Interview by Emily Smith, Featuring Paul Lock from Metro Diverse Services.

Metro Diverse Services is a 3-person team specializing in unique fabrication projects for monumental art or for architectural and landscape decoration. They are sponsoring this year’s Vancouver Mini Maker Faire, and will be showing off their elegant walking machine. Learn more about the project in the interview below, and check out the video if you want to see it work its magic!

1. What exactly is a Panterragaffe, and how did you guys come up with the name?

Based on Theo Jansen‘s Kinetic art, Panterragaffe is a pedal powered two person walking machine, a walking bicycle. The name has a few elements to it. It’s a play on pantograph, which is a mechanism for copying drawings, since it’s similar to the leg mechanism. Also; Pan – all or spanning. Terra – earth. Gaffe – an unintentional act causing embarrassment to it’s originator or just goofy-ness. A bit of goofy-ness for everybody. To most people the name doesn’t mean anything, therefore its meaning is flexible.

2. Do you have any previous experience building things?

We make our living from designing, building and fabricating. All of us have hands on experience in our backgrounds, from construction and manufacturing to sculpture, jewelry, and photography. We also have virtually every skill set covered from software and coding to welding and metal casting. It’s shorter to say we’ve never laid bricks, but we know we could.

3. How did you know that you would be able to make a structure like Panterragaffe, and what was the driving force behind it?

None of us are the “let’s ask for permission” types. Our biggest problem isn’t deciding what we can do, it’s having the time to do all the things we know we CAN do. Panterragaffe was conceived from the beginning as a public exhibition piece. It’s purpose had shock value and public participation in mind from the start. After building a seven inch prototype, it was clear that a mobile entertainment platform was possible. It was only a small step after that to decide to add a power source, music and lighting to suit events. The rough frame allows us to add character coverings, Panterragaffe can dress up differently ever time it goes out. Hence the flexible name.

4. How does it work? I mean, I understand that it’s pedal-powered, but it looks as though there are some pretty advanced mechanics going on there. How does each leg know how to go forwards or backwards at a given time?

The legs are based on a mechanism made popular by the kinetic sculptures off Theo Jansen in Holland. We didn’t have access to drawings, so it took us 13 months of spare time and 3 iterations to reverse engineer them. There are two leg boxes containing three pairs of legs each, spanned by a bench for two pedalers. Three pairs of legs are required to ensure there are enough points of contact with the ground for stability. Each side is driven by a crank shaft, which is in turn driven by pedals and one of the riders. There are two leg boxes and pedalers to allow steering. Similar to a skid-steer loader, one person stops pedaling while the other keeps going and you turn a corner. The feet are heavy steel cups that are allowed to spin something like casters, helping to reduce the friction on corners.

In this configuration it requires smooth hard ground, but we’re working on a modification to the mechanism to pick the feet up higher with each step. We should then be able to walk on grass and slightly irregular ground.

5. Can you talk a bit about construction? I assume there was some welding involved, is that right? Do you have anything to add that would pique the interest of the technically-inclined?

It’s made entire of mild steel, with ball bearing joints and pivots. The bench and two leg boxes are three separate pieces, held together with hitch pins for easy transport. It weighs nearly 700 pounds loaded without passengers.

The legs are only 1/2 inch square tubing with 1/16 inch wall thickness. This material bends very easily, but with careful leg design we were able to use this extremely small tubing to reduce weight and present a lighter appearance.

It’s very common for new Makers to over build. There are lots of monstrously heavy prototypes out there. Using conventional wisdom, this machine could easily have ended up weighing over a ton. It’s easy to build test pieces and do a little destructive testing before you build.

6. Where do you store it? I assume that you have a studio, but where does it live?

Panterragaffe lives in our manufacturing studio in West Vancouver. We do all of our design and fabrication in one building, practically under the Lions Gate Bridge. Our neighbours can’t here our noise over the sound of the traffic on the bridge, so it’s the perfect spot.

Want a bike that glows so that you can fight for the user? Or better yet, for safety and visibility? A few members at the Vancouver Hack Space have recently put together an EL wire Glow Bike kit. What’s a kit you ask? Basically, VHS’ers purchased supplies in bulk needed to create this contraption – and are also interested in teaching people how to put the kit together – with some basic soldering knowledge. If you’re interested in the kit, and also learning how to make it, please send an email to cycel@hackspace.ca and read this post for more details on ordering information, and how to get yours today.

If you don’t want to purchase a kit but want to learn how it’s done, we’ve made an instruction manual free of charge.

(photos: Courtesy of Blue Mollusc and a flying octopus!)

Happy International Yarn Bombing Day! In honour of International yarn bombing day, today’s feature is dedicated to the Museum of Vancouver’s Youth Council, Concrete Expression.

Museum of Vancouver Youth Council, Concrete Expression:

Combining street art, recycling, plastic bags, and the time-honoured tradition of yarnbombing, the Museum of Vancouver’s inaugural Youth Council brings their exhibit, Concrete Expressions, to Maker Faire Vancouver. An intensive group of young creative minds aged 16-18 from around Vancouver, members of the MOV Youth Council discussed ideas of sustainability, youth culture in Vancouver, and street art before coming up with the idea to ‘yarnbomb’ the iconic crab statue in front of the Museum of Vancouver. The Youth Council is excited share their exhibit, engage Vancouverites with their colourful 25-foot plastic yarn scarf, and provide demonstrations on how you can turn your own plastic bags into a recycled work of art.

Yarn Bombs away!

Shane Le Gresley interviewed Meredith Nicole, of Meredith Nicole Studio Furniture.

www.meredithnicole.com

I read that you design and make handcrafted, heirloom-quality furniture. What makes a piece heirloom-quality?

An heirloom is more than just something old, it is a special object which has been selected to carry on a family legacy. I provide a service for people looking to invest in a unique piece of furniture that will enrich their journey. By using traditional and proven construction methods, I can guarantee a piece will hold up and  always be a part of ones family history.

What is your creative process when developing an idea?

I employ different methods depending on the situation. When I’m making a speculative piece, I let my imagination go and experiment with whatever strikes me. I have recently become enamored with the simple yet intimate designs produced by Scandinavian designers durning the 40′s and 50′s. I’m especially crazy about Finn Juhl so I made a chair based on one of his designs. That chair and one other Danish inspired piece will be on show at the Maker’s Faire.  For custom pieces, I work with clients and explore their values and dreams and that information becomes the inspiration. Once I’ve established what the goal of the piece is, I’m guided by my three musses: human stories, the materials with which I create, and the practice of exploration.

Some of the work on your website is somewhat quirky. There’s the table with the inlaid silver tank and a three-legged chair. Yet other pieces are quite classic. Is there a style that you identify more with?

Oddities capture my attention and I love to play. Through intentional exploration, I bring my own sense of quirkiness and originality to my works. I feel it’s a playfulness that complements the more formal aspect furniture has in our lives and I use this whenever I see it as being appropriate. But some pieces defy quirkiness soI don’t identify with one style more than another. I just follow the inspiration and see what happens.

Shannon Harvey of Monkey100 and chalk xchange is a socially engaged artist, with a career spanning community murals, theatre, installation and artist residencies.  She sees Monkey100 as an extension of this work: an engagement through the arts to instigate dialogue and positive change. At Vancouver Mini Maker Faire, she will be leading a silkscreening workshop, and will have a selection of bamboo/cotton tshirts on display. Here’s a bit of what she has to say about Monkey100:

I created Monkey100 five years ago as a public art project. With a background in murals and collaborative projects, I was interested in finding ways to reach a wider audience on issues that were important to me. I chose the name Monkey100 based on the 100th monkey story which is essentially a parable of how critical mass is achieved. I loved the idea of every person’s potential to ‘be that 100th monkey’, the tipping point for massive social change.

As a kid, I had learned screen-printing from my Mother, and found it was a relatively inexpensive way to reproduce an image. I started with the Fossil Fuel Series of prints, illuminating the fossils behind our fuel. Over time, the designs have grown and expanded covering issues of local ecology and bicycle culture. I’ve sold and exhibited them at art markets, events, and stores throughout Vancouver. I’ve been inspired to keep going by the conversations the designs have sparked and the absolute love people have expressed for them.

Right now, I’m working on a series of silk-screened Animal Icon posters featuring portraits of local agricultural producers and the animals they work with. I’m also a Board member with the popular Eastside Culture Crawl, and have recently started a community arts space in Strathcona for people who want to share knowledge and make things together (chalkx.com). I’m looking for interested folks who would like to teach workshops or classes in any creative medium.

Shannon also runs a creative neighbourhood space in Strathcona, known as Chalk Xchange.  Workshops and classes are hosted in the spirit of promoting an exchange of ideas.  See some photos below and check out some of their upcoming classes and workshops.

Daisy is the world’s largest solar powered tricycle. Made in California by master inventor and fabricator Professor Bob Schneeveis from the medical department of Neurobiology at Stanford University, Daisy resides in Vancouver at the eatART hangar.