Maker Faire Austin 2008

Maker Faire is kind of a cross between a electronics techie geek convention, craft convention, DIY gathering, with a teeny whiff of burning man thrown into the mix. My husband gets into the electronics tech stuff, our teenager isn't completely bored with it, and I like it all so it makes for a nice family trip to Austin. We went last year too, and you can read about it here and see more pics from last year here. The Austin event takes place in October.




Here I am at the Crafty Chica booth at Maker Faire 2008 in Austin.

I went to the Crafty Chica booth where they were GIVING AWAY these awesome journals. Thanks, Cathy! They have unfinished wood front covers and blank pages. Journals with unlined pages are kind of hard to find sometimes, and I don't like the lined ones. The booth was set up for people to decorate the journals. I'm holding up the one I did, which is partially decorated. There are lots of Crafty Chica designs to decorate with, including sugar skulls and other Dia de Los Muertos imagery and Frieda Khalo, both of which I really love.



The highlight of my visit was seeing Cathy Cano-Murillo, also known as the Crafty Chica. I really admire the way Cathy has marketed herself and her products. She's the author of Making Shadow Boxes and Shrines as well as the upcoming Crafty Chica's Guide to Artful Sewing and many other books. I took some notes during her presentation.

I'm going to paraphrase some of what she said from my notes. All errors and misquotes are mine.

She talked about branding yourself:

• what makes your product special and unique to you
• your products should work together and tell a story
  
• use themes
• work every angle: craft books, products, fiction, teaching, selling, product line development
• stay true to your own style and brand but know your boundaries when you need to negotiate with companies
• if you have something published send pics to companies whose products you used
• must have fan base

Here is Cathy at her booth with some children decorating their journals. The Crafty Chica products are now available online at Amazon. She has some really good paint colors and glitter, plus great designs that can be used for collage and other art.


...and then THE ART CARS:



I didn't take nearly as many pictures this year, but I did get some new Art Car photos for my "collection." The car above is covered in Astro Turf. Note the gnomes on the hood.




This car was a real crowd pleaser. I have video of it which I will have to post. All of the lobsters and fish on the car move in time to the music they play. One of the lobsters extends out over the hood at various times to "conduct the symphony." Very amazing. I don't know how they keep them attached to the car or get them to work together but then this is a techie sort of event.




Here are some more art cars. I also have more photos of these from different angles on my Flickr art car set. There were more art cars but I got photos of those last time. I can just imagine the double-takes when people spot these vehicles going down the road.




The robots commonly seen in robot war events were in the auditorium battling it out. I wasn't able to get any good pictures though.


We had a great time at the faire and will return next year. I bought some cool products in the store, including a resin kit from Resin Obsession, a LilyPad E-Sewing Kit, and a LilyPad Pro Kit. The LilyPad kits are for experimenting with adding electronics to clothing and other wearables. I think that's going to be common in the future. Ralph knows about arduinos so he should be able to help me with the programming process.



Ralph gifted me with a set of Young Mad Scientist blocks from Xylocopa. Check these out! Be sure to click on the picture so you can see the detail. The level of detail is amazing, plus they are definitely in the steampunk genre. I can look at them forever. I want to write stories about them. In fact, there should be an alphabet book with these as the artwork. Hint, hint Xylocopa.



Read more about Maker Faire at the website. Also the Make and Craft magazines and Make Blog and Craft Blog are well worth a look. The blogs are very active with dozens of new posts daily.


Maker Faire events are held yearly, one in California and the other in Austin, Texas. A new one has been added for 2009 in the United Kingdom.

As we were leaving the event I picked up dozens of rusty and semi rusty flattened bottle caps that are just perfect for found object jewelry charms. It was a great trip.

Odds and Ends from Maker Faire

More pics from Maker Faire! Here is another Art Car. Check out the detail on the headlamps below.




Here are a couple in Medieval garb riding horses.




These gals were handing out cards to a local club? At least I think it was a club. Since I'm not from Austin I didn't recognize it.




This reminds me of the Dia de los Muertos sugar skulls.

Flaming Hula Hoop

One of the cool things we saw at Maker Faire was Adelyn Botto and her flaming hula hoop act. I also have some video of it and as soon as I can get Stefan to show me how to edit and post it I'll put it up. She whirls this hoop around her waist and neck. Don't try this at home!

The Brain Machine

Here are Stefan and I trying out the Brain Machine at Maker Faire. These photos were taken by maltman23 (Mitch Altman). There are lots of photos of people trying out the Brain Machine at Altman's Flickr site, as well as pics of people building their own Brain Machine. Altman is the inventor of the Brain Machine and also the TV-B-Gone, a really souped up universal remote control which will turn off any TV, including those annoying public area TV's.

Ralph made one of the Brain Machines at the Faire. If I understand what Ralph said, Altman recorded himself while meditating, converted it to digital sound and light, and made the Brain Machine to guide the brain through the various levels of brain wave activity that a person meditating achieves. Ralph has been hogging them since we got back so I haven't really had a chance to try them much yet. They do seem relaxing though.

More Pictures from Maker Faire

I'll have to look up what this "ride" is called. Right now I'll just call it Big Wheel. When I get Stefan to show me how to process videos I'll put up a video of this. It was moving down the sidewalk when I took this. Below is a close up. Yes, there are people in the center.



This is a moving inter-active sculpture. There are little music boxes riveted all over the outside. When you turn the crank on the tiny music box, the music is amplified by the shape of the sculpture. Stefan is in the middle here.



Here's a better shot of the detail and Stefan.




This is a second sculpture. This one has large strings across the top.

This painting was done in dust on the back windshield.

Detail of the painting.

Maker Faire Austin Art Cars

We went to Maker Faire last weekend in Austin and had a blast. I took 100 pictures, many of which will make their way to this blog, or to my blogs on Metal Chik. These are some of the art cars shown there. The first one is the Yarn Car. I've seen a lot of pictures of it on Flickr so it must have been a favorite with a lot of people. We talked to the owner who said he used acrylic yarn. He had driven it down from Dallas.




I really liked this VW. The decor is mosaic work and it was very well done.


This car looks kind of like a post apocalyptic armored bug.

Here is the Brick Car. There are 870 pounds of brick all over the car.

Two views of the Camera Van are shown here. Stefan is looking at one of the many video screens in the first one, and Ralph and Stefan are inspecting the vehicle in the second picture. The Camera Van is by Harrod Blank. Here's what the promotional info says about it: "An interactive Art Car that was inspired by an actual dream, the Camera Van has the ability to capture the amazed reactions of people who see it for the first time. Of the 2,500 cameras mounted to the van, six are functional Canons that shoot print film, and two are operational video cameras that transmit live images to the giant "filmstrip" composed of four TV monitors on the passenger side of the vehicle. One of the best-known Art Cars in the world, the Camera Van has toured the US, England, Germany, and Canada capturing shocked expressions in over 5,000 photos."

This one is kind of humorous.

Here is a car being decorated at the faire. This is an interactive art car build sponsored by HEYA. This HEYA project was made possible by Toyota and was hosted by HEYA and Harrod Blank.

Maker Faire Austin

Quoting from the website, the Maker Faire is "a two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates arts, crafts, engineering, science projects and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. It's for creative, resourceful folks who like to tinker and love to make things. We call them Makers." It's coming to Austin October 20-21, 2007. We're planning to go. My husband has an engineering/physics background and is always making something. I get into the craft aspect of it. Hopefully our teenager will find something interesting there as well, although that may be too much to ask for.

Here's a link to the Make Blog and another to some archives with pictures taken at a previous Maker Faire. The current Handwoven Magazine has a great article about weaver Sandy Drobny at the San Francisco Maker Faire, in addition to a pod cast and slide show online featuring a number of artists and crafters. The archives above feature more tech oriented software and engineering things and the Handwoven slide show features art and craft things (fashion, glass beads, weaving, sewing etc. ). There's a great quote in the slide show where glass bead artist Ralph McCaskey refers to a Maker Faire as "mutant Disneyland". I suspect there will be something there for everyone. It should be fun!

My husband's favorite magazine Make, and one of mine Craft.