Where are these sewing machines at maker faires?!
I’ve now been to three Mini Maker Faires, and they all had a very different slants. The attendees were largely the same demographic (kids, parents, more kids), but the makers presenting at the faires were all over the place. The NoVa Mini Maker Faire was a 3D printing and Robotics show. There was a bit of fiber art and other stuff sequestered off in another part of the Faire, away from most of the action. The Greenbelt Mini Maker Faire had just a handful of 3D printers – mine and maybe two others – and it had a Rubik’s Cube solving robot, but it also had a lot of handicrafts, a guy designing his own custom dice games, a vertical gardening setup for small spaces, and a silversmith, to name a few. A silversmith! How cool is that!?
At the DC Mini Maker Faire, we were mostly back to 3D Printing and Robots. Not that 3D Printing isn’t super cool and takes up most of my free time because it’s awesome, but 3D Printing isn’t Making. It’s just a really, really useful tool that makes new kinds of Making easier and more accessible.
So what is Making, then?
Making is Doing It Yourself. It’s producing something, instead of consuming it. It’s design and manufacture with your own hands, agnostic of tools or end results.
KT421 Is Not At Her Post 