Maker Fun

We did it! We captured the moment our Painted Ladies emerged from their chrysalides using our Butterfly Pi. There really is a Pi and Pi cam buried in that awesome Lego housing!     Why don't you put your Raspberry Pi to use this Summer and capture what nature is doing in your back garden! Don't forget to share it. #makerfun #raspberrypi It was a lovely sunny day when we released the butterflies and we couldn't believe what happened next. Our Painted Ladies crept up onto the girls fingers for a little help with their great escape.  They were in no hurry to leave and we were all fascinated by the chance to observe them before they finally flew away.  I t was a magical metamorphosis. We raised 5 very hungry caterpillars that ate so much they exploded to eight times there original size. They hung upside down and turned into Chrysalides. Check out our Caterpillar Pi video  too. Bef...

A few weeks ago the kids got a butterfly hatching kit from their favourite aunt.  Can you guess what our caterpillars got up to last night? As you can see caterpillar  number three became a chrysalis! Now we have three chrysalides and a crazy, hungry caterpillar still throwing shapes into the night. How did this happen? The caterpillar hangs in a 'j' shape and sheds their exoskeleton for one last time before hardening into a chrysalis.  We hope to capture the birth of our butterflies in a week or so time. How did we do it? We hooked up our pi with pi-camera and attached an eye- glass to shorten the focal length of the pi-camera.  We used a cold light to light up the scene into the night. Check out our lego housing. We can change the height of the camera using the gears! We modified an existing time-lapse program.  There is lots of great stuff out there:  For inspiration and to discover other great projects...

Maker Fun Summer events started this week with our crazy scurrying art bots!   We are so pleased to be back for a new series of events and have had an amazing week supporting the launch of the 2014-2015 Hannah Directory.      Kevin Fitzpatrick from Radio Manchester came to visit Maker Fun HQ, also known as our 'kitchen table' and recorded a fantastic report for the Mike Sweeny show. Mike was on great form and his show amplified the message that there are so many great things happing in communities across the North West.  The Hannah Directory goes even further and connects  50 inspi ring people and organisations from Newcastle to Gateshead, Durham, Leeds, Sheffield, Huddersfield, Manchester, Stockport, Preston, Barrow and Liverpool:  www.hannahfestival.com . It's a diverse collective combing old and traditional knowledge and a celebration of community endeavour.    We are prou...