I finally made it to Vancouver’s Mini Maker Faire. Cool event – interesting to have the more industrial, manufacturing, and technical stuff in the same place as the crafty/fibre stuff that attracts me. Gives it a different flavour. Lots of crazy people, but in the best possible way: see the pic below of the woman wearing a set of 10-foot (or wider?) expandable feathered wings. I had a peek at their frame and they must be so heavy! But they did look spectacular as they unfolded. Too bad my landscape-oriented photo that showed them at their full width was too blurry. Probably what made my jaw drop more than anything else was the guy who makes needle-felted Star Wars figures. I experimented with a bit of needle-felting at another booth (Fun! Blushing Lotus designs – ended up getting a kit) and I can’t imagine attempting to make a set of realistic people that way. He and his twin brother have made dozens, which they’ve then used as characters in photo board book versions of classics such as Moby Dick and Pride and Prejudice. Amazing. Now regretting not buying one.
Karen Sawatzky 