Many people have asked what "Maker Faire" is - and what a "Maker" is.
I'd say that a "Maker" is someone that makes, modifies, fixes, improves or otherwise personalizes "stuff". They can be a poet, or an artist, or a tinkerer, a DIY fixer, someone that spins fire, model trainer, a green-thumber, knitter, handyman - anybody that invests their spirit in some effort or thing.
So a Maker Faire is an interesting place - it has a dash of the old county fair, with people showing off their stuff. A dash of funky-cool swap meet, with people selling their stuff (which may be special tools, or kits or parkas woven from recycled power cords...) A dash of "recruitment drive" - for all the folks with all the clubs or groups or concepts that are in need of zealots, or cash... A dash of environmentalism, save the world a bit a a time - wiht a big theme being "reduce, reuse" and only when all else fails, recycle.
Reuse for a maker might mean fixing something that is broken, and bringing it back to life. It may mean re-purposing something - turning an old nintendo case into a sound box for a 1 string guitar, or into a jewelry box. Or it might mean grinding it up to use for rocket fuel...
I've included some info for some of the various things you might see there, with links -
A couple of the large on line maker markets -
www.boingboingbazaar.com
www.etsy.com
A cool wiki based resource for on line manuals and info on how to fix stuff
So, years ago there was the "Basic Stamp" which was a simple hacker computer which was great for education, simple robotics, and other little stuff (I made an LED sorter with one). Now days, people talk about the Arduino which is based on the Atmel ATMEGA family - much larger memory, faster, blah, blah, blah... Many sources of stuff including:
www.liquidware.com
Lots of art and jewelry
www.surlyramics.com
There is a funny little "nerd community" called gravity.com, with folks talking about all sorts of things they love, including personally printed Electro Luminescent
www.gravity.com
A gal that writes poetry on demand - whom the poem in the previous blog was written for -
www.thepoetrystore.net
Microrax makes cool extruded mechanical elements for prototyping
www.Microrax.com
A favorite from previous Maker Fair, and Burning Man - the Neverwas Haul - an RV built from a Steam Tractor, with a Victorian House on top...
www.neverwashaul.com
And of course the Raygun Gothic Rocket Ship from last Burning Man was there in force - actually got to go up in side this time.
www.raygungothicrocket.com
A vintage clothing patern company -
www.decadesofstyle.com
Snail Art Car, Fire pits and cool electric light bulbs -
www.snailartcar.com
No Burning Man Friendly event would be complete without
www.utilikilts.com
Many engineering groups doing cools stuff -
www.heatsynclabs.org
www.longnow.org and their 10,000 year clock, and rosetta stone project to save world languages
Tool libraries - to, well, borrow tools of course!
borrowtools.org
massive servo motors - 1600 oz in of torque
www.invenscience.com
Folks working on OMAP3 based boards-
www.rationaledynamics.com
A funny rubbery adhesive stuff for padding, fixing, and tweaking stuff -
www.sugru.com
One of the "We will create your design" services offering many different materials, including acrylic, glass, and stainless steel -
www.shapeways.com
