I was aimlessly wandering around Facebook, as one does, and in my journeys I came across a small page called simply Chain Mail, and on it was the gorgeous dragon above! It was made by the admin Rain who has her own blog with lots of other crafty and day to day goodness.
Have you been to a Maker Faire? A celebration of things people make themselves, Maker Faires are organized by MAKE Magazine, and started in San Mateo, California in 2006. Now these events take place across the country. My hometown, Kansas City, happens to be one of the “featured” Faires, where more than 200 makers participate. I have shared Faires in the past, in 2011 and 2012, so I figured it was time for an update.
Above is a montage of photos I took – here are the highlights, starting in the upper left corner, and working around clockwise:
There was so much to see, and scrolling through the Instagram feed for #MakerFaireKC, I can see I missed quite a bit! Be sure to allow a few hours at least if a Maker Faire hits your area, if not a whole day!
What have been your favorite things to see at a Maker Faire? Share with us in the comments below!
Links of Interest:
From furry foxes to partying princesses, there was nothing but costumes and cosplay at the second annual Figments and Filaments convention in Kansas City this past weekend.
This lovely Artemis was a cosplayed and volunteer for Amanda Lynn Chainmaille Creations.
I spent the past weekend at Planet Comicon in Kansas City, and even though I spent the weekend working my booth (The Costume Wrangler’s Closet), I did get to see some pretty awesome cosplay. Above are some of the amazing folks from the Iron Brothers of Topeka (IBOTS).
This little Rainbow Dalek exterminates with cuteness according to her mom!
I had to run this boy down to get his picture for a friend who’s obsessed with Sharknado. I particularly love the faux gore on all the sharks. How creative is this kid?!
I snuck a snapshot of this cosplayed in a seriously cool Groot costume.
Technically this isn’t cosplay, but the Kansas City R2 Builders Club have got some pretty amazing R2s, like this R2-Q5, an evil R2 whose allegiance belonged to the Empire!
This chainmaille She-Ra was a volunteer from Amanda Lynn Chainmaille Creations.
More Links of Interest
If you’re looking for an easy way to make a medieval/fantasy/knight costume, look no further! Continuing in the Hobbit costume theme, one of the most interesting crafts I’ve ever done came from a tutorial I saw on Pinterest where instructables.com user quixotiCfluX demonstrated how to use soda tabs to form chainmail. I then used it as part of my husband’s dwarf costume, and it looked amazing!
I asked all of my friends to donate their soda tabs to the cause, and my husband was quite happy to increase his intake of Diet Coke. Using only a wire cutter to cut the top, and a staple remover to help me bend the tabs, which helps them fit together nicely, I managed to create some great looking armor for really cheap! The full tutorial and details are on my blog post, so go have fun! Remember, only 48 days until Halloween!
This weekend was Maker Faire at Union Station in Kansas City and my daughter and I happily attended. To be honest, it was more of the same from last year – 3D printers, robotics, Arc Attack, and artisians of various forms and varieties. But we enjoyed ourselves, and were pleased to see some new chainmaille vendors, and some sort of hand-to-hand combat demos going on outside the Station.
One interesting booth was the Urban Farming Guys, which was a demonstration in aquaponics. I hardly know how to explain it, but it was cool. They had this planter with a large water tank beneath it. Tilapia fish in the tank poop in the water, then the poop water feeds the plants above. The plants filter the water through their roots, and it cycles back down to the fish tank. When the fish get big enough, you can eat them. A complete recyclable system. Very interesting.
Other interesting booths/displays: a woman who made art from junk mail, numerous 3D printers and “printed” items, a Titanic ship made from Legos, a solar-powered car, robotics demos, and a craft gallery with lots of jewelry, knitting, and chainmaille examples.
