Maker Faire: Part 1- Things to see!

Maker Faire is a festival for those who take the act of creation seriously, for those who would rather not own something if they couldn't fix it themselves, for those who will bring about the next big things in our existence that were not there before.

And this year, I finally lived close enough to attend one. Paul, Martin, Chris and I headed over to San Mateo, to see what this years crop of creatives had to show us. As you might have guessed, we were pretty pleased- save for Martin, who as a master fabricator himself, was entirely jaded to such things. The first thing that you notice is some of the more eccentric people here. There is a bit of Steampunk culture here, but the majority seem to be just showing a style of: 'Hey! Look what I can do!' One example is this gentleman keeping cool in the hot San Mateo sun:



Our first stop was this enormous rocket ship built by Raygun Gothic. This thing is so enormous you can see it from all sides of the grounds. So bulbous and shiny, it looks like something out of a 1930s sci-fi comic. They have a real space suit for the pilot provided by NASA, and when they are done touring it, it is going to have a permanent home in city parkland by the bay.



Next on to the Maker Shed, where there was a bunch of sweet maker stuff for sale. Chris bought an Arduino- something an aspiring builder should definitely know about, and we both got some Sugru- exciting, as it isn't really available on the market yet! (A post on how awesome this stuff REALLY is, is forthcoming).



Then onto Maker Square, where the Flaming Lotus Girls had set up their SOMA Neuron fire and light sculpture, shown here, at night because it looks way cooler at night:



Around Maker Square was a large tent promoting DIY farming and eating locally, and several of really cool art cars. This one- which struck me as an acid trip made real- took visitors around the Faire in the back.

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There are also four buildings full of stuff that people have made, that they want to show off. You can scarcely round a corner without seeing something cool, that someone has devoted all their time after work to building. For example, this person has a LCD screens in electric guitars:



And this person has made a fractal-based coffee table made entirely out of copper pipe and solder:



With over 300 presenters, one would wonder how to fit it all into one day- but there's even more. The event also has several stages and event grounds set aside for two days worth of things to do- which I'll cover in a post coming this afternoon. Until then, how do you all like the new blog design? We're 50 posts in, so I figured, time for a change!