Fantastic Day!!

We had a fantastic day.

Outside it was a grey gale of a day, but inside was a riot of colour and activity. The aim was to enthuse the public with the fun of making things from a variety of technologies. Anyone who wanted to, could join in, make something and take it away with them, and all for free. Hundreds of people of all ages came along and had a great time. A general video of the event can be seen at http://www.instructables.com/community/Mc_MADSAT/ (Thanks to Les Oates for making this excellent film for us).

Video clips from the maker fair:

Crochet Coral Reef: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49O4wgVYSBo

Making the Theremins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCK_M-aaoEU

Playing the Theremins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzUZMon3vpA

Exhibitors were -

• Our Star Guest, all the way from London, was Professor Maelstromme (AKA Amanda Scrivener), who brought her beautiful creations
• What can you make from a dead umbrella? Display of the possibilities for reusing the fabric and structure of dead umbrellas
• The Tea Party. 1950s style tea party made from a combination of hand made fabric and edible pieces.
• Cardboard structures from the students of the department of Architecture at the University of Strathclyde.
• Greensteam’s steampunkery, 101 uses for a dead keyboard and other examples of her work as shown on Instructables.
• The Offline Mechanical Blog – a very old manual typewriter with continuous paper available for the public to type their messages and thoughts on for all to share
• Lemonie (another Instructables enthusiast, who travelled up from York especially) brought his amazing conversion of a VHS player-into-toaster that makes toast with VHS imprinted in it. He also brought his nice LEGO USB stick, a lantern made out of a tin-can & glass. and his *untested* wind-turbine, made from VHS player parts.
• On the Young Makers stand we had a display of virtuoso Lego constructions and an extensive collection of home made Steampunkery.
• The self-replicating machine from the department of Design Manufacture and Engineering Management at the University of Strathclyde, the Reprap.

Activities

The public were offered a wide range of free activities, which ran continuously all day, to “Make and Take”:

• Soldering – make a solar theremin (or a robot). 16 of these were made and all worked first time. Some were taken for a trial run in the sun and a video of this can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzUZMon3vpA
• The Stemnet ambassadors helped visitors to make their own Musical Straw Oboes.
  One of the most popular activities – especially with children – the Stemnet ambassadors supervised the making of many handsfull of Gloop and also the plastic Polymorph for visitors to make a fingerprint keyring to take away.
• Fishy things – Busy Bees Art studio provided painting and collage fishes to make, particularly for the very young visitors.
• The Glasgow Crocheted Coral Reef, overseen by my friend the civil engineer, invited visitors to try their hands at crocheting and contribute to the growing coral reef, all made from wool and even strips of plastic bag. Many total novices not only tried their hands but actually completed a piece of coral to contribute to the reef. This workshop area was very busy throughout, with visitors typically spending 30 minutes or more participating.
• House of Cards – visitors could make and take their own set of the design classic – “Eames cards”, which slot together to form fantastical structures. Ideal for recycling old greetings cards.
• Cable necklets, keyboard bracelets and keyboard film wallets. All made from recycled/repurposed materials from dead keyboards. Popular with adults and children alike. Info can be found at Instructables.