Maker Faire 2016

But, as in previous years, the delight and interest shown by the visitors (of all ages) to our stand easily justified all the hard work.

Sean, Todd and David demonstrated a variety of typical CNC-enabled craft projects, from silicon chocolate molds (using Design & Make projects to make the initial masters from resin), to elegant pewter & colored-acrylic coasters (cut using an inexpensive Dremel tool fitted to a custom-built CNC machine). We also made key-rings, lithophane pendants and displayed a whole range of decorative woodworking projects to show the full creative potential of these amazing little machines.

The organisers of the Faire were expecting more than 100,000 visitors over the two and a half days and it was certainly packed in the aisles of our hall. We also had the opportunity to meet plenty of our existing customers, which is invariably a pleasure - particularly when we get to see and hear about all of the different and remarkable projects our software is being used to create.

As always, the Maker Faire was also full of other amazing, inspiring and downright weird objects and projects. We were delighted to see that Dr Who appears equally popular in the US and we *may* just concede that the full-size Dalek was even cooler than our office Tardis – but there is always a project required for next year…

Of course my personal favourite has still got to be the fully functional R2-D2’s (yes, there are always quite a few), but this year there was also a BB8 – I’m a bit old to be transferring my affections just yet though.

There is another major US Maker Faire in New York (1-2 Oct 2016) this year so if that is more in your neighborhood, and you’ve not been before, perhaps you might give it a visit – you never know, we might even see you there!