The Makers of MFA '09 - Post 2/3

I am clawing a few minutes away from the chaos that has enveloped RBD post Ghana, to share with you a few more of the Makers we met there...

I'll start you off with Wisdom, who if i am honest, sort-of embodied the whole of Maker Faire Africa for me..

Craig Calfee / Wisdom Toxla - Bamboo Bike:

There are many versions of the "bamboo bike" concept, this one is the 'Bamboosero' and was designed by American Designer Craig Calfee and built by Ghanian Maker, Wisdom Toxla (a.k.a "The Boy").

Wisdom assured James that his Bamboosero was lighter, faster & more comfortable to ride than a metal frame cycle and, heavily prompted by James' questions, went on to give him detailed instructions on how to go about crafting his own bamboo bicycle, back in Blighty. Amidst all the enthusiastic gesticulating I noticed Wisdom's watch ... find me a man more MFA than him and I'll eat a recycled plastic hat ...

Amit Gandhi / Mark Driordan - Plastic Bag Recycling Press:

Another IDDS team, Amit Gandhi and Mark Driordan (USA, UK respectively), displayed their heat-press designed to transform waste plastic bags into useful plastic sheeting from 3ply to 40ply in thickness. This recycled plastic sheet can then be used to produce... well, anything! Shoes, satchels, pencil cases and folders were some of the examples on display but critically the cost of assembling and running this press is minimal and doing so is well within the technical capacity of Ghanaian Makers, meaning anyone could produce their own recycled plastic goods. Seriously good stuff.. I genuinely want to make and use one. What more can I say?!

...and I will be leaving it to James to introduce you to the zero-electricity fridge; as he spent most of the last academic year researching similar technologies before starting development on what will be Red Button Design's second product, 'Medicool'.

"Medicool is a temperature controlled vaccine carrier that allows health workers in developing countries to keep vaccines within their safe temperature range for longer, increasing the range of immunization programmes. It works by capturing waste heat so avoids the need for a traditional power source."

Once again, photo credits go to the brilliant James-Elliot.co.uk .. nah 'course we're not biased!