Our first workshop of 2015 was to make very cool flip lights in jars. Turn the jar over and the light comes on! Turn the jar over again and the light goes off!

The project comes from MAKE magazine and requires only a few supplies and very basic soldering. It’s a good introduction to simple circuits and the end result is a functional object.  Make one yourself: http://makezine.com/projects/make-41-tinkering-toys/draailampje/

This is a great beginner project that still requires patience and practice with soldering.

Adult mentors are on hand to assist!

After we built the circuit and assembled the jars, everyone got creative and decorated their new lamps.

Our goal is to have a workshop every month, so please join Meetup (http://www.meetup.com/RVA-Maker-Guild/) to be notified of upcoming events.  Meetup has also added the ability for group members to donate funds to cover the costs associated with events.  A lot of folks have asked about ways to contribute, so if you attend a workshop and enjoy it, feel free to kick in a few bucks to help cover costs.  If you have ideas for projects or want to organize a Maker Guild event, please get in touch!

Our March workshop will be working on a Little Free Library (http://littlefreelibrary.org/) project.

Thanks, as always, to hack.rva for the use of their great space.

More photos on Flickr…