Hello everyone,
The Wayne County Mini Maker Faire is a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity and resourcefulness and a celebration of the Maker Movement. It’s a place where people show what they are making, and share what they are learning. Makers range from tech enthusiasts to crafters to homesteaders to scientists to garage tinkerers. They are of all ages and backgrounds. The aim of Maker Faire is to entertain, inform, connect and grow this community.
The Daily Record said it best: “Dubbed the ‘Greatest Show and Tell on Earth’; over 1,300 people flocked to the second annual faire at the University of Akron Wayne College last May. It was a fresh experience with favorite makers from last year coming back along with new makers and new things to see and do.
2018 has been a great year for Maker Faire with 200 faires in many countries all over the world! Maker Faire Moscow had an especially good event this past September. It was an exhibition of the achievements of the makers of Moscow and other parts of Russia with special guests from abroad. There were more than a hundred interactive stands, dozens of master classes and fascinating stories, presentations of new products from partners, and much more. Maker Faire Moscow is largest international festival in their country! The Faire was organized by a team of makers – employees and residents of the oldest fab lab in Russia – the digital production laboratory of NUST MISiS.
Check-out this great video of Maker Faire Moscow:
Maker Faires are incredible at any size. In its simplest form, Maker Faire creates opportunities for conversations with Makers. Tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, authors, artists, students, and entrepreneurs all come together to show their projects and to talk about what they have learned. It is a community based learning event that inspires everyone to become a maker, and connect with people and projects in their local community. Yet, Maker Faire is a “fair” — fun, engaging, and exciting.
We are proud to showcase Ohio makers who participated in the Wayne County Mini Maker Faire this year. One of these is Anthony Serpette. Modular origami is a type of paper folding that uses the same shape – folded in quantity – and assembled to create new forms and structures. All it takes is a piece of paper and with a few folds it can be a bird, a dragon, or an X-wing. Origami is an art form practiced around the world that anyone can learn.
Anthony has been folding paper for well over 20 years and has made thousands of paper cranes and other origami projects. He usually works with copy paper, but can fold everything from lightweight metals to plastics to cloth and sandpaper. He likes to experiment with creating mass quantities of a single shape or scaling a project from tiny to oversized. Anthony rarely keeps any of his projects and likes teaching and sharing his art. Check-out some of his cool creations here. When he’s not folding paper, Anthony is a full time geek for the University of Akron.
Another person who participated in the Wayne County Mini Maker Faire is David Gold. He is a creator, manager, and worker, all wrapped into one person. David is also the creator of Gold Armories and manages all aspects of the business. Gold Armories specializes in creating custom Nerf blasters for customers based on specifications that they want. From internal modifications to paint jobs, hydrographics, and 3D printing, there really is no limit to what you can do. David has over seven years of experience in the position.
At the maker faire last year, David showed some of his modified Nerf blasters as well as demonstrated how he does his work. He has been interested in this hobby of playing with Nerf ever since he was about the age of eight. However, David only recently started modifying the blasters he received. Since about five years ago, he has been constantly tinkering with and learning about various techniques used to modify Nerf blasters to make them stronger, more accurate, and better looking. He has done about three projects for other people and numerous projects for personal use & learning purposes.
Rounding out our makers who participated is Emma Kallenborn. She is an 87 year old grandmother who enjoys watching the Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Browns and the Cleveland Cavaliers while she crochets and listens to books on tape. Emma has sent her crocheted items from Ohio, to Georgia and to Texas. She also creates items from plarning.
Plarning is a technique of using plastic grocery bags and crocheting them into usable everyday items. Plarn is short for “plastic yarn.” It is made by cutting plastic grocery bags into strips, which are then strung together into a single long strand. Emma’s plarned creations are colorful and useful as shown in the photo at the top of this email!
If you would like to know more about Anthony’s origami creations, David’s Nerf modifications, or the colorful “plarned” items by Emma, please reply to this email.
The Call For Makers is now open for the 3rd annual Wayne County Mini Maker Faire! Participation is free; You can apply with our online application here. You can also apply via postal mail and telephone. Number 3 is going to be bigger than ever for us as makers return to the Wayne College to fill the Student Life Building and landscape with incredible innovation and creativity. Remember, space is limited so you have to apply as soon as possible to ensure that you get your spot at the greatest show (& tell) on earth!
Until next week,
Tom