Guest blogger Lydia Regalado is an arts educator, crafter and blogger who writes about people who gather to make things.

Sewing in the Swap-O-Rama-Rama tent, participants refashion discarded clothing.

AUSTIN — The movers and the shakers, do-ers and thinkers were at Maker Faire this past weekend in Austin. This was our chance to meet other crafters, hackers and tinkerers from around the country. Sponsored by Make and Craft magazines, the festival was educational and extremely entertaining. There were robot battles, hands-on demos, fashion shows, philosophical lectures about the evolution of the human mind, live music on a solar powered fire truck stage and a life-size Mouse Trap game. It was also the time to try something new, after all what would the Maker Faire be without the opportunity to make things? I was able to silkscreen an old T-shirt, sew a lunch bag, crochet with plastic bags, make felt, and make my own jewelry and earplugs. I even tried my hand at computer programming and robotics. Embroidering projects with conductive thread and LEDs, cycling to power an electric guitar windmill, bicycles built for 10, you name it, it was here! Were you?

Hula-hoopers on a roll in front of the life-size Mouse Trap game.

From the Web site Eepybird.com, Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz set off the Diet Coke and Mentos fountain.

View more pictures of Maker Faire on KERA’s Art&Seek Flickr page.

Next up: Q & A with Crafty Chica, Kathy Cano-Murrillo.
Just in time for Dia de los Muertos!