By CATHERINE ELLERTON
Moapa Valley Progress
Grant M. Bowler Elementary School hosted its first ever Maker Faire under the direction of teacher Marianne Ekenstam on Thursday, Jan. 17.
The faire provided local participants the opportunity to showcase creative innovations. It was one of only two Maker Faires in the entire state.
According to Ekenstam who enjoys creating intricate modular origami, Maker Faires are held all over the world with the trademark being owned by Maker Media. Ekenstam said that she hopes that this event will be a continued tradition that will grow even more by next year.
Some of the questions that attendees were encouraged to ask were: “How long did this take to make?”, “Where do you get your ideas?” and “What inspires you to make something?”
One entry in the faire was Knox Whipple’s Wood Burning Company. Knox picked up his idea from watching a rerun of “The Andy Griffith Show.” Very knowingly he demonstrated how one would use different tips and burners to obtain the desired item including an address or a name on a piece of wood.
Knox explained that he had been developing his company for several months now and is expanding his knowledge all the time. After all he is 11 years old!
A very clever four story house for cats had been built by 9 year olds Makenna Nelson and Mekyla Jones. This house contains several rooms for playing, one for feeding and one for sleeping. This lovely house is made out of cardboard boxes.
‘Tiny homes’ (Hamster Manors) were designed and built by young Brielle Williams and Keshlyn Phillipenas.
Young Lyla Meyers, Lillyana English, Brooke Lewis and Vidalia Bennett had a booth titled “HatchIMals” where they discussed the successful hatching of chicken, duck and quail eggs.
An intriguing Plastic Castle was made by third graders Lewis Conger and Kason May. A clever use of water bottles and plastic cups just “popped into Lewis’ mind” and he and his friend made one.
Elle Parkinson was busy ‘throwing’ clay on a pottery wheel after finding a website that taught her how to begin.
Several popular 3-D printers were demonstrated by Linford and by Brad and Stephanie Viers. Imaginative dogs, dragons and winged creatures drew a steady inquisitive crowd to their booths. They stated that the machines were becoming affordable and anyone can go to a website to download the information.
A wanna-be chef offered Gluten Free Donuts. Emsley Bennett (7) began cooking to fill a need and an interest.
A clatter of wood and loud laughter sounded as attendees approached a booth operated by Keva Planks. Faire participants could use the planks to build different objects. This turned into a competition of the tallest column of wood, which, of course, immediately collapsed.
In addition to the young students, several of the teachers were also involved. Shawn Hudgell was busy demonstrating his interest in guitar making. He picked up this craft while he was teaching school in So. Korea. He uses cigar boxes, large and small, to obtain the desired instrument. Measurements, he advised, are pre-determined as to shaping and design. Each will have one to six strings and often the player will use a finger slide on the strings to obtain the desired sound.
Several authors were in attendance. Melissa Evans was displaying her first published book, a children’s story titled “When I Grow Up” that is illustrated by Natalie Bunky. Alex DeMers began writing for fun and 10 years later she published her first novel “Threadbare, the Traveling Show.” She is now on the second draft of her second novel, a sequel.
Vanessa Fullman, a second grade teacher, has been painting for the past seven years in her spare time. She displayed her amazing oil paintings of her children.
Becky Hardy demonstrated how to make custom cakes. Pieces of cardboard cut into desired designs, covered with foil and with a foil edging attached, amazing creations can be baked.
“You want to be sure that your design is not too big for your oven!” she said, laughingly.
