We'll be at this year's East Bay Mini-Maker Faire. Very excited to be included in a panel about Digital Fabrication and the future of building. We're honored to be joining the amazing Smith|Allen Studio and Sheet Metal Alchemist in the Maker Skills room at 2:30 PM.

We wanted to do something for East Bay Mini-Maker Faire, because it's such a great local event, but have been too busy to organize something of our own. So when they asked if we'd be on the panel, we jumped at the chance! Hence the short notice, as the event is this Sunday. Fun fact: all the Makers on the panel will also be 'Maker Couples' as Smith|Allen & Sheet Metal Alchemist are both run by a creative couple, just like us.

So come and see us at the Faire!

We here at Because We Can are big fans of open source and sharing. We love Blender, the open source 3D modeling software. We donate money to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. We release almost all our work under a creative commons licence, even our business plan. But one area you might not know is that we directly fund the development of modules for Drupal, the open source content management system.

While Drupal runs this public site you're reading now, we also use it 'behind the scenes'. We rolled our own agile production management / project management / Lean-ERP system using Drupal. Drupal, being very modular, can be extended and configured into whatever you need it to be. While we call this system "The Wiki" it's so much more than that. It's become a cornerstone of our business and how we work. And a big part of how we work is keeping track of time.

In the best traditions of Open Source, we reached out to one of the maintainers of a Drupal Module that's critical to our in-house system: Time Tracker. We hired Chris Hertzog of Codework Designs to help add some features we needed to the module. These features are then shared with everyone, given back to the Drupal community, so everyone wins. Which we really dig, as it's our goal to make the world a more interesting place.

Time Tracker is a nice, lightweight system that lets you track and log time on whatever Drupal Nodes you wish. Using it, we made a system that shows everyone in the company exactly where we are on all of our projects, how much time has been spent, how much time is left in the budget, and who's doing what and when. And it's all woven right into the same 'wiki page' that we use to manage and track information about the project. One lean, powerful place to help keep us on time and on budget so we can focus on what we love to do: making great things for great people.

A new and wonderful video showing off the Serpent Twins in all their glory. Really captures the spirit of them we think. It even shows them outside of Burning Man, for if you didn't know, they are available for parties and corporate events. Just contact Jon for bookings. Honored to have been included in this project!

Before it gets too much later, we really need to show off these lanterns and camp decorations we made for Burning Man 2013! Our camp for The Serpent Twins project has grown, and with it, our camp facade.

The winged benches, axes and medallions we made for last year's camp. This year we went much larger with the light up camp sign and flanking solar lanterns.

The solar lights inside the lanterns were able get a good charge all day, and then shine all night showing off their lattice patterns.

Because of the overlapping panels, the lattice carvings threw really neat designs onto the ground.

During the day the lanterns acted as a tall perimeter marker to the entrance of our camp.

Dust collecting on the cut outs created a nice softening effect.

Before the dust was able to get them, the lanterns looked like this in our shop.

With fun designs, the lanterns are a pleasure to look at from afar or close up.

Standing over 10ft tall, they give a grand presence!

And, of course, we designed these to be flat pack for easy transport & assembly!

So just a hint over eight years ago, we ordered a Shopbot. Bragging about it is actually the very first post on this blog. We got it running, named it Frank, and started making stuff. First we made stuff for ourselves, then our friends and family, then friends of friends, and next thing you know a year after Frank arrived in our lives we quit our day jobs and jumped in with both feet. The last seven years have been very busy indeed! Since then we've delivered on many wonderful projects for some really great people and companies.

So I'm very proud to say that we just ordered another Shopbot. Slightly larger than Frank, but twice as fast, twice as strong, and much stiffer and more accurate. Technically, it's a PRS Alpha 96x60x12 with a 4 HP spindle. Shopbot has been one of the best vendors we've ever worked with, and we've very excited to get one of their new awesome machines!

Frank is far from being sent to pasture, however! He's busily cutting a job as I post this, and after eight years is still a wonderful, capable, dependable machine. We're going to run them side-by-side, in parallel. In time, we'll probably convert Frank into something that's even better for big 3D carving, maybe even convert him into a 4 or 5-axis machine maybe.

Now the only problem we have is what to name the new robot. If you've got a great idea for a name please let us know!

Making a home that is a perfect fit for it's owners is what we do. And children are no exception! We outfitted a home renovation we recently completed with some fun and attractive kid friendly additions.

First off, the back yard sandbox desperately needed a cover in this Bay Area weather prone to daily fog and drizzles.

These durable and weather resistant covers allow the sand beneath to ventilate, and can more easily store toys with their domed tops, that keeps water from pooling.

In the basement we've added a screen to cover the exposed pipes and knobs necessary for a modern house. Now the basement is more usable for storage, prettier to look at and safer for the kids.

Already a part of the project were these acrylic window guards we did around the house.

With fun designs carved into the acrylic, they added some non-overpowering whimsy to the utilitarian acrylic guards.

And, of course, everyone needs a chalk board of house rules. This one cleverly hides a utility panel near the kitchen.

For a small private school in Oakland, we recently completed the first phase of a revamp of their front hallway area.Now to be used for displaying the students' art pieces and holding "Maker" classes.

The shelving is a shadow box design with cork backers for hanging the students art, and runs the length of one side of the hallway.

On the other side of the hallway, the tinker stations line up in a row. We took design references from the original Julia Morgan building & furniture, integrating them into the stations.

The stations have a full cabinet of storage in their interior, and peg boards and white boards inside either door.

The work surface has a grid pattern carved into a sturdy maple top.

And small drawers for supplies line the top.

Happy Making, kids!

Hear ye, Hear ye!We are hiring to fill two positions asap.... A Fabricator position and a Jr. Designer position.

If you have a passion for great architecture, interior design, furniture and digital fabrication, please check out our new BWC careers page to see the postings. And come make things with us and with a robot!

We are so proud that our local area of West Oakland has received some great press this last month.Celebrating the custom fabricator and "Maker" scene that has been growing here for years. It is nice to see some thoughtful pieces being written about this area and it's future!

Metropolis Magazine wrote a cool piece on our local area, focusing on two large community based fabricator establishments, The Crucible and American Steel.

Make Magazine and Tech Hive wrote a pieces on what the future holds for the area, and how it has changed into a thriving custom fabricator mecca, with plenty of room to grow.

We are, and have been, excited to be part of this exciting and growing area!

Honored to be featured on our client's blog. They showcase our work, how we do what we do, and our work with them in transforming their space into something amazing.

Check it out! Both their blog and lecture series are top favorites here at Because We Can. We highly recommend signing up and following all the inspiring things The Long Now Foundation gets up to!

This home renovation we completed recently in San Francisco freshened up a historic home from the 1900's, while keeping and celebrating its vintage details.

The woodwork now pops into view with its white paint job and the dark floors in the entryway, and all over the home.

The kitchen and bathrooms were heavy and dark from their last renovation in the 1970's. We lightened and brightened and opened up walls were we could, even taking out some load bearing walls and replacing them with steel overhead to create a better living space.

Raising the ceiling in the main living space and taking out those walls made such a difference!

And, or course we could not resist a little BWC fun.... with this porthole window in the kids room.

See more photos and descriptions on our project page here.

Summer has been amazing, so we're celebrating. So stop by and join us in the fun!

We are opening our doors for Because We Can's Summer 2013 open house.

We'll be starting early at 5PM and going until 8PM-ish.

We'll be dancing, drinking, snacking, talking, and showing off great projects recently completed and some currently underway. It's a great time to drop by and talk shop with us, too, if you want to learn more about what we do and how we do it. If she's brave, you might get to meet the new shop kitty too!

Kids welcome, but it is a shop and a party. Lots of sharp corners. And they might learn some interesting new words!

Friday, August 2nd

5PM - 8PM

2500 Kirkham St
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 922-8846

Click here for the Google Map.

All are invited, so come on by! We'd love to see you.

A big congrats to our good friends over at Form & Reform for being this issue's cover shot for Make Magazine!

The article on them is great, all about the various art & fire things they are constantly up to. And it calls us out for our help with the The Serpent Twins tails!

Looking forward to more collaborations with this amazing group of people.

We are overjoyed (and kind of freaking out) to announce that Brian Eno is going to be doing the ambient sound design for the Long Now Salon project. He has also dedicated a light-painting installation for the space!

Brian Eno has been a longtime supporter & board member of the Long Now. We are HUGE fans of his work and couldn't be more excited! If you'd like to support this amazing project, then help us build it!

Shopbot, makers of our beloved and tirelessly working robot Frank, have launched a Kickstarter to fund the development of their awesome new little CNC machine, the Handibot!

If you were at Maker Faire this year, you got to see this impressive little portable CNC router. Perfect for jobsite work! I'm expecting a big future for this little guy.

Great thing is that if you know how to use a Shopbot at all, you already know all you need to use this new robot. And if you don't, Shopbot is looking to team up with various app developers. I can see lots of small apps for this; apps to route door latchset pockets without having to take the door off its hinges, cutting perfect circles for bathroom fixture install (like they show in this video), and a whole lot more!

So you should help back their Kickstarter and put these empowering CNC tools into more people's hands!

We have the pleasure to announce that were awarded the "Small Business Success Award" from Autodesk.

To promote the award, they made this cool video of our office & work shop....

The way this was edited implies that we fabricated the Serpent Twins completely here in house. Which could not be further from the truth! It was a whole crew of lovely people that help make the Serpents. We did made the tails & some details, which we have a nice project page on if you want more info. Other than that, it is a very nice video, and we thank the people at Autodesk for putting it together!

We are just beginning to break ground on the Long Now Salon project. The office and museum space is vacated, and the demolition has begun!

If you are not familiar with The Long Now Foundation, they are an amazing non profit like no other; dedicated to the fostering of long term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years. Their lecture and event series is not one to be missed.

Because, like any non-profit, they are relying on donations, they have created a "Brick-Starter" of their own to help fund this Salon project with a several different pledging opportunities.

As this will be a Salon to commune with your peers over cerebral topics while enjoying a contemplative drink, the pledging tiers are complete with a complexly flavored Tea, Whiskey and Gin, among other things. The consumables all have wonderful stories of their production (as well as their taste). They are each an experience of long contemplation, either solo or with a group. This will truly be an interesting place to spend an evening.

But the Salon space is not just for the evenings. Our designs for the space use the wonderful natural light that comes in through the historic windows of this Fort Mason building. The light illuminates their extensive library of civilization, the documentation of their ongoing projects, and the impressive clock prototypes on display. The Salon will have it's daytime hours, just as it did before, but now with the space to host small events and talks.

In the evening the Long Now Salon will extend its hours. For those of you who could not get there during its daytime schedule, you will have the opportunity to spend some quality time within this Museum of The Long Now, as an evening Salon.

And The Salon will be complete that much sooner if you are able to help build it. Thank you!

Maker Faire was another grand success last weekend. We had a blast of course! We were able to snap a few photos while we were there of the projects we helped design and create. Like these two Skee Ball machines!

They were a great hit with the kids and took quite a beating....

We also made a new accessory for the serpent twins project... These tablet stands that let you control the internal lights from outside the serpent. They were specifically made for all the shows the Serpents have been going to lately.

When not in the bright sun, they are also good for showing promotional movies on the project.

See you next year Maker Faire!

Maker Faire is this weekend! We will be there to show off the Serpent Twins project, as well as a few other surprises.

So in celebration of Maker Faire we thought we would do a retrospective of photos featuring the MAKE chairs we made for the Faire back in 2007. They are still in use, usually on one of the stages.... see if you can spot them this year!

Maker Faire, Austin - 2007

Maker Faire, SF Bay Area- 2008

Maker Faire, SF Bay Area- 2007

Maker Faire, SF Bay Area 2009

See you there!

We have been lucky enough to work with ClifBar again on another internal marketing wall for their Emeryville office location. This one focused on the Womens' Mountain Biking Team they sponsor, and integrated an aesthetic of reclaimed barn wood juxtaposed with clean lines.

This wall was coincidentally right next to another office wall we did. That one was a promotional wall for their internal philanthropy work, done with a 1950's diner theme and reclaimed bike parts.

The LunaChix wall (named after their LunaBar line) incorporates overlapping frames, a movable time line, Bike Jersey holders, a map of where the teams are located and a giant overhead sign.

This row of frames will act as a timeline for showing which bike team is in the lead.

Working with the client, we designed the aesthetic and functionality of these items. The timeline frames can slide easily along their rail with these small clips we've added to the back.

For the Map, we chose to use an oiled Walnut face, and then carve the state lines into it.

We did this so the soft material behind the veneer can accept the pins to showcase the team locations.

We used the same material to make these striking jersey holders

By creating a system to hang and overlap the barnwood frames, photos in the frames can be easily switched out when needed.

For the larger wood frames, we added a laser-cut wood name attached to the side:

And finally, the large barnwood sign. We made this custom barnwood sign by dying the wood after fabricating its shape, so the variation in the wood slats can shine through.