Last year, I got a chance to the World Maker Faire for the first time. The experience was mixed; it was beautiful weather, with huge crowds, but presented in a chaotic way. I took some issue with other aspects of the enterprise (maybe a tad harsh here) which seemed at odds with some of the maker movement's stated principles.

This year, I had a different experience with Maker Faire. I returned as an exhibitor -- to give a talk about Guerilla Furniture Design at one of the live stage tents. I also have learned a lot more about the maker economy and related fields in the intervening year, and have gained an appreciation for how epic it is to pull of an event like that. Along the way, I got to meet some makers and check out a lot of booths. Check out my favorites below.

Thanks to David Dao for catching a shot during my talk. It was the first time I had given a slideshow about the book, little nervous, but I think I pulled it off. Afterwards, I hung out with fellow Storey author and tiny house architect Deek Diedricksen. His blog and YouTube channel, RelaxShacks, is a guerilla tour-de-force for the micro-shelter enthusiast.

OpenDesk teamed up with ShopBot to do on-the-spot on-demand fabrication.

Over a year after posting my first design on OpenDesk, I finally got to meet someone from the company in person. Their booth was a partnership with the ShopBot fabrication network 100K Garages and featured a 4'x4' CNC cranking out stools on the spot. They were sold flat, with pieces still tabbed to a small sheet of plywood. A handle was routed in so folks could carry it home on the subway. The whole operation was amazing -- local fabrication with global designs, made on-demand, on-the-spot, with no packaging waste or shipping footprint.

Eyes closed and thumbs half up: my typical picture look.

I also got to meet some other Internet friends for the first time -- Ann Filson and Gary Rohrbacker of AtFab. They are architects, professors, and designers with their own CNC furniture line and some pieces released on OpenDesk. This winter, they are releasing a how-to book for Maker Media: Make: Design for CNC, which is available for pre-order.

Just out of the frame was a small chair.

The SeeMeCNC PartDaddy was back for another year -- a 10' delta-style printer that could output full-size furniture. It used a shopvac to feed pellets from a 50-gallon drum to the print head. It's definitely rough around the edges, and just a demonstration piece for now, but it shows the potential for 3D printing usefully large things.

"The Dynamism of a Hand Waving" by Sasha de Koninck, Danielle Martin, Leila Lagougne, who call themselves the 3D Trio. The dress used complex draping techniques from mid-century fashion, rendered in 3D-printed nylon linkages. While the form itself is fascinating, the potential for flexible nets and meshes made with additive fabrication has wide-reaching implications.

Till next year . . .

World Maker Faire 2015