Maker Faire is the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth — a family-friendly festival of invention, creativity, and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the maker movement.
Part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new, Maker Faire is an all-ages gathering of tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, authors, artists, students, and commercial exhibitors. All of these people come to Maker Faire to show what they have made and to share what they have learned.
Explore below to see the best of Maker Faire, and head to makerfaire.com for more information.
I can’t believe it was just a week ago today that makers were finishing preparations for the 2nd annual World Maker Faire in NYC. We did our best to cover the event in real-time, using services such as our Posterous-powered Maker Faire Daily (a good read a week later, I might add), but lots of content is still trickling in.
CRAFT sure had a great time at World Maker Faire last weekend. Here’s a highlight:
Andrew Salomone uses a hacked knitting machine from the 80s to “print” digital images into knitted garments. At World Maker Faire New York 2011, Andrew demonstrates the knitting machine and shows off its creations including a sweater with Bill Cosby’s face.
Mark Edelman from NorCalFTC shows the competition area for a yearly teen program in robotics. At Maker Faire Bay Area 2011, student teams used their engineering and technology skills to pit their creations against one another in the final tech challenge.
I just got back from New York City where Eric Stackpole and I spent the weekend exhibiting and talking about OpenROV at the Open Hardware Summit and World Maker Faire. Although it wasn’t quite as big as Maker Faire Bay Area, it was an unbelievable gathering of makers and creators of all shapes and sizes. On a scale of 1 to Awesome, it was a perfect score.
The Atlanta Mini Maker Faire was held on September 10, 2011 at the Georgia Tech campus — nice (but hot) weather, easy parking, and over 60 exhibitors allowed visitors plenty of time to stop, look, chat, and even make some purchases. I asked the event’s coordinator, Eric Weinhoffer, if he could provide some more details about the event, as well as attendance figures and any lessons learned that might help other Mini Maker Faire coordinators in the future.
I was psyched to finally get a chance to meet RobotGrrl at World Maker Faire. In this video from her table, she shows Chris Connor three of the bots she’s designed. I especially love that she’s already made use of the Redpark Cable for connecting Arduino with iOS via an iPad.
Among other whimsical items, Xylocopa Design fabricates unique musical instruments, such as this 5 stringed boxy fiddle. These creations were born from Michele’s practice in musical instrument repair and grew into the design of completely new instruments that she demonstrated for delighted visitors at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011.
