We’ve just arrived here in San Francisco and we’re setting up our booth (woohoo!… more on that in a second post in a minute) but first – the line up this year looks incredible! so I pulled out my top 10 things happening this weekend I’m determined not to miss so you can get excited too!

Citizen Science and Space Exploration
If you want to fly in space, or just fly an experiment, this is for you. Low-cost suborbital spacecraft will revolutionize space science and exploration. With Edward Wright, Chairman of the United States Rocket Academy. Make: Education Stage, Saturday, 1PM

Raspberry Pi: How a $35 Computer Will Give Students an Appetite for Science
Raspberry Pi maker Eben Upton leads live session showcasing how easy it is to program the low-cost mini-computer, and shares insights into its development and impact on future engineers and innovation. Make: Demo Stage, Sunday 11AM

DIY Chocolate: Break Away from the Bar
Learn to make chocolate from cacao beans, sugar, and a food processor. Karen Solomon, author of Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It, will teach the simple satisfaction of roasting, grinding, and flavoring your own DIY dark, chocolatey confection. Maker Square Stage, Saturday 11AM

sugru – us of course!
We’ve brought lots of sugru and we’ll be demo’ing and playing around with it all weekend, we’ve also brought loads of different hacks inspired by the sugru community and are there to help you talk through your projects and ideas and how sugru can help! All day at booth #56 in the Expo Hall and at the Make: Projects stage Saturday and Sunday 4PM

World Record Paper Airplane
The Sultan of Oman, the builders of the next generation of space vehicles, and Fry’s Electronics all come together in one man’s dream to be the best paper airplane designer in the world. John Collins, The Paper Airplane Guy shows off the plane. Make: Center Stage, Saturday 11.30AM

littlebits electronics
A super cool little open-source library of electronic modules that snap together with tiny magnets for prototyping and play. Designed and recently launched by Ayah Bdeir – littlebits speed up putting projects together and taking them apart again, thus making electronics easier and more playful. Make: Education Stage, Sunday 3PM

Organic Beekeeping: Saving the Honey Bee One Bee at a Time
Organic Beekeeping in an Urban Environment presents many challenges. Find out how each one of us can make a difference by utilizing our maker skills to create a safe haven for the honey bee. Maker Square Stage, Saturday 2PM

Democratizing Access To The Tools of Innovation
A hundred dollars a month now gives you access to the tools of the Industrial Revolution for the first time in 250 years. Mark Hatch, CEO of the amazing Techshop, will show examples of makers who are changing the world with access to machines, some training, and a shared workspace. Make: Center Stage, Saturday 3.30PM

Dave Eggers – A Modest Proposal: Bringing Makers to Market
Dave Eggers, founder of one of the most genius things ever – the pirate store at 826 Valencia – and longtime fan of the Maker Movement, will share ideas and some sketches for bringing a Maker’s market to the centre of San Francisco.

The Story Behind DIY.org
DIY.org is an online community for maker kids. Co-Founder Isaiah Saxon will share the back story – from Encyclopedia Pictura’s animation work, to Trout Gulch, to the feature film DIY in 3d, to the formation of DIY.org Make: Centre Stage, Sunday 1.30PM

Can’t wait !! If you’re not in the area, enjoy the links and think about coming next year maybe! And if you’re coming – make sure to come by and say hi – we’re at booth 56 in the Expo Hall, if you hadn’t planned on coming but are considering it now, check out my second post in a minute – we need help and have passes!

And then make a stylus from it!

Guru of the month goes to Ola from Sweden aka @olacarlsson on gurus for this super cool project. To make your own, follow the full step-by-step on gurus!

Congrats Ola! 5 packs of sugru and a Hack Things Better t-shirt will be on their way to you very soon!

For a chance to win guru of the month yourself, just get yourself some sugru, hack some stuff and upload pictures to gurus to help others do the same!

Check out the Arduroller – a self balancing robot designed by sugru guru Shaun (@fasaxc on gurus)

Watch it balance!

And just in case it ever falls over… give it a nice sugru bumper

If you’d like to make your own, Shaun’s shared all the info you need here.
Check out more of his work at his blog or start following him on twitter @fasaxc

We’re delighted to be taking part in the latest Open MAKE event in San Francisco organised by the Exploratorium, MAKE Magazine and Pixar Animation Studios – happening at the Exploratorium tomorrow, Saturday March 17th from 10am – 2pm.

Open MAKE is a monthly program highlighting the tools, techniques, and ingenuity of local Makers. Visitors are invited to participate in tinkering and making activities inside the Tinkering Studio, where Makers from around the Bay Area will share their work. Tomorrow’s event will focus on tools, and local sugru guru @KentKB will be there representing sugru, demonstrating some of his hacks and giving away free samples to those who deserve them

There will be also talks from these 6 awesome makers:
* Tim Hunkin, artist, engineer and cartoonist – his talk is not to be missed!
* Moxie specializes in needle-felting wool to make it do strange and seemingly impossible things.
* Chef Elizabeth Falkner, of Citizen Cake fame, is an expert at using kitchen tools and stretching the boundaries of what pâtisserie can accomplish!
* David Lang and Eric Stackpole have started a community of tinkerers, engineers, and programmers to build an OpenROV, a remotely operated vehicle to go hunting for treasure at the bottom of abandoned mines.
* Benjamin Cowden builds delightfully quirky machines that accomplish human behaviors, like kissing or licking a lollipop.

So if you’re in the Bay Area, pop along, it’s gonna be awesome!

PS The Exploratorium Store has now started stocking sugru too

Mattia from Italy first made this project and sent us this image for the sugru gallery.
We thought it was amazing. So what’s the best thing to do with amazing projects?
Make a step by step instructable to help everyone make their own of course!

Oh, and we thought it would be cool to make one for an iPad too, so that’s exactly what we did.

Step 1 – find a cool old book that fits your iPad / Kindle.

Step 2 – remove the pages, protect your iPad / Kindle with clingfilm and create sugru grips on each corner. We mixed green and black sugru to get a shade of green to match the trim on the book. Once the sugru grips are cured, you’ll be able to clip your iPad / Kindle in and out easily.

Step 3 – wait for the sugru cure, and 24 hrs later, you’ve got an awesome iPad case!

See the full step by step guide over on instructables and get searching for the perfect old book!

If you’re a maker who’s thinking of turning your passion into a business, this one’s for you.
TJ McCue, journalist, blogger, maker (and sugru user) is writing a book of case studies, tips and pointers for those of you thinking of going pro.
There are so many amazing ideas and inventions out there, and far too many of them don’t get realised for one reason or another – so I asked him to tell us more.

First things first, tell us a little about yourself.
I work as a business writer and as a startup consultant helping companies to get off the ground. My most recent effort is at Forbes to explore how the maker community is driving innovation and opportunity around the world. I did a roundup post of all the cool Maker Business stories in 2011 at Make, too.

Tell us more about your new book and why you’re writing it. Who it’s for?
You know, Jane, so many makers ask me all the time whether they should turn their passion or their dream into a company.  I almost always say yes, but it isn’t easy – it always, always hinges on finding customers.  Most makers and business owners work the hardest on marketing and sales.  This book is aiming to uncover what made it possible for companies like Makerbot, Adafruit or Sparkfun to be a success. What are their stories?
People are looking for alternatives to “regular jobs” – and that’s partly because they can’t find them, but I believe it is something deeper. More and more people are beginning to question “Am I doing something meaningful with my life?” People want to contribute something to the community around them. Sometimes that’s online; just as often it is in a local community of neighbors, in real life.

My goal with this book is to talk with the maker/hacker founders – people like Bre Pettis from MakerBot Industries, Limor Fried at Adafruit, Rick Pollack at MakerGear, Eric Wilhelm at Instructables, yourself and many people you or I have never heard of but who are doing fundamentally good work that supports other makers. What are their secrets, more or less, to driving awareness and building a business?

You’re crowdfunding on Kickstarter at the moment to publish the book. If others in the sugru community are interested, how can they help or get involved?
It’s a big effort to put out a quality book. And although I’ve helped many others produce their own, this is my first. If people like the project, I’d love them to become a backer.
Just as importantly, though, is the connection to others in the sugru community. Since writing about sugru on Forbes, I’ve met tons of interesting people doing creative and useful projects with your invention. If people think the book would be useful but can’t back it with dollars, then sharing it socially is super valuable and appreciated.

To talk to TJ about the book or anything else, connect with him on twitter @TJMcCue or via his blog on Forbes.com

Last question – what’s your favourite sugru hack?
It is an ultra-simple one – I built a new handle for my garbage can lid that broke off! Saved me $50 for a replacement can. Plus, I protected the corners on my mobile phone. It’s not pretty, but it works when I drop it!

This awesome project was sent to us by Kirsty in Melbourne:

“I fashioned a macro lens for my phone! I got all excited about it & now I’ve made a how-to so you can do it too.  I used some bits of a broken lens (lucky I don’t chuck stuff out) and sugru – it was a quick & easy project.”

And the results look amazing! Check out this close up photo she took with it!

Kirsty’s how-to makes this look super easy…

You can see more of Kirsty’s projects at her blog and follow her on twitter @kootoyoo

Of the 3 sugru ♥ LEGO projects this one makes me wish I was a kid again, it’s pretty exciting to imagine every toy being LEGO-compatible.

To make this project easy to do at home, we’ve made a full step by step here on gurus, and an A4 printable PDF version shown below that you can download and print – How to make all toys LEGO-compatible with sugru.

Enjoy!  And for more sugru ♥ LEGO inspiration, have a look at this little film we made

LEGO is awesome, but making a USB cable desk tidy with LEGO is even more awesome!

And it’s super super easy too.

How cool is this? You can use LEGO to mount everything from cables and earphones to your computer, to your car keys inside the door when you get home.

We know lots of you are excited about doing this, so we’ve made a full step by step here on gurus, and made this printable version shown below that you can download and print -  A4 PDF sugru and LEGO USB cable desk tidy step-by-step.

Enjoy!  And for more sugru ♥ LEGO inspiration, have a look at this little film we made

We’ve gone a bit LEGO crazy around here since we got inspired by the hair people were making for their lego men and when we discovered how well sugru bonds to the little bricks. First we got excited by making a little film, and now we want to help you get stuck in.

So we’ve made some printable step-by-steps to get you going.

This is the first of of 3 sugru ♥ LEGO printables we’ll be posting in the coming week.
Perfect little projects to do on the cold days over the holidays.

Have a look at the full step-by-step on gurus, or download this A4 printable shown above Transform any pen into an awesome LEGO character using sugru PDF, print it out and get cracking!

PS If you’re giving sugru as a gift this Christmas, and the person is a LEGO fan, you might like to include the printables with the pack too, they could be an awesome way of getting a new sugru user off to a great start!