San Francisco, part V

Finally, the final days of my trip to SF with Beth.  First…. THE MAKER FAIRE!

I specifically planned the SF trip to coincide with the Maker Faire. There are so many words to describe this event:  DIY, kinetic, art, craft, inventive, bizarre, steam punk, musical, flamable, deconstructive, robotic, and big, big big!  The fair is held for two days (we went for one) and it would take at least that to see everything.  I cannot do justice in explaining the whole event.  For that, I would suggest checking the Maker Faire website here.

Here are some of the things I managed to capture.

When we first entered the event, we were in awe of all the things billowing smoke and fire.  A steam train, a giant flower sculpture, the Crucible’s firetruck…  as we walked around there’d be a sudden blast of fire here or there.

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There was a life-sized Mouse Trap, just like the board game.  And, although we never caught it “in action”, it was still something to marvel at and a nice trip back to childhood. 

Yep, bathtub, wacky stairs, and boot on a stick… it was all there!

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There were many musical acts, and most included an accordian.  According to Beth’s guide book, the accordian is the state instrument for California.  (We cannot find the official state instrument for PA, but we have our theories.)

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There were crazy, handmade bicycles and several art cars.  One car was full of tiny plastic windmills.  Two little girls were walking away from this car with marks on their fingers squealing “they write!”

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Around every corner was another robotic creature walking through the crowd… even replicas of R2D2 beeping and whirling through the crowd.

It was great to just find a place to sit and watch the “parade” pass by.

One of my favorite parts was the hall containing the kinetic sculptures.  We managed to catch the interview with 5 of the artists and then see the works in action (literally).  I wish I had taken more pictures, especially of the plastic bottle “wave” sculpture by Reuben Margolin.   Here’s a little snippet of video, though. It was truly spectacular and beautiful.  Hung from the ceiling of the convention center, hundreds of plastic, 2-liter bottles moved in a slow wave.

In the same building were many other wonderful sights and sounds and lots of hands-on playing.  I once owned a piano that needed to be deconstructed to be removed from the house.  I was just a teen living at home at the time, but would have loved to have hung on to the portion with the strings. 

My absolute favorite part of the day was when we were sitting on a bench watching and listening to people play on this theremin-type exhibit (I think it was built around a Tesla Coil).  Those eerie sounds made the perfect soundtrack for this creature that suddenly appeared.  So cool!

On Sunday I took a beautiful ride on the Larkspur ferry from the Ferry Plaza to visit my brother. (Note that San Francisco Fog vs. the bright blue skies across the bay.)

Scott had been preparing his yard for his garden and I arrived just in time to help put everything in the ground.  What a treat!  Squash, tomatoes, peppers, beans, peas, and lettuces.  And, in true Scott fashion, the garden was a handmade masterpiece of beautiful reused items.  I love the coiled rebar to hold the climbing cucumbers and the iron plant stand as tomato cage.  Take a look:

Also in true Scott fashion, he brought out the ugly teeth and made me wear them. Oh, the things my brother can make me do!

And that’s the trip.  Just a sleepless red-eye back to the ‘Burgh, and then it was June.