Let’s have a moment of honesty, shall we? If you are anything like me, your favorite part of any social activity is the food. So I am very happy to announce that THERE WILL BE FOOD at the Urbana-Champaign Mini Maker Faire! Our fabulous sponsor, The Common Ground Food Co-op, have agreed to have an outpost snack shop at the faire. Their staff will be on hand to sell you drinks and snacks as well as tell you about the Co-op and what you can make with their ingredients.
Do you wonder what those boys are intently looking at? They are trying to wait patiently while Virginia from the CU Fab Lab extracts the vinyl stickers they designed and cut on the Fab Lab’s vinyl cutter at the Urbana-Champaign Mini Maker Faire 2011.
The Champaign Urbana Community Fab Lab is an open source community of people who like to design and make things. Our principal focus is to provide a safe and fun learning environment, so that students of all ages can master modern design and fabrication technology. The Fab Lab features tools and work space for teachers, students, technical hobbyists, artisans, and others. We celebrate entrepreneurial initiative. The Fab Lab makes available to the community many resources, including skilled volunteers, computers, computer-controlled (CNC) machines, and electronics assembly tools.
The Fab Lab will be back for Maker Faire 2012 with their vinyl cutter, 3D printer, and a number of cool projects to share including these laser etched projects by maker Steve Holt. Steve will be at the faire to explain how he made these items and what you might be able to make at the Fab Lab.
Still trying to decide if your project is awesome? Trust me, it is. Share it with the world (or at least Central Illinois). Fill out our Call for Makers before it is too late!
Only iPhone photos today, but lots of news to report! I spent yesterday printing the second layer of the Urbana-Champaign Mini Maker Faire posters that our sponsor The Living Letter Press designed. Thanks for Molly & John, we have 100 of these beauties drying as I type. Which is a good thing, because the maker energy is heating up around town. This weekend is the annual Engineering Open House at the University of Illinois and kids of all ages are learning anything and everything about what engineers do.
This morning I stopped by the high school Rube Goldberg Machine contest to see my students’ machine. I’m not sure what simple task their machine accomplishes, but it involved liquid nitrogen and popping balloons. Here you can see one of the mad scientists with a marshmallow frozen in liquid nitrogen. It tastes surprisingly like a marshmallow.
There is still time for you to submit your project to the Urbana-Champaign Mini Maker Faire. We are waiting to hear from you!