Last Saturday was the Maker Faire and I was up bright and early to head to Wayne County for the event. I had packed up the night before, so all I needed to do was say goodbye to the cat and fire up the GPS.
I got there and got set up and even before the official start time, I had kids lined up at my table. I had done some samples and that made it a little easier for the kids to choose what they wanted to do – and it limited the crazier requests.
I got a break at 11:30 to give a short presentation. I was a little nervous, but started my talk by showing the audience a piece of paper and then putting my hands behind my back. While I spoke, I quickly folded a crane. And just as I wrapped up my talk I brought my hands back around to show them the completed crane. When I made the wings flap, I got a round of applause.
The rest of the time was some intense paper folding – about 5 hours worth.
At one point, I had three kids at my table that all wanted to make different things with different starting points. I closed my eyes for a moment and ran through all the steps of each model before opening them and getting each kid started.
For fun, each cube we did got a tiny crane dropped in before we closed up the box. And the somewhat insistent little girl from last year was back for another mette ring.
One of the best moments was a kid that had been stuck at a table all day. He was showing some lego projects and some model planes – and while it was interesting it wasn’t a crowd magnet. So, he spent the day a little bored.
As we were getting ready to pack up, I dug out an x-wing fighter I’d made from paper that looked like legos – the best one I’ve done like that – and took it over to his table and gave it to him. No one had seen this at my table – everyone would have wanted one and they are terribly complicated to make – so it was a complete surprise. His eyes lit up and I got a huge smile and a thank you.
I got all my gear packed up and loaded into my car -then drove back to Akron. Once home, I forced myself to unload my car before I collapsed.
My back hurt and my hands were aching, but it was a good day and I made a lot of people happy. And if there are some “future folders” that got their start there, well, that’s pretty cool too.