I was not prepared for the vastness that was World Maker Faire, this weekend in NYC. I took a few pictures, but I realized afterwards I shouldn’t have bothered, and just done video instead. So much of what was going on captures very poorly in still images.

There were so many forces at play. The giant kinetic art groups, like the people sized version of the board game Mouse Trap, were largely at one of the big fields when you came in. You then made your way through the crafter cluster, about 50 craft / vendors, mostly making clothing / jewelry. While some was normal craft faire bits, you also had things like laser cut felt necklaces, and scrabble tile coasters.

I then wandered over to tent city, which was a series of tents that sometimes had speakers, sometimes clusters of related things. Sustanability had a tent (think Urban Gardenning), as did Health 2.0, Arduino, Hacker Spaces. And those were just the ones with themes. Maker Bots were everywhere, as were things based on arduino. I finally got to see a Laser cutter in action, damn that’s impressive.

The actual NY Hall of Science had makers and vendors scattered throughout the exhibits. The Light, LED, and Sound room had some pretty impressive bits, including bike led spoke lights that could display full motion video via persistence of vision. There was also this incredible MFA project combining light, shape, and sound.

I have enough software and wood projects that I need to do before Christmas that I managed not to pick up another hobby… yet. But next year I’ll be more prepared, both with some video, as well as being ready to pick up a new project from the faire.