by Hadrian Miguel, Life & Style Director

The Maker Faire soldered, forged, threaded, and stamped its way into New York to celebrate all things arts, crafts, engineering, science, and the DIY lifestyle.

Tangerine Living was there to check out all the freaks n geek coolness, latest MacGyver-style gadgets, modern robots and hobby robotics, and greener life capabilities.

Maker Faire is the premier event for grassroots American innovation. As the World’s Largest DIY Festival, this two-day family friendly fair has something for everyone. It’s a showcase of invention, creativity and resourcefulness and a celebration of the Maker spirit. A collection of tents, booths, exhibits, artists, and demonstrations to inspire and invent new ways to live, work, play, and dress.

Highlights this year include the 3-D Printer Village, an exhibition which features printer models designed by companies like Shop Bot, Ultimaker, MakerBot, and uber-hobbyist John Abella. These machines and printers are capable of making jewelry, furniture, models and prototypes, toys, and even cookies and cheese treats…yep, that’s right!

Here’s some other cool stuff we saw:

Arduino

Arduino gadget

Arduino is another featured tech-y wonder that was prominently displayed. It’s an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software.

Arduino is intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments. In short, Arduino is a little gadget that you can use to connect your computer to electronic projects.

Vertical Theory

Solutions for small scale farming in an urban landscape through vertical farming created by Karen MacKay.

Vertical farming for city living

more Vertical Theory

SketchChair

A software tool that allows anyone to easily design, build, and share their own digitally fabricated furniture that is original and unique.

How to SketchChair

Homebrew Biodiesel

DIY Biodiesel

Homebrew Biodiesel

Ben Jorritsma showed us how to convert used cooking oil into fuel for use in unmodified diesel engines, modified heating oil burners, and tuned turbine engines, and how to make your own processor using commonly available hardware.

A homemade system, consisting of a water heater and several holding tanks, transesterification, and further washing and drying, can convert WVO (vegetable oil waste) into biodiesel fuel that’s ready-to-use in cars, trucks, and farming equipment.

Solar Sewing

Solar Sewing

Paul Nosa draws and designs on his Singer sewing machine by using alternative energy like solar power and bicycle electric generator to power up his machine called the Solar Sewing Rover, a portable sewing machine table made entirely from aluminum.

A sewing machine (without the light on) is rated at about 50 watts and consumes 1 amp every hour. You can be lucky to get about 4 1/2 amps from the sun for the entire day in a really sunny locale, that’s 4 1/2 hours of sewing per day with just the solar panel, while 10 minutes of biking produces 1 hour of sewing.

Steampunk Hatter

Steampunk Hatter at Maker Faire NYC

Handmade leather hats and headgear with a retro future vibe that developed out of the burgeoning West Coast steampunk movement.

Steampunk Hatter draws design inspiration from various San Francisco Bay Area subcultures including Goth, circus, festival, kink, and rock music.

They are a group of designers and steampunk enthusiasts from Santa Cruz that prides themselves on design and craftsmanship using only top-notch American materials.

Maker Faire was created by Make Magazine in the San Francisco area in 2006, and since then it has expanded into other places like Austin, Texas, Rhode Island, North Carolina, the UK, Canada, and New York. Make Magazine is dedicated to your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your own will.