All round creative junkie

It’s that time of year again. It’s the Maker Faire UK at Life Science Centre in Newcastle. One of my favourite weekends of the year. A weekend full of crafters, coders, inventers, diy-ers and artists inspiring us to invent and create.

Last year I was lucky enough to be a Maker there and took my upcycling crafts to the masses, getting children and adults to be creative with wool, making card printing blocks, decorative letters and hearts all from charity shop wool.

The only downside to my weekend was that I was so busy I didn’t get chance to look round at the rest of the event!

So this year I’ve chosen to be a visitor instead so I can experience the craziness that is the performers and get hands-on with the activities on offer from the Makers.

Last year my 7 year old had a go at laser cutting, soldering, robot battles, coding, upcycling tiny toys and paper aeroplane competitions, as well as watching the mentos experiments, daleks and storm troopers!

Next weekend, 23-24 April 2016, I’m heading there as a visitor with my family to see what’s what.

After looking through the list of Makers – it’s best to narrow down the things you want to see as it can get quite busy – there are a few things I’ll be making a bee-line for.

I love seeing what other creative people get up to but I especially like the hands-on activities and workshops so I’ll be heading to those first.

The headline makers include the Lords of Lightening with their electric wizardry, I’m assuming outside for this one! Copenhagen Suborbitals with the worlds first amateur rocket that actually works. The Stained Glass Car sounds intriguing and looks beautiful. With my passion for recycling and upcycling I’m really looking forward to seeing the work of Jason Lane and his Mechanical Sound Sculpture made from reclaimed scrap making all sorts of noises. I’ll be challenging my son to see if he can figure out what has been used in the sculpture.

Image Source

Obviously I’m drawn to the things that interest me so crafts and creative things such as the Felt Making and print making with Dabble Dabble and might have to push the kids aside for this one. The Giant Drawing Machine sounds just like spirograph on a bigger scale and my son is looking forward to a bit of comic creation with Paper Jam Comics Collective, with a bit of upcycling with Greeblies and Noisy Toys. Image Source

Although admittedly I’m a bit of a geek and I love this kind of thing anyway, I know so many very normal non-geeks who love the Maker Faire too. Can’t wait to be inspired again.

Is it next Saturday yet??

NB. All images with the exception of the wool making from last year are sourced from the Maker Faire UK website.