Maker Faire Singapore - 11-12 July 2015


Maker Faire is a 2-day showcase of the DIY culture and wacky and fun projects in science, engineering & technology, art, craft and even waste materials. We've not heard of it before this. But this is Singapore's 4th year in organising the Maker Faire which started in the US, now spread to all parts of the world. We met makers from all walks of life, young and old, institutions, professionals, hobbyists, tinkerers, students and kids! 

There's a lot of creativity vibes here. This is one event that's not limited by age and full of surprises to show what they're making and share what they're learning.

As the boys're growing up, we threw away many of their old bicycles. Here, we learn that we can turn old bicycles into new inventions eg bike blenders to make smoothies, bike generators to pedal for power, bike mowers to keep the lawns tidy, etc.

This is a fully-automated "Latte Art" drawing machine from Japan. The makers are not professionals, this is just a hobby to them. 

Though not perfect yet, but if they continue to 'make', soon we can have our faces on our cuppa coffee!!

First time 'soldering' for the boys - in which 2 or more metal items are joined together. A simple process and makes learning fun!

A DIY cardboard LED lamp - one of the popular hands-on projects. If we can make something useful out of mere cardboard, we can start recycling our waste materials in our backyard!

I'd love Geography if I could learn it from 'Sandbox'. The computer projects the topography of landforms onto the sandbox with help of different colours of lights, contour lines and terrain.

A breakthrough in science. This is an origami based print and fold-paper microscope. See how tiny the lens! This clever invention is not yet in the market, still at a development stage by the University of Stanford. Well, our field study in future sure looks exciting!!

Revival of medieval armour, 'chainmail' 
- cut-resistant, suitable to use for self-defense!

Free trial to become a knight in medieval times.

I didn't realise 3D printing has such a big following!

Back to Kampung Play - finding pleasure in nature and the simple hand-crafted games (eg. chapteh, rubber band gun, making mud bricks etc).


From banana to carrot keyboard, we're taking music to a higher level!

It's so common to come across names like 'MakeyMakey and Arduino". This little circuit board can interact with your computer and is crucial in many DIY projects from art, craft, robotics, music, engineering and everything in-between. 

Take a selfie with the DIY ButtActivated Selfie Booth with a touch of butt at the count of 3!

Strawbees in the Making! Transforming straws to a living creature!

 Busy hands - inspiring a love of learning

Some beautiful crafts from papers, leaves, cloth scraps and yarn bombing!

This was not a scene from Hollywood. These were living creatures from Strawbees, allowing hands-on experiences to imagine and create together. We're happy to meet some homeschooling families from KL too, as well as the homeschooling community from Singapore. There're so much more cool stuffs to share, and Maker Faire has indeed something for everyone. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Al-Attas Garden in Janda Baik - 4 August 2012

Image
Besides being a well-known contentious writer, little do we know that Syed Hussein Alattas is also a self-taught gardener and an architect. He had built Taman Hana in Janda Baik from scratch and named after his wife.  Taman Hana sits on a 8-acre plot of land in the quiet village of Janda Baik. It boasts a collection of 1,000 species of plants including fruit trees, more than 700 big flower pots and five buildings that include the home of the Alattas family.  The good news is that it is open to visitors every day.  As we made our way past the entrance, this place appeared unkempt. It was well beyond its heyday (in 2008) but still showing off its faded beauty. Some parts were badly neglected, which was so unfortunate, because it originally was to be a quiet kampung retreat. A mix of traditional Malay, Peranakan, Indonesian and colonial British architecture and a Minangkabau styled roof. Syed Hussein had actually started building the structures in 1982 and he spent...
Read more

Discovering Pasir Pinji's Comfort Food - 29 June 2014

Image
Pasir Pinji Road in Ipoh is like a living heritage town. If you google this place, you will see a long list of local delicacies you must try - the famous yong tau foo, chee cheong fun, cendol, roast pork, traditional mooncakes, pastry, etc. On a Sunday, we saw the idyllic lifestyle of the local people - watching the days go by, sipping tea and catching up with friends along the corridor of shophouses, waiting for the takeaway of their favourite food or desserts from the roadside hawkers, sitting in coffee shops and dipping Hainanese buns into their kopi-O or Milo. .. it's like a walk to my childhood years in the 80s.  Ban Guan Foong Bakery has been around for more than 50 years. One of the very few remaining bakeries producing traditional Hainanese bread and buns using wood-fired oven.  A family-run business by the Goh family and some old and loyal workers. Getting ready the wood-fired brick oven  Removing the ashes from the heated oven  ...
Read more

A Potter Village in Sayong - 30 May 2013

Image
Pit Stop at the Perak royal town, Kuala Kangsar. The 1st rubber tree in Malaysia was planted in this town. That's about all I knew about this place. Labu Sayong or water pitcher from Sayong village, known for its health value to help migraine, lower blood pressure etc due to the special properties inherent in the local clay. Before this, we didn't know much of labu sayong.  We didn't go to the village or plan this visit. Out of curiousity, we bumped into this unassuming workshop at No. 3, Kg Setia, Enggor, run by Mohd bin Harun.  Pakcik was very open and gave us a tour of his workshop and how he makes labu sayong. His warm, friendly welcoming people made a lasting impression on all of us - a trait that we've lost in the big cities. The traditional way of making labu sayong uses hands to mould the clay into the shape of a 'labu' (gourd-like vase) but this is too slow. Now, the clay mixture is poured into standard mould blocks. It's ...
Read more