Making Las Vegas

Las Vegas celebrated its maker community at the 2nd annual Las Vegas Mini Maker Faire on April 5th. Held at The Learning Center in the revitalized downtown Las Vegas, the event hosted over 60 makers, and drew a crowd of over 700 attendees from around the Las Vegas area.

The event was organized by Paweł Szymczykowski and the crew from SYN Shop, the hackerspace located in downtown Las Vegas. Arriving early, I loved seeing the passion of both the crew and the makers as they setup up the event.  I was immediately welcomed, given a volunteer t-shirt – and put to work!

At 10am the gates opened, and the community poured in.

Las Vegas Mini Maker Faire sponsor Pololu created this video of their exhibit and many of the other areas of Las Vegas Mini Maker Faire.

Las Vegas Mini Maker Faire had all the amazement and wonder that are part of Maker Faire. I was glad to see that sponsors such as Zappos, The Downtown Project, Pololu, and FSL3D were exhibiting at the event and interacting with the local community, and I even met Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos while at the event.

It takes a large a large community effort to bring a Maker Faire to life – I think this tweet from SYN Shop says it well.

Thank you to all the makers and volunteers that made this years Mini Maker Faire such a success!

— SYN Shop (@synshop) April 7, 2014

Check out the slideshow and videos below for highlights from the event.

Marlene Reid of IslandGirlzDesigns turns old books into works of art by handfolding each page.

The Fun & Fashion area of Las Vegas Mini Maker Faire was filled with custom clothing, including this dress by Deviant Elegance.

Justin from Pixel Paladins shows off one of his creations, the Sword of Omens from ThunderCats.

Pixel Paladins also created this excellent Ghostbusters sign. My home theater needs one!

This Rivendell sculpture was just one of the amazing worlds sculpted by Megan Dresback.

This beehive was created with the plans at opensourcebeehives.net

The Las Vegas Camera Club educated attendees on the technology of older cameras, and how to keep those cameras in good working order with new parts, and fun hacks. The young man in the photo owns a vintage bellows camera – I was impressed hearing his knowledge of cameras and film.

The Robot Army is a collaborative project by Sarah Petkus and Mark Koch. This army is controlled by hand movements tracked by an Xbox Kinect sensor. You’ll see an even larger Robot Army at Maker Faire Bay Area in May.

Las Vegas Mini Maker Faire sponsor Pololu built this seven segment RGB LED scoreboard to keep score for office competitions.

The Local Motors Rally Fighter was on display, and always had a crowd.

Local Motors also brought their Cruiser – a retro-styled bicycle available in either electric or gas-powered models.

This electric Mustang featured batteries under the hood, and an LCD television in the trunk!

The electric Delorean has its power circuits available for everyone to see.

Las Vegas Mini Maker Faire sponsor FSL3D had an early model of their upcoming Pegasus Touch resin 3D printer at their booth, along with quite a few printed objects.

Why print a giant guitar tuner? Because you can!

One of the challenges in making a Telsa coil is the precising winding of the secondary coil. Jeff “Krux” Rosowski (founder of SYN Shop), created this one using a microcontroller and common stepper motors.

Every Maker Faire has its epic lab coat-wearing maker – at the Las Vegas Mini Maker Faire, it was Krux.

This dino was cut on the ShopBot at SYN Shop, the Las Vegas Hackerspace.

Las Vegas Mini Maker Faire organizer, Paweł Szymczykowski takes a quick break by testing out a swing by Las Vegas Swings.

The Downtown Project is revitalizing downtown Las Vegas – including art on buildings, and even these fun benches.

At events, we are always looking for ways to hang signs – I’m stealing this idea!

I backed the Robot Army Starter Kit on Kickstarter and it was great to see the delta robots in action. They will be at Maker Faire Bay Area with an even larger Robot Army!

A portion of the dark space was turned into a chill lounge with music, LED lighting and projected light patterns.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ian Cole (@digitalman2112)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ian Cole (@digitalman2112)

This flame-shooting praying mantis is located at the Container Park retail & food area next to the Learning Village in Downtown Las Vegas – it may not have officially been an exhibit, but it was still very awesome!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ian Cole (@digitalman2112)

My next maker events are MakerCon and Maker Faire Bay Area. At MakerCon, I will be sharing the results of the Maker Personality & Skills Assessment. At Maker Faire Bay Area, I will be in the Maker Stories Project exhibit helping makers share their inspiring stories with the world – I hope to see you there!