Per Matt
The Nashville Mini Maker Faire was a one-day exhibition truly promoting creative thinking and presented by many Do-It-Yourself creators.
Sponsored by the Adventure Science Center, Make Nashville and NashMicro and located outside the museum, the 2014 family-friendly event was twice as big as the previous year’s event.
On display were many exhibitors, vendors, workshop teachers, panelists and performers from around the region, spreading their knowledge. The entire event was free and open to the public. Several workshops were available, including Make Your Own Letterpress Style Logo, Papercrafting Mechanical Parts, Making Pictures with Sound and Sound with Pictures and Paper and Ink Arts.
Stratford STEM Magnet High School students showcased their engineering and robotics skills, One Man, One Garage had 3-D puzzle kits and the Nashville Origami Club displayed various paper models.
Some of my favorites included watching the high-performance carts of Powerwheels Racers, enjoying the young musicians of Franklin School of Rock performing on stage and checking out the award-winning steampunk group, Apparition Abolishers, which featured gadgets, contraptions and a giant mech robot.
Star Wars fans were definitely in attendance, with R2-D2 Makers showing their remote-controlled movie replicas of everybody’s favorite droid and the 501st Legion – Midsouth Garrison was on hand to discuss building your own replica costumes. It’s always fun to chat with members of the Midsouth Garrison, finding out various ways the group celebrates fandom and promotes charity and volunteer work in the community.
The group’s mission statement affirms, “Some fans are content to collect action figures… other fans want to be action figures.” This is definitely the fandom I’m looking for.
Overall, the 2014 Nashville Mini Maker Faire was a huge success and is growing by leaps and bounds. Congrats on throwing a great show this year. There’s no telling what’s in store for next year… maybe there will be hordes of mummified Zombies!
