Get The Technique
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2 Amazing Acrobats, a geometric puzzle/mathematical sculpture made of laser-cut metal from the Museum of Mathematics
3 Making folded paper flexagons
4 Brush bots!
5 Loom weaving on the grass.
6 The Life Size Mousetrap!
7 Another view of the Life Size Mouse Trap
8 And another...
9 ...and one more!
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12 Paella...yum! Look at those giant paella pans!
13 Ultimaker, a 3-D printer!!
14 Items created by the Ultimaker...
15 MakerBot 3 D printers...
16 ...made all these!
17 Solar powered merry go round!
18 BUST magazine's Craftacular!
This weekend my family and I attended Make magazine’s second annual Maker Faire New York, a festival created to "celebrate arts, crafts, engineering, science projects, and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mind-set." Our two boys, 5 and 8, had a great time making, crafting, and playing. All the volunteers that we met were incredibly generous with their time and knowledge—and cheerful, too, despite the large crowds and the fact that they were demonstrating soldering for the 127th time!
My kids are still playing with their “Brush Bots”, tiny vibrating toothbrush heads turned robots that they built at the Faire. You can purchase a kit here. Another "make and take" my kids enjoyed was creating a flexagon—a folded paper model demoed by a group from the future Museum of Math, coming to NYC in 2012. (Exciting bit of news for math fans!) Try one yourself here.
A big highlight was the Life Size Mouse Trap—this giant handcrafted Rube Goldberg machine is a mix of sculpture and performance art. And the Crafty vendors and demos at Bust Magazine’s Craftacular tent, where the kids made soap and little clay sculptures.
Particularly mind-blowing was 3-D printer village, where there were many examples of 3-D printers, yes...3-D!!! These machines extrude plastic models. So amazing, but I need to do more research to understand them…and you can, too, here and here.
There was so much more to do and see than we had time for—we can’t wait to go back next year! If you didn't get to go, check here to see if one of the Mini Maker Faires are coming to your town!
