Chocolate Making at the Library

Mmmmmmm...CHOCOLATE. There's really no better way to describe last Friday at the Cedarbrae Branch.

Chocolatier Shavaughan from Chocolate Tales joined teens to instruct them in the magical and mysterious art of chocolate making, including teaching them how to make truffles, bonbons, lava cakes, and chocolate shavings using the finest Belgian chocolate.

We got to taste some of these delicious works of art and they were just as tasty as they were beautiful.

Check out some of the pictures and videos from the workshop below!

 

Robots in the Library?

If you've wandered by the Children's Desk at the Cedarbrae Branch recently, you may have noticed a new friend hanging around:

 

Meet Vaksan Jr. He was created by a bright young maker in a particularly exciting session of our Make and Create Club. The theme of this session was to just GO WILD!

Kids were encouraged to take all sorts of household odds and ends we'd collected over the weeks, and design the most awesome things they could imagine. In addition to this robot, we also had some racecars, elaborate jewelry peices, and even a highly detailed landscape for a Minecraft character!

As you might be able to tell, Vaksan Jr. didn't need a whole lot of high-tech gadgetry to come to life, but he was definitely built with a lot of creative energy. Interested in getting your kids to imagine and create? Ask a librarian about other programs we offer that cultivate the maker spirit!

You may also want to check out other resources that can help guide fun projects at home as we dip into these last few weeks of summer. Here are two books that might be interesting for a younger or older child:

Make Stuff Together: 24 Simple Projects to Create as a Family

by Bernadette Noll

"Make Stuff Together gives you 24 projects to build family connections while being creative and truly enjoying your time together. The authors have uniquely broken down projects into manageable chunks for the shorter attention spans of children enabling even smaller kids to accomplish bigger projects."

 

 

Steampunk Gear, Gadgets, and Gizmos: a Maker's Guide to Creating Modern Artifacts

by Thomas Willeford

 "Learn from Lord Featherstone aka Thomas Willeford as he distills his wealth of hard-learned skills, describes how to use the readily available tools of the modern mad scientist, and expounds on the art and philosophy of scavenging unique components and raw materials. The perfect companion for the hobbyist and advanced machinist alike, this inventive volume will guide you through the creation of your very own infernal devices."

 

There are also great websites designed for makers of all ages. Check out MAKE Magazine and Instructables for more ideas and see what creative things pop up!

Duct Tape Creations!

We've been really busy lately here at the Cedarbrae branch - and so have all of you, with reporting on tons of books as part of TD Summer Reading Club, attending all kinds of programs and events, and just generally making the branch a lively and fun place to be!

One of the really fun things we did recently was host two sessions of Duct Tape Creations.

We had a blast designing and decorating wallets and clutches. These were all made with ribbon and patterned duct tape. Although this isn't one of the exact products made in the program, here's a pretty creative example of two wallets Troy Tolley made:

Duct Tape Wallets, used on a creative commons license.

If you'd like to try some cool duct tape creations on your own, why not check out some books for ideas?

Duct tape can be a great, inexpensive way to make some really unique items. Have fun and happy crafting!