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Fall Session Recap

Fall session 2022 was a doozy! The beginning of each school year brings a new sense of excitement into Girls Garage. Fresh off the haze of summer vacation, students come ready to double down on building epic projects. We were thrilled to see so many new faces in our classes! It’s a real treat to welcome new students into the space and to build and learn alongside them.

Highlights of the session include putting geometry to work in real life, wheat pasting a huge mural, and bringing MIG-welding back into our programmings. Lowlights include splinters, lots of splinters.

 

Advanced Design/Build

Our Advanced Design/Build cohort started building perhaps our most ambitious project to date…a geodesic dome for the Eames Institute! The Eames Institute is a non-profit public charity that aims to equip everyone with the lessons of Ray and Charles Eames to solve problems through design. The Institute is also responsible for the Eames Ranch in Petaluma, which is currently being renovated to become a living laboratory of regenerative agriculture, water conservation, and land stewardship. The 20-foot geodesic dome will be installed on-site at the Eames Ranch in early 2023!

Geodesic Dome in Girls Garage

Construction + Community

This fall officially marked the 2nd year of Construction + Community, a yearlong construction program for high school students. Without missing a beat, our new cohort got straight to work on building outdoor furniture for the People’s Programs community garden in Berkeley. Over 8 weeks, our students worked together to construct 4 Adirondack chairs and MIG-weld 2 steel benches. This weatherproof furniture will create a gathering space for volunteers who work at the garden!

Adirondack Chair angles

Protest + Print

In Protest + Print, our students reinterpreted traditional safety signs to convey their own understanding of safety (or the lack thereof) in society. This multimedia project required our students to experiment with block printing, risograph printing, and wheat pasting. They also used the bandsaw to cut out a plywood backing for their sign.

Carpentry + Woodworking

In Carpentry + Woodworking, our students practiced basic carpentry skills by building their very own step stools! Each student was tasked with using the chop saw, drill and impact driver to assemble their stools (that actually double as plant stands, book stands, and cat thrones…)

Here are some other awesome events that happened outside of our regularly scheduled programming:

  • Elders from the art collective ADELANTE traveled to Girls Garage to teach our high school students how to use indigenous and traditional dyes to make beautiful textiles! In exchange, our students built them a sewing table and storage unit.
  • We hired 3 alumna as interns: Mikaela, Nautica, and Azusa
  • We hosted a wildly successful holiday market with some of our favorite local vendors: Kuali Salsa, Bad Walters Bootleg Ice Cream, Ginger Bakes Oakland, Pamana Plantas, and Mother Tongue Coffee.