June 28

Maker Faire KC 2015

Photos from Maker Faire Kansas City 2015

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:

  1. 3D printers were big again, as they have been at each Faire I’ve attended. These were some 3D-printed TARDISes and Star Trek Lego figures.
  2. Some more examples of 3D printed items – these were very ornate vases by Sage Kaneko.
  3. A chainmail demonstration by Michael of Amanda Lynn Chainmaille Creations.
  4. The Artifex 2 desktop 3D printer – it printed in the usual hard plastic filament, but also wood and a flexible “NinjaFlex” thermoplastic elastomer.
  5. Eco Elvis performed – he was all shook up about the effects of acid rain.
  6. The Flipbookits were a cool find in the Maker Store – it’s a DIY kit to make your own motorized flipbook, designed by kinetic artists.
  7. Artists from Dare to Dabble were on hand to help attendees create gelli prints with acrylic paints, brayers, stamps and stencils.
  8. I made my own glycerin soap with Feto Soap! It smells like cinnamon and I chose a cute little gnome as the “prize” in the center.
  9. There were speakers scheduled throughout the day, discussing all sorts of interesting make-y type topics. The one I heard was about the use of hydraulics in Hollywood.
  10. Many booths encouraged attendees, particularly kids, to try their hand at a variety of tasks. This booth by Leela Village School for Purposeful Play offered a DIY playground with robots made from found materials. (P.S. Did you know “Leela” means “divine play” in Sanskrit?)
  11. A steampunk dirigible
  12. There was a table for Raspberry Pi Geek magazine – we got my husband one of these little credit card-sized computers for his birthday this year, so I was sure to pick up one of their sample magazines.

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:

 

Category: Craft, Gadgets, Geek, Science | Comments Off on Maker Faire KC 2015
December 5

Well, hello there!

Hello! I’m Coral, another new Geek Crafts blogger! I’m an engineer-turned-web librarian living in Anchorage, Alaska with three birds, a chinchilla, and my very geeky husband. Obviously, I’m a computer geek and a fan of science fiction/fantasy literature: it’s almost required for my job, right? I’m also into tabletop roleplaying games—Shadowrun was my first love, but I’ve enjoyed everything from Exalted to Call of Cthulhu and Dungeons & Dragons—and an ever-shifting array of fandoms. While I’m not a computer gamer, I’m married to one, so some of my crafts have followed that theme. See also: weighted companion cube! (I used plastic canvas and yarn, as well as some deceptively heavy filling.)

As for my craft habits, I have a deep and abiding love of oldey timey craft styles reapplied in funny, geeky, and snarky ways. I love geeky (and subversive) cross-stitch, especially, though I’ve been known to knit on a loom, to home brew beer and soda, to cook up a storm, and to attempt inadvisable things with a hot glue gun. Learning to crochet is definitely on my to-do list, because there are so many excellent patterns out there!

To the left, you can see a QR code cross stitch I did (the first and last ever). It actually resolves to text—a quote I particularly like.


Anyway, I plan to bring the library love, along with my love of SCIENCE!, internet memes, bird nerdery, good speculative fiction, terrible vampire novels, caffeine, RPGs, and bicycles to share with you every Wednesday. If you want to know what I’m up to on a daily basis, you can find me on my personal blog (mostly library stuff, with some craft content), on Twitter, or Google Plus. (If you add me on G+, drop me a note to tell me you belong in my craft and/or geek circles! :))

Bonus points if you get the ::1 joke. ;) If not, I explained it here.

Category: Books, Computers, Craft, Games, Geek, Video Games | 3 Comments on Well, hello there!
August 1

Reader Submission: Replica of Gehn’s Crest from Riven

I was never hardcore enough to finish Riven, I remember hours of sitting behind my older brother watching him play Myst, and then when Riven came out I was embarrassed to find that my computer gaming skills still sucked… I’ve always been more of a spectator when it comes to first person games…

This is what genius metalcrafter Riv says about her work:
“I’m so excited to have finally combined my absolute love of the Myst series and my obsession with making stuff out of metal. The games have shaped my aesthetic immensely, and I’m driven always by the desire to make an object that feels as real as Riven felt to me. Here, I think I’ve succeeded.”

 

Category: Computers, Craft, Games, Geek, Video Games | 1 Comment on Reader Submission: Replica of Gehn’s Crest from Riven
February 14

Binary Scarf

The Lady Cartoonist (Meredeth Scheff) decided to make a new scarf each day of January. They’re all really unique and different, but I felt that the one she made for January 1 was the geekiest. She says it best:

“With this first one I wanted to have a binary themed scarf that incorporated the date (01/01/11) as well as the scarf number (01). Since that really wasn’t enough to fill a scarf, I decided to make it spell out ’scarf’ in binary, and highlight out of those numbers the date and scarf number. I had the colors be the scheme of an old computer screen, tan outside (the monitor frame) and green/lighter green for the monitor itself.”

Check out some of her other scarves as well! (My favorite one is the Lucha Libre.)

Category: Craft, Geek | Comments Off on Binary Scarf