The city of Bristol, England is no stranger to building, tinkering, making, and innovation. Famous civil and structural engineer Brunel build the longest bridge span of the mid-19th century there (and it still stands!). Grafitti artist Banksy grew up there. Bristol is home to a stunningly creative animation industry, as well as Silicon Gorge, a region full of high-tech and research companies. The University of the West of England (UWE) has a robotics program there, and there are also three makerspaces: Hackspace, Stitch up Studios and the Cube Microplex.
No question then that the makers of Bristol will amaze and inspire kids and adults alike at this weekend’s first Bristol Mini Maker Faire. The fair is to be held in conjunction with Science and Engineering week at Bristol’s city museum, MShed. The fair will feature 3D printers, ceramic crafts, interactive art installations, kids hacker groups, and pinhole cameras. Throw in a bit of fire sculpture outside with the Big Tea’se and Ore & Ingot pouring molten bronze and we have a hot start to the life of the Mini Maker Faire in Bristol.
Some other maker highlights from the fair include:
Roborigami is the wonderfully curious combination of robotics and origami. Maker Ad Spiers develops robots to be used in surgery as his day job. He has been getting more and more interested in creative uses for his skills and has teamed up with origami artist Coco Sato, and Peter Bennett, an interaction designer. It is a wonderful marriage of skills and creativity.
Eben Upton, from nearby Cambridge, and his Raspberry flavor Pi have already stolen the show. Eben will open the show, then later give a talk about the development of the Raspberry Pi, a palm sized computer, designed to encourage children to learn how to program that has taken the maker world by storm. 
Seeing a live bronze pour is a rare thing these days, so Ore & Ingot are spreading the word about this archaic skill with workshops and classes. They will be live casting bells on the day and will be giving one away.
Matt Venn is bringing a variety of hard-to-describe pieces, but we did a meet the makers interview with him and it clearly gets across his mega maker skills.
Michelle Palmer is a world traveller and adventurer. She was with California’s Flaming Lotus Girls for the past seven years. In fact, she will be giving a talk at the fair on building large scale fire and metal art within a collaborative art group. Join her in the lecture room, behind the education room on the first floor at noon, this Saturday at the Bristol Mini Maker Faire.
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