Maker-Faire NC Recap

                      Hey guys, back from a weekend of making and refreshing the creative juices. Maker-Faire NC was WILD this year. Nash and I volunteered as ticket takers and generally wandered around having fun. For those of you who aren't familar with the Faire, I like to think of it as if you suddenly had a backstage pass to all the mancave and garage workspaces in the area. So much raw fun and creativity.
                     There were some obvious trends this year: legos and 3D printers were super popular. Also, we saw a lot of fun costuming and reenactment/cosplay guilds. Nash kept dragging me away from the shiny tables of cool crafts I'd never tried before. Take this lovely red leather outfit from the 105th squadron. Also on display were a lot of neat projects I hadn't considered making. Take these AWESOME Rock'em Sock'em Robots from Spark Con. Or the 40 foot tall whomping willow pumpkin thrower.

                     Pretty cool weekend overall. I always like seeing stuff I hadn't planned on or dreamed about. A definite sense of wonder. It reminds me of the 1910-1920 world fairs. As we get into the 4th year, I must say I am enjoying seeing everything grow and change. Go guys. Alright, to next year and a lot more fun.

Textile Friday: Feltronics

                  This past week was a fun new fair to me, Burlington Maker Faire. This comes before the big Maker Faire: North Carolina in a few months which we will be showing in. There was a lot stuff I loved in this nerdy adult science faire,  but my favorite was Feltronics which featured circuit boards made of felt and soldiered electronics which comes out of the Charlotte Hackerspace. This project won the Make magazine's hackerspace challenge this past year and features cool soft components that can be combined to teach elementary kids how to design circuits.
                   Can we say yum, yum yum? eTextiles is so much fun in my book and it's such a wide wild wild west at the moment that I'm enjoying seeing it evolve. Plus, there's something fun about seeing another local group come up with a cool idea and win awards from it. It's fun to route for the home team. If you want to make your own kit, you can check out their website. In general, they say that cost to make your own should run you under $100, mostly the arduino being the largest cost. Felt is pretty easy to cut out on a laser so I think that you can either do this by cutting out the templates and then gluing them together or you can also do this by hand. Needless to say, one of the better applications of felt I've seen in making a difference that actually makes sense to me.
                    I'm really looking forward to seeing what people bring this year to Maker Faire: North Carolina. Thanks everyone for a great time this past weekend. What a joy.