Maker Faire 2010

Warning: Long post. May take a long time to read. Start at your own risk.

So we went on our 3rd annual Maker Faire Expedition last Saturday. A little recap, the first year resulted in a broken back and a very happy wife. Said broken back opted to not participate the second year so happy wife ditched the kids and went solo. This year, we decided to experience the Faire as a family again and I'd say it's a great decision. I have seen it twice and don't feel the compulsion to see EVERYTHING. Believe me, you can't see everything. There's way too much going on. The kids are a little older and can participate more. I can't say enough good stuff about this Faire so if you haven't been, put it on your to-do list. You won't regret it.

"It's quite the event. Let's dress up for the occasion!"


It was quite overwhelming for the kids to walk into so much stuff happening. Loud noises, crazy looking people, giant flames, etc. The Boy is especially timid so it took a long time for him to adjust. This was our first robotic encounter. If you look closely, you'll see that he was pulling me away from the Thomas-like robo-train.


Next up was a craft your own hat booth. In the spirit of a craft fair, I helped the Girl make her first project at the Faire. Behold the catepillar and butterfly hat!


The Boy was still a little shy and he is not a big crafter. So he just took a sticker from the pile and put it on his hand.


We stayed outside for a while and ate some crappy fair food. The thing is, there's lots of great food but I was starving and overstimulated and made the wrong choice again. Note to self: make sure to try the paella next year.


After the food, we went inside. There were lots of cool stuff to see and touch. The kids especially enjoyed "light doodles". It's a simple concept that can easily be set up at home but it's still fun to do it at a fair.




The Girl LOVES these pictures of her under a rainbow!




Along the "light" theme, the kids also explored this LED light table. Again, simple yet fascinating.


I remember going to a tech fair with my dad when I was a kid and was introduced to the first mouse. I remember how my dad told me I had to be very careful with it and that I would have to be much older before I would master the use of it. It was a huge deal! Look at how my kids are interacting with computers now!


Seriously, the use of a computer is going to be so different for the kids. A touchscreen is so intuitive. Unfortunately, I don't own a tablet laptop or a touchscreen computer so I am always yelling at my kids to not touch the screen. I am sure they are very confused by the mixed messages. Anyhow, I didn't have to teach the Girl how to use this software at all and she came up with this:


The Boy might have been yelled at one too many times since he refused to touch the screen. Kept telling his dad no touch the screen. Funny dude!


The Faire wouldn't be complete without a Lego setup or... sixty! Legos were everywhere. This train was one of the Boy's favorite.


Hubby took the kids to see the Mousetrap while I went to the more hand-crafty area. Hubby took this picture. Since I wasn't there I can't say much about it except that I heard Hubby was suckered into carrying both kids through the whole performance. You wonder why/how his back broke that first year...


The handy craft portion was, in my opinion, pretty poorly planned. It was way too crowded in way too small a space. It's a very popular part of the Faire and it wasn't given enough space. I didn't enjoy that at all. No shopping or new projects to report from that.

The real highlight of the Faire for me this year was the best ever Mentos and Coke display! (Remember, kids, it's a physical reaction between the carbonation and the surface of the Mentos - not the chemical reaction that I made you write out a million times. Ah... this makes me want to teach science again!) I have done the Coke geyser thing a few times but this was truly amazing! According to the performers, it took hours to prep and the show lasted about 2 minutes. Total labour of love.


Here is another video of the same two guys at a different setting doing a slightly different routine.

That pretty much sums it up. There were lots of pyro displays. We took some pictures but they were more impressive in person. We also learnt that the Girl is a pyromaniac and the Boy is... what is the opposite? The Boy whimpered in my lap while the Girl kept asking for more. I am a little worried about them both.

We finished out day by having a buffet dinner. The big finale was candy covered ice-cream cones. I don't think I have seen a more earnest ice-cream eater!




"That was a totally awesome day. See you at the Faire next year!"

Maker Faire 2009

I just came home from Maker Faire 2009 and my legs HURT! I got there at around 10:30 and left around 5. I didn't sit down once while I was there. There was so much to see I had to keep moving. Having said that, I did NOT get to see the battle bots because there was a huge line to get the tickets and after you get the tickets, you wait in another line to get in the arena. My time was too precious for all these lines. I also didn't have a chance to try Swap-o-rama. There was also a line there to get a machine and a designer and it was near the end of my day when I found it.

A really pretty bonsai tree I saw at one of the entrances.


Another thing I missed out on was the live workshops. They were a lot more spread out this year and I couldn't find the right buildings at the right time. The one I really wanted to see was the making of Coraline but I was too late.

Inflatable flower seating outside and right in front of one of the 4 stages. Really good music.


What I did get to do was to learn about polymer clay, check out the new "makers of food" section and try silkscreening. I was worried that the same exhibitors will go every year and it won't be as fun this year but I was very wrong. Some of the exhibitors I hoped to see again were not there and there were lots of new things to see. DIY science was really big this year. There were lots of high school level stuff. I would be a lot more interested if I were still teaching.

Weird new fruit - looks like a cantaloupe on the outside, has flesh like a honeydew on the inside and is actually a watermelon. It took me a really long time to wrap my mind around this one.


Fresh honey comb. I tried some and the honey part was yummy and sweet. I just couldn't bring myself to swallow the wax part.


This photo does not do this little sandwich justice. The "bread" part is like tiny pancakes made out of corn meal and the inside is pulled pork, tomatoes and avocado. So good!


There were lots of robotic stuff, just as there were last year but much of it is new this year. There were also lots of new crafts and craft gadgets but it was not very commercial at all. Some of the things I saw were not even for sale. You can go on their website to buy them but they just wanted to show off their products and educate crafters.

The giraffe bot is an old timer now. The gliches from last year are all ironed out and it ran very smoothly this year.


One of the many robots roaming the fair grounds.


These are not real robots. This Japanese dude makes these awesome little paper robots by folding paper rolls. Really really cool.


Finally, there were lots of new "rides". The cupcake cars are gone. But there are lots of other new and weird creations.

Kind of a funny ride. I guess the funniest part is the carseat installed on the top for this little princess.


The President-bot ride.


A very grand and romantic looking ride.


The snail ride. The kids really love this one.


So, it was super fun. Next year, I am getting a two day pass and go by myself for one day and go with the kids on the second day. There were lots and lots of kiddie things that I didn't even bother to look at this time but the kids who were there seem super into it.

I think the bot was kicking the kid in the rear.


Monster Foosball.

Hands On at Maker Faire

Okay, this is my last Maker Faire post in case you are getting bored. One of my favorite things about the Faire was how interactive it was. There were lots and lots of booths that offered workshops and mini activities that EVERYONE can do. The cost is minimal and often free. There were many things that even Kira enjoyed.

I made this print for Kira using Scratch Foam. It's like a junior version of linoleum printing.

Kira also made a cell (the thing that living things are made of... not phones) using Magic Sculpt. Unfortunately, she ate the putty and I had to throw it away before I could get a picture of it. Then we headed over to a nearby booth and made a flip book of Kira dancing.

She then wandered into a magic wand making booth and made a wand.

I tried this gel pen that looks like stained glass when dried. I've never coloured so quickly before. I made a cherry blossom tag in under 3 minutes, seriously. I can't find the tag now for a picture. Of course, there was the mushroom felting. In the end, I decided the best part was this room.

I wandered into this room in the morning and thought it must be the staging area since it was super messy and had a lot of junk in it. But really, it's what they called Maker Faire Playground. It's a room full of random stuff and all kinds of tools you can imagine. People (adults and kids) were encouraged to get dirty and make stuff. Doesn't matter what you wanted to create... just get in there and start gluing or cutting or breaking or smashing or what-have-you. Kira had so much fun picking up random things on the tables and chairs and floor. In the end, her greatest creation was The Third Eye, which eventually turned into the forth and fifth...
Okay, Brett shot this video and it was funny... but he forgot to turn it off in the end or something... I apologize for the last 5 seconds or so of it... it is very unprofessional of him. I will fire him from the job of camera man. I have to say though, he was wonderful during the entire Faire. He took care of the kids so I could wander around and look at stuff and participate in workshops. Thanks for a wonderful birthday gift, Hubby.

Sculptures at Maker Faire

There were these two huge sculptures in the middle of the fair grounds and I took a couple of pictures of them because the looked pretty neat. They were made out of ropes. I as I showed the pictures to Kira after the Faire, she named these Mommy and Daddy. Do you see the resemblance?


Of course, Maker Faire wouldn't be quite complete without something made with Lego. In fact, they had a whole room devoted to Lego scenes and other such creations. I had a few photos but they were not very good pics. So, I'll just show this one project that was outdoor. Kids loved it.

One last sculpture that I found fun. This was a metallic ball that was put on a big area of sand. I don't know how else to describe it. Here is a quote from the artist's website:

This isn't a sandbox with a marble in it. Sysyphus V, a kinetic sculpture by Bruce Shapiro looks like a Zen Garden. But instead of a buddhist monk carefully raking gravel, it's an autonomous steel sphere carefully crawling over and over, making polar geometric shapes that can best be described as iterative lilies or stars. A magnet on an arm on a two axis plotter sites underneath the half-ton set up, and Sisyphus is making its first appearance here, at Maker
Faire 2008.

Check out his website for better pictures. Here is a video of what I saw at the Faire:

Fiber Arts Maker Faire

Aside from the super duper cool robots, there were lots of fiber arts display and workshops at Maker Faire. Check out these works of art! Looking at this cake makes me want to get married all over again.


This lady was doing demos in the craft building. She was also selling and modeling some of her work.

Inside another building, they had felting workshops as well. One other thing that I was impressed with was how interactive Maker Faire was. I sat down at the workshop and was given some roving, a felting needle and a piece of foam and the instructor, Moxie, just said, "go for it". Not really know what I was doing, I started stabbing. If you've never tried needle felting before, it's worth checking out. It's addicting and quite calming, I found. I made a little mushroom for Hayden. He looked kind of worried here:

Here is another picture that shows the mushroom off a bit more. Unfortunately, I trusted Hayden to hold on to the mushroom but his tiny hands were not up to the job. We lost the mushroom somewhere between the hotdog booth and our car. Bye bye, Mushroom.

More Robots at Maker Faire

Here is another robot that we played with. It was super wonderful that the robots at Maker Faire were all interactive instead of "display only". This orange robot's job is to take and release these giant donuts/life savers. It was a simple task but the kids love it.


So R2D2 was cool and this orange robot is also kinda fun. There were a few others that I didn't get pictures of that roamed around the fair grounds. But my favorite is the robot battles!!!!! They are 3 minute battles between two robots. I don't know how to describe it any further so here is a video of 3 very exciting minutes. The video really doesn't do it justice. You have to be there. I am so into now that I think I am going to try making it to this.

R2D2 at Maker Faire

We went to Maker Faire on Sunday and it was AWESOME! According to the official Maker Faire website, "Maker Faire is a two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. It’s for creative, resourceful people of all ages and backgrounds who like to tinker and love to make things." Now, try explaining that to a two year old. I figured Kira didn't need to know all the details so I told her we were going to see robots. Man, did she ever saw robots. She LOVED it! I will blog more about the other robots later in the week but let's start with the biggest celebrity of all robots: R2D2.

Here is an action shot of R2:

I saw R2 before Kira did. She was sleeping in the stroller with Brett while I walked around and first ran into R2. I really wanted to show it to Kira. So, when R2 came back, I got really excited and unstrapped Kira from her stroller and pushed her towards the robot. Of course, she got really scared and wanted to jump back into her stroller. So, I picked her up and we walked slowly towards R2 and she gently patted R2 on the head. Then, she was in love.

We saw this short video over and over this morning when Kira wanted to go see the robots again. Sorry Kira, we'll have to wait until next year.