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| photo courtesy of Angelariel |
Where can you
find not only robots of all shapes and sizes (including a few very familiar
astromechs), a life-sized Mousetrap game, vehicles that were steam powered
before Steampunk was cool, wild customized cycles to carry one rider…or six,
handmade food and jewelry and gifts, music made by mixing instruments with
8-bit videogame soundtracks, and of course a plethora of Star Wars characters
and that’s just the start? At Maker Faire Detroit of course.
Maker Faire, the
annual festival of all things handmade, hacked, imagined then brought to life
is the brainchild of Make magazine and held in several cities across the
country through the year. This
year’s Detroit Faire is held at The Henry Museum in Dearborn. Michigan -- the
weekend of July 28-29.
Members of the
Great Lakes Base along with the Great Lakes Garrison, Mandalorian Mercs, the
R2-D2 Builders Club, and the debut of the Great Lakes Gonk Builders turned out
in “force” to put on an excellent display of the handmade spirit that Maker
Faire is based upon.
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| photo courtesy of Andrew Miller |
Over the course
of the weekend approximately 20,000 people were in attendance with a
considerable number of them stopping by the fantastic display that the
participating groups put together.
They learned how Stormtrooper armor is made, Tusken Raiders put their
clothing together to protect themselves from the heat and sand on Tatooine,
leather is turned into accessories for the well-dressed Jedi to wear, astromech
droids are built, Gamorrean Guard heads are painstakingly sculpted, and how
cool it is to replicate the bits and pieces of your favorite childhood films
with your own two hands. They also
got to vote on their favorite Gonk droid with Star Wars prizes going to a
random voter and the awarding of the Gold Gonk to Rob Miller (aka "Tubby Tusken" ) for his lovely Princess Gonk.
They also
learned about all the wonderful volunteer work the groups do locally and
worldwide throughout the year.
When not busy
answering questions, several members of the groups were in costume to the
delight of the attendees and other exhibitors, young and old. And through the sale of toy lightsabers
(which were sold out way before the end of the first day) $850.00 was raised
for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Next year we will be sure to stock up to raise even more. We also made some potential new
recruits along with countless smiles.
The group was
one of the hits of the entire Faire earning three Editor’s Choice Blue Ribbons
from Make Magazine and had become a favorite event of ours to participate in
and next year we have even bigger plans. If you have a Maker Faire near you I
cannot recommend highly enough to attend or even better, get your local base
involved as a volunteer exhibitor.
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