Monday, August 6, 2012

Maker Faire Detroit 2012

photo courtesy of Angelariel
by: 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. 

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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