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Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Maker Faire

Last weekend, I was a happy volunteer at the Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA.
It is quite appropriately billed as "The Greatest Show and Tell on Earth". Their website explains further that "It's a family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement. Part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new, Maker Faire is an all-ages gathering of tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, authors, artists, students, and commercial exhibitors. All of these “makers” come to Maker Faire to show what they have made and to share what they have learned."

This video will help explain it a little better.

My part was as a volunteer in the Needle Arts Zone which was organized by
The National NeedleArts Association (TNNA), a community of professional needlearts businesses.


This photo was taken on Saturday morning before the flood gates opened 
and the crowds poured in.    Photo copyright 2014 by Ruth Temple cc 3.0.



                            Here I am with the Ashford Inklette and some little person's hands learning the process.                    Photo copyright 2014 by Ruth Temple cc 3.0.

In the 8 or 9 hours I put in along with other volunteers, we must have demonstrated, explained, discussed and offered a hands on experience to a couple of hundred people.
All were happy to have the opportunity.  Photo copyright 2014 by Ruth Temple cc 3.0.

Adults and children alike sat to take turns. Sometimes families helped one another with one sibling showing another.               Photo copyright 2014 by Ruth Temple cc 3.0.

Because of the do-it-yourself nature of the event, everyone wanted to know how to build an inkle loom. We shared with them, the online article from Make Magazine's website which gives detailed plans on how to build one. Follow the link below to see it yourself. 

http://makezine.com/projects/inkle-loom/   




2 comments:

  1. What a wonderful article. I'm honored and delighted to be colleagues with you. It was a very fun weekend.

    The booth we were in was hosted by the National Needlearts Association of guilds and shops, and our local genius Frederikka Payne is in the pink there under the booth sign in one of those pix. She does quite a good job herding cats!

    For anyone wondering about that CC 3.0, that's a Creative Commons "attribution, commercial use ok, derivative use ok, share-alike" license to my photos, which means Annie has my Official blessing to use them! For more info about that interesting way of sharing creative work while retaining copyright worldwide, take a peek at http://wiki.creativecommons.org/ and have fun exploring.

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  2. Thanks, Ruth! It was a fun weekend! How many of those folks do you think will be compelled to get their hands on an inkle loom?
    Thanks for the education about the Creative Commons.
    ~Annie

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