To Make Or Not To Make

I'll be honest I didn't exactly know what Maker Faire was or what it would be like. I knew some friends were going and it sounded interesting so I decided to tag along.

How to explain Maker Faire? Hmmmmm.... think Burning Man meets Suburbia.... maybe?! High Tech, Low Tech, Steampunk, and everything inbetweeen that was Maker Faire.

Overall, I will say I confirmed that I am NOT a 'maker'. I rely those that make so I can buy their stuff.... So for all you makers: Thank you!

Enjoy my experience at Maker Faire below.

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Sadly, the Neverwas Haul had a line that was just too long to wait in to go inside...

Neverwas Haul is a self-propelled 3-story Victorian house. I was stationary at Maker Faire but I'm sure it's pretty cool to see it moving about....

The Swap-O-Rama-Rama was interesting. You bring your clothing donation and then you can look through the other donations and find what you want.

Here you see them rummaging through clothes

The Swap-O-Rama-Rama was also set up with sewing machines for those creative enough to modify what they have found. There were also people there to help those that found something neat but aren't creative enough to do the sewing themselves.



Like Moths to a Flame we found Bellydancers! The Boiler Bar Theater had a couple dancers for the bit of time that we were there watching.

This is Denzel

& this is Mitara

Inside the Expo Hall there was a little bit of everything.

This was in the Applied Kinetic Art area:

Hanging from the ceiling it moved up and down slightly and looked like it was 'waving'

& as you can see its made of plastic soda bottles. I was pretty awesome!

I think that this very large gear is part of the Clock of the Long Now... but I'm not 100% certain


Here is my mobile/auto section and I'll start with the kitty-cat bike that whizzed by

There were quite few art-cars and this one caught my eye because of all the pinwheels attached

but I didn't get why there were squirrels on it... and I really have no idea why this squirrel is wearing a teeny-tiny hat.

The Shark Truck was really cool

I have absolutely NO idea what this was exactly....

This Obama-Vehicle was pretty interesting.

This was interesting - it combined music into works of art that you could play


Steampunk

If you want to know more about Steampunk look here or here


This amazing pedal-powered riding thing was pretty cool and with him all dressed up I had to make him pose (funny he didn't expect to be photographed with his 'invention' but too bad: stand there and pose I said)

Again Bellydancers... in the Steampunk area. She's performing with a the acoustic-ish version of Abney Park

I liked her tattoo



This is the Steampunk Snail-Car

And this Steampunk keyboard is ready for your computer at home



Later on in the afternoon we saw the pedal-powered thing go by. If I remember correctly there were about 4 people having to pedal and there was one or two just there for the ride.


steampunk mask-things

Maker Faire Rides

Pedal powered 'carousel' for two people (of course you're only seeing the one on top in this pic)

As the kid cycled the guitars went round and were 'played' kind of...

The cupcakes rode around the fair grounds.... they were really neat!

Random Dragon like thing I took a picture of.

Barbie - who knew what could be done to a barbie doll....




The most unexpected thing occurred when we chose to get out of the heat and away from the crowds by heading to the screening room. The goal being to get into a cool dark place to rest, turned into my really getting interested in this movie: Mousetrap to Mars.

Okay, so, I've never heard of Rube Goldberg, much less the Rube Goldberg Machine Building Competition... but all of a sudden I was hooked, I even cheered for the Ferris State team, being the underdogs that they were - I guess.


Maker Faire was quite the experience. Here is a video to give you the feel of what it was: