starting Aug. 31. The cost is $100 for 4 classes, including some basic materials.

No experience necessary. You will join a community of makers who like to make things together and learn from each other.

 

Laser Cutting

Learn to fabricate objects with a laser cutter!

This course includes a quick run-through of software applications to create your designs for laser cutting (e.g.: Adobe Illustrator). You will then learn to operate our laser cutter and make your designs come to life. We will provide materials for you to cut and engrave. Learn more here.

Sign up here for this 2-part course on Wednesdays August 31 and September 7, from 6 to 9pm.  The cost is $86 for 2 classes, including materials. No experience necessary.

 

Arduino 101

Create interactive experiences with the popular Arduino board!

This course will show you how to build simple interactive objects with an Arduino micro-controller, used by millions of makers around the world.  You will learn how to make lights blink, play sounds, and move things. Learn more here.

Sign up here for this 2-part course on Wednesdays September 14 and 21, from 6 to 9pm.

The cost is $158 for 2 classes, including your own Arduino board and electronic parts, which you can take home with you (a $52 value). No experience necessary.

 

Maker Art: Haunted House

In this fun after-school class for ages 10 to 15, students will build a miniature Haunted House with animated characters, then bring it to life with motion, lights and sounds.

Each student will have their own room in our haunted house, and will learn to build simple robots, then program an Arduino board to make their creations come alive.

This hands-on activity will help them develop a range of skills: science, technology, engineering, art and math skills (STEAM); creative expression, communication, storytelling and teamwork. Learn more here.

Sign up here for this 8-week class, which will take place on Wednesdays from 3:30 to 5:30pm, starting September 28 and ending November 16, 2016.

The cost is $325 per student, including $75 in materials. Students can take their creations home, as well as their own Arduino board.

All classes and meetups take place in our new makerspace at Tamalpais High School: 700 Miller Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941. See map.

We invite you to spread the word in your community and share this page with friends and neighbors.

We hope to see you soon!

Fabrice Florin

Geo Monley

Come build and learn at Tam Makers

Tam-Makers-Woodworking-Workshop-Geo-Sings-800x400px

Greetings!

We hope you had a wonderful summer. 🙂

Come build cool things and learn new skills at Tam Makers!

Take a class

This fall, we have a great lineup of maker and woodworking classes for you. Course topics range from electronics to laser cutting, hand tools, maker art, wood turning and building an elegant box.

Workshops

Come create your own projects in these weekly workshops:

• Wednesdays 6-9pm: You Can Make It (no loud tools) – NEW!

• Thursdays 6-9pm: You Can Build It (with power tools)

Adult Classes

Learn new skills in these upcoming courses for adults and teens:

• Laser Cutting – Aug. 31 – Sep. 7

• Arduino 101 – Sep. 14 – 21

• CNC Router – Sep. 27 – Oct. 4 – NEW!

• Create an Elegant Box – Oct. 25 – Nov. 15

• Create an Illuminated Wonderbox – Oct. 26 – Nov. 9  – NEW!

No experience necessary. You will join a community of makers who like to create together and learn from each other.

Youth Classes

If you’re a middle-school parent, your kid might like this fun after-school class:

• Maker Art: Create a Haunted House –  Sep. 28 – Nov. 16 – NEW!

Students will build magical worlds with ghosts, witches and other animated creatures — and bring them to life with lights, sounds and motion.

Learn more about these and other fall courses in our Classes page. Be sure to sign up early, before they fill up!

Most classes start at 6pm (except for the youth classes, which start at 3:30pm.) All classes and meetups take place in our new makerspace at Tamalpais High School: 700 Miller Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941. See map.

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Our next meetup

We invite you to join our next meetup this Wednesday, August 24, from 6 to 9pm.

It’s fun, free and a great way to meet some of the creative makers in our community!

We’ll start at 6pm with tours of our makerspace and demos by community members (you’re welcome to bring and show off your own maker projects). At 6:30pm, we will talk about our fall classes, volunteering and next steps for Tam Makers. At 7:30pm, we will make something fun together and plan a community project for Halloween.

If you plan to come, please RSVP here. Next month’s meetup will be on a Friday, September 23, from 6 to 9pm. If you missed our last meetups, here are the photosslides and video.

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Survey results are in!

To learn what our community thinks of Tam Makers, we ran an online survey from June 9 to August 6, 2016, asking a variety of questions about their interests and our maker programs.

Here are our key findings:

  • All respondents are interested in Tam Makers.
  • Most want to use the makerspace (87%).
  • Most are interested in adult classes (83%).
  • Many want community meetups (57%).
  • Many would consider paying a membership fee (58%).
  • Some are prepared to volunteer for Tam Makers (50%).
  • Some parents are interested in our youth programs (35%).

Here are some of the comments you shared with us:

  • “Thrilled to have a maker space on this side of the bridge!”
  • “An excellent idea. Wonderful use of the school as a community resource.”
  • “It definitely has a community feeling, unlike more commercially motivated makerspaces.”

For more results, read our survey overview (or the full report).

Many thanks to all community members who took the time to share your feedback! We really appreciate your insights, which will help inform our plans for Tam Makers.

We hope to see you at next week’s meetup to discuss all this in person.

For now, we invite you to sign up for classes that interest you — and spread the word in your community. 

Best regards,

Fabrice Florin

Geo Monley

Join our next meetup

Hello Tam Makers,

We hope you’re having a wonderful summer. 🙂

We invite you to join our meetup next Wednesday, July 20, from 6 to 9pm.

This free meetup starts at 6pm with tours of our makerspace and demos by community members (bring your new maker projects for show & tell). At 7pm, we will talk about our fall classes and memberships — and discuss your ideas for growing our community.

If you plan to come, please sign up here for this free event.

If you can’t make it next week, we hope you can come to next month’s meetup, on Wed. August 24th.

If you missed our last meetup, here is a video of the event, with our full presentation and discussion about Tam Makers. For a quick overview, check out the meetup slides and photos. It was a blast to meet so many creative makers from our community!

Our first maker classes

Our first maker classes this month have gone really well, as shown in these pictures:

• Arduino 101 (pictured above)

• Laser Cutting

• You Can Make It (you can still join our tonight’s workshop for a $36 drop-in fee).

Participants seemed to really enjoy these maker classes and told us they learned a lot from them. Many would like to take more classes in the fall — and we look forward to teaching them!

Sign up for a class

This fall, we are offering a wide range of classes for adults and youth: from Arduino to laser cutting, hand tools, maker art, wood turning and how to make elegant boxes, to name but a few.

Learn more in our Classes page, where you can sign up for these classes before they fill up.

We will also host weekly workshops to help you create your own projects:

• You Can Make It on Wednesdays (no loud power tools)

• You Can Build It on Thursdays (with power tools)

All classes and meetups take place in our new makerspace at Tamalpais High School: 700 Miller Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941. See map.

What do you think of Tam Makers?

We’d love to hear your thoughts about Tam Makers, so we can better support you.

Please take this short survey today.

Your feedback is important to us, and will help us plan our next steps for Tam Makers.

We invite you to share this post with friends and neighbors. They are all welcome to join our next meetups. They can learn more on our site at TamMakers.org .

We hope to see you soon!

 

Fabrice Florin
Geo Monley

You can make it: our shop opens next week

Hello Tam Makers,

Come make your own gadget, robot or wearable art at Tam Makers!

Starting next week, we will open our new makerspace on Wednesday evenings, to help you create your own maker project with our community.

We invite you to sign up now for our summer workshops. Our first series is on three Wednesdays in a row: June 29th, July 6th and 13th, between 6 and 9pm.

Here are examples of projects you can make: LED GogglesMagical Mushroom LightsNeoPixel JewelryYour First Robot and more. See our course page for more ideas.

On the first night, we can help you pick a project, order your materials and learn a new skill, like soldering. You will build your project the following weeks, with guidance from instructors and other participants.

No experience is necessary. You will join a community of makers who like to make things together and learn from each other.

Learn more here — and sign up here. The cost is only $72 for all three nights.

Take our fall classes

If you can’t join us this summer, we will offer three more series of ‘You Can Make It’ workshops in the fall. Each series includes four weekly workshops of three hours each, on the dates below:

This fall, we are offering many other maker classes for adults and youth. To learn more and sign up, visit our Classes page.

Take our survey

What do you think of Tam Makers?

Please take our short survey, if you haven’t already.

We’d love to hear from you, so we can better support your needs.

Thanks to everyone who already filled the survey!

Join our meetups

Come to our next meetups, to learn more about Tam Makers and discuss our next steps:

Our free meetups start at 6pm, with demos by community members and tours of our makerspace. At 7pm, we will talk about our makerspace and classes — and discuss your ideas for growing our community.

All classes and meetups take place in our new makerspace at Tamalpais High School: 700 Miller Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941. See map.

We invite you to share this post with friends and neighbors, who are all welcome to join us. They can learn more on our site at TamMakers.org .

We hope to see you soon!

 

Geo Monley

Fabrice Florin

Tam Makers is off to a great start!

We had a blast at our first meetup for Tam Makers, our new makerspace in Mill Valley!

Dozens of community members joined our open house at the Tam High wood shop yesterday, and it was a delight to meet so many of you. Thanks for showing off your work, signing up for classes and sharing your ideas!

We already have a wonderful and diverse community of makers, artists, technologists and woodworkers — as well as some very creative high school and middle school students.

Here are some photos from our meetup, for those of you who couldn’t make it. And here are the slides from our presentation. We will post videos in coming days.

We hope you can join our next meetup on July 20, when we will discuss next steps for our maker community. You can already sign up for it right here.

Take our survey

For now, we would love to hear what you think of Tam Makers, so we can better serve you.

Please take our short survey, if you haven’t already.

Your feedback means a lot to us, and it will help us plan our next steps for Tam Makers to meet your needs. Thanks to everyone who filled the survey already, your insights are really helpful!

Sign up for our classes

Come learn new skills at Tam Makers! We invite you to join some of our next classes, before they fill up:

Sorry, our laser cutting class is already full, but we will offer another class starting August 31.

For a complete list of this fall’s courses, visit our Classes + Events page — online registration for fall courses will open in August, but you can already save the dates. 🙂

All classes and events take place in our new makerspace at Tamalpais High School: 700 Miller Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941. See map.

To learn more, visit our site at TamMakers.org . And if you use Facebook, please ‘like’ our Tam Makers page so we can stay in touch.

We’re really happy that our first meetup went so well and that so many folks want to participate actively in Tam Makers.

We now invite you to spread the word with your friends and neighbors, so we can grow our community together.

Thanks for the inspiration. We hope to see you soon!

 

Fabrice Florin

Geo Monley

Take a class with Tam Makers

Come learn new skills at Tam Makers, our makerspace for adults and youth in Mill Valley.

We invite you to join some of our first classes and events, before they fill up:

Here is more info about these classes and events. We hope to see you there!

Arduino 101

Learn to create interactive objects with the popular Arduino board!

This course will show you how to build simple interactive systems with an Arduino micro-controller, used by millions of makers around the world.  You will learn how to make lights blink, play sounds, move things — and bring it all together to create a fun interactive experience.

This 3-part course will be on Thursdays, June 16, 23 and 30, between 6 and 8pm. The cost is $160 for 3 classes. Arduino boards and electronic parts are included, and you can take them home with you at the end of the course (a $50 value). No experience is necessary.

Learn more here — and sign up here.

You Can Make It

Make your own gadget, jewelry, sculpture, robot or other invention!

In this open workshop, you build your own project with your own materials. Some guidance is provided by instructors and other participants.

Here are examples of projects you could make: LED GogglesMagical Mushroom LightsNeoPixel Jewelry, or Your First Robot… See our course page for more info and project ideas.

You will develop a range of maker skills, from design to electronics, maker art and light woodworking. And you will join a community of makers who like to make things together and learn from each other.

This workshop will be on Wednesdays, June 29, July 6 and 13, between 6 and 9pm. The cost is $72 for 3 nights — or $36 per night on drop-in basis.

No experience is necessary. If you have already taken our Arduino or laser cutting courses, you can also use those tools to enhance your interactive experience.

Learn more here — and sign up here.

Welcome Meetup

To hear more about Tam Makers and our other classes, please come to our Welcome Meetup on Wednesday, June 8 at 6pm.

During this free event, we will show you our makerspace, talk about our first maker classes and discuss your ideas for growing our maker community together.

The shop will open at 6pm, with quick tours of our wood shop and computer lab, as well as demos of recent projects. At 7pm, we will present the Tam Makers initiative and host a group discussion afterwards. We’ll then network informally and get to know each other, before wrapping up at 9pm.

Learn more and sign up here.

All classes and events take place in our new makerspace at Tamalpais High School: 700 Miller Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941. See map.

To learn more, visit our site at TamMakers.org . If you use Facebook, please ‘like’ our new Tam Makers page, and let us know what you think of this program.

We hope to see you soon!

 

Geo Monley
Fabrice Florin

Introducing Tam Makers

Tam Makers is a community of makers, teachers and students in Marin County. We build things together and offer courses, meetups and a makerspace at Tam High School in Mill Valley. To learn more, visit https://tammakers.org

Welcome to Tam Makers, our community of makers, teachers and students in Marin County.

We offer courses for adults and teens, meetups and a new makerspace at Tamalpais High School, in our state-of-the-art wood shop and computer lab.

We created this community center to serve your needs, whether you are interested in making things for yourself or supporting a makerspace for your children.

Join our meetups

Come to one of our free meetups, so we can tell you more, hear what you think and plan our next steps.

August Meetup August 24 Sign up

Our community meetups run from 6 to 9pm in our makerspace at Tam High School (see address below). Adults and teens welcome. If you missed our last meetup, here are photos and slides of this event, as well as the video of our presentation and group discussion.

Sign up for classes

This fall, we are offering a wide range of classes for adults and youth: from Arduino to laser cutting, hand tools, wood turning and how to make elegant boxes, to name but a few.

Learn more in our Classes page, where you can sign up for these classes before they fill up.

All adult classes start at 6pm. Teens can also sign up for these classes, with the help of an adult.

Visit our makerspace

All events are at Tamalpais High School, in our state-of-the-art wood shop and computer lab: 700 Miller Avenue (Room 416), Mill Valley, CA 94941. See map.

The best times to visit our makerspace are during our free meetups — next one is July 20 (see above). To get a feel for our space and community, check out the Tam Makers Photo Album.

Take our survey

We would love to hear what you think of Tam Makers, so we can better serve you.

Please take our short survey , if you haven’t already.

Your feedback means a lot to us and will help plan our next steps.

Meet our team

Organizers include: Geo Monley, Fabrice Florin, Howard Rheingold and our maker friends, with the Tam High School District’s Community Ed program.

We are developing this program to build fun maker projects with our community and learn from each other.

For more information, visit tammakers.org . To get our newsletters, subscribe to our mailing list. You can also email us at info@tammakers.org .

We hope you will join us. We invite you to share this page with friends and neighbors.

See you soon!

This post was updated on August 6, 2016 to introduce new classes and meetups.