Tag Archives: Maker Faire

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Adam Savage, Maker Faire 2013

Every year at the San Mateo Maker Faire, Adam Savage, from MythBusters, delivers a speech to a massive crowd. This year, his speech was called “Work Hard and Work Smart”. It is almost like a commencement speech, so I thought it would be great for all the graduating students who will be entering the professional world in a few weeks or even days. He gives a lot of practical advice as well, and all of his examples are from the world of special effects and props, so his workplace stories will sound familiar to all of my readers.

The speech itself is about 12 and half minutes long. He takes questions at the end which lead to further interestingness, so if you want to see that, you can view the much longer video here.

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Monday Morning Link-O-Rama

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“Making the Props Pop” is a nice news article about Bonnie Durben, a props master out in San Diego.

Over on the Stage Manager’s Forum is an interesting game called “Hell in a Handbag“. You take a simple note from a rehearsal report (such as “Maria is holding a book in I, 3.”). The first person comes up with five questions that arise from that seemingly innocuous note (“What color should Maria’s book be? What size? Any particular title or author? Will the audience see the inside? Hardcover or softcover? Used or new? Should it have a pricetag on it? Does it need a bookmark? Ribbon? Tie closure? Does it get thrown? Dropped? Destroyed? Burned?”). After asking those questions, that person adds a new note for the next person to ask questions about. It’s a great look at how even ordinary props can have many considerations which need to be answered for every production.

In case you missed it, hear is a video of Adam Savage (from Mythbusters) talking about why we make at this year’s Makers Faire.

Joseph O. Holmes has taken these interesting photographs of workspaces over a four year period.

News

Burlington Mini Maker Faire 2012

The first Burlington Mini Maker Faire took place this past Saturday here in Burlington, NC. Ben Harris, the organizer, pulled together a great and varied group of local artists, tinkerers and hobbyists who spent the day showing off their homemade projects and skills to the community. In between watching the main booth and fielding questions, I took a few photographs of the various exhibitions. I also posted a video at the end of this post which does a good job summing up the Faire.

Recycled metal sculptures by Riley Foster
Recycled metal sculptures by Riley Foster

Continue reading Burlington Mini Maker Faire 2012 →

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Burlington Mini Maker Faire 2012 coming up

Burlington Mini Maker Faire

I thought I would plug a little event I will be taking part in. This Saturday, April 28, the first Burlington Mini Maker Faire will be taking place. If you live near the central North Carolina area, come check us out. It is at the Holly Hill Mall on Huffman Mill Road, and we will be there all day, from 10am to 9pm.

What is a Maker Faire? For regular readers of this blog, you may remember my trips to the New York City Maker Faire in 2011 and 2010. I described them as a mix of a science fair and a craft fair (with a bit of Burning Man thrown in). The fairs themselves grew out of Make Magazine, and are basically a chance for DIY enthusiasts of all kinds to show off the projects they work on in their spare time.

The members exhibiting in the Burlington Mini Maker Faire should make for a fairly diverse display. This is the group I was with on my trip to Roy Underhill’s Woodwright shop, as well as the group that organized the blacksmithing lesson and demonstration I took part in. A full list of exhibitors who will be at Saturday’s event is on their website; highlights include a homemade Tesla coil, a wood lathe demonstration, some quad-copters, steampunk props and ham radio demonstrations. You can also learn to solder and watch some 3D printers and CNC machines in action.

The local Times-News paper did a story on the group, which talked with Bennett Harris, the founder, about the goals of the fair and the group in general. If you’re in the area, come check us out!

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Friday Funtime

First up is this video about the future of CGI and motion capture in films. Michael Bay, Jon Favreau, Ray Liotta, Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel talk about how new technologies are making sets and even props unnecessary for film; why would you use a gun to play a gun, when you can have an actor play a gun? It’s a really funny tongue-in-cheek look at the use of technology for technology’s sake.

I’ve already seen this being passed around quite a bit, but I thought I’d share it here: 25 special advantages a theatre major has. I guess some theatre majors get jobs that don’t involve doing theatre, which seems crazy to me.

The Alamance County Makers Guild that I recently began taking part in is planning their own Mini Maker Faire right here in Burlington, NC. So if you’re in the area on April 28th, come check us out.

Speaking of Make Magazine, this month their blog is featuring projects and tutorials dealing with natural materials. To kick it off, they’ve featured 10 great projects made from natural materials. Beetle shell ceiling, anyone?