Maker Faire 2011

Marking our third year in attendance, Sak and I hobbled down the hill to attend Maker Faire, our town's annual claim-to-fame.  This time my sister came with us, so you know it was a good time. And uh, since the Faire is always so diverse and visually overstimulating, this is just going to be a big hodge-podge picture post of very-interesting-things.

Robotic Droid. He was so cute! And pretty well made considering he had to balance on two wheels only.

The Artoo-Detoo club was back again, whirring and beeping their cute little astromechs to entice me into joining.  But at $2k-$10k an Artoo (not mentioning the requirement of power tools), I'll have to save my pennies for a while.

We watched a show on constellations in the Chabot Space and Science Center's portable planetarium.  They have a Bill Nye exhibit going on right now.

This machine was carving wood into Han Solo-Carbonite-esque reliefs.  Could you imagine hanging one of yourself on your wall? So cool!

This...sculpture(?) is called the Colossus. It was so funny watching all the little kids trying to move the big rocks around in a circle.

Motorized arm chairs.

Motorized cupcakes.

Motorized high heel.

Garlic fry break!

A giant Lite-Brite from one of my favorite websites - instructables!

DIY Halo armor. I was surprised to see borderline cosplay at Maker's Faire, but I suppose even cosplay has to be made at some point!

This is genius. Until your kid accidentally cuts their leg on the mower blade. Then not so genius.

Now this is something truly genius, and definitely something I'd like to get into. LED "thread", for lighting your fabric! So awesome.

LEGO Caltrain. That's me there in the second car, top level. Sak just about died and went to heaven with this one.

..Or maybe he died here, at the LEGO truck of awesomeness.

Mission Impossible laser trap obstacle course! Penga-Sis made it through without tripping the alarm!

Faire-famous paella! YUM.

Steampunk! (The really-really-good kind!)

I saw these pearl stickers at one booth and thought they were awesome. An easy way to add bling to things, I would think!

And touching moment of the day - Sak taught Penga-Sis to solder! Brother and Sister in-law bonding!

They made a Simon-Says game with a kit they bought.

Works! (Until she sat on it later that night and broke the sound button. Oh wait. That's a good thing!)

As usual, Maker Faire blew my mind and made me feel like I should be um..making more things! You too! Go make something awesome!