Mini Maker Faire launches at Exploration Place

Melissa Shockley has been playing with pliers and chainmail pieces – called jump rings – since she was a young girl. She made small pieces of jewelry while her older brother created dress shirts that resembled medieval armor.

Twenty-five years later, Shockley operates her own traveling jewelry shop – where she sells jewelry and renaissance-era clothing made of chainmail. She plans to join 50 other local makers at Exploration Place on Saturday to share their craft in Wichita’s first Mini Maker Faire, a celebration of inventors and innovators who make their own materials.

“It’s about innovation and creating and using your minds to solve problems and make new things that will help people,” said Christine Bluml, a spokeswoman for Exploration Place, where officials hope to make the faire an annual event. “It’s all about getting back to that do-it-yourself mentality.”

Enthusiasts in drones, 3-D printing, woodmaking and pottery will present their projects to the public Saturday. The faire is a smaller scale version of the national maker movement, which showcases inventions, creativity and resourcefulness in technology, music, science, crafts and homesteading.

Exploration Place will host the event – which begins at 10 a.m. Saturday – inside and outside the museum. Wichita’s first faire is “mini” because it’s smaller than most faires; the one in Kansas City has about 350 makers and lasts two days.

Shockley, whose traveling store is called the Missing Link, will have a booth Saturday to sell her chain link jewelry, including bracelets, necklaces, rings and other pieces of shiny metal. She’ll also have a photo album displaying her larger pieces, including the full-length shirts like her brother used to make.

“I do have a lot of renaissance fair and re-enactment groups call me and need something from that area,” Shockley said.

The smaller pieces range in price from $12 to $25, while a chain metal shirt costs around $300.

“I have an RV that I take to various craft shows and markets,” she said. “I can pull up and open the door and people can walk right inside it.”

The event will feature two panel discussions, including one that resembles the TV show “Shark Tank” in which makers will present their ideas and products to a board. Many of the booths Saturday will be interactive, with paper flower making, robotic arms and a two-seater, pedal-powered trike.

Drone ICT – a group that aims to highlight the opportunities for drones in the aviation industry – plans to race their hovering craft Saturday.

The faires are about finding people of like-minds, said Dustin Thiry, a member of Drone ICT.

“You have to find an outlet for the cool stuff you do,” he said. “The Maker Faire will make people realize that they’re not alone.”

MakeICT – a think tank of local engineers, educators, artists and musicians – is Exploration Place’s partner in the faire. Members from the group will have free admission to the museum.

John Harrison, a founding member of MakeICT who specializes in audio and video projects, said he hopes visitors will come away inspired to join a community of makers.

“There’s so much information out there,” he said. “There are so many things to know that it’s almost impossible for someone to be a renaissance person. But it is possible to have depth in one expertise … and enough information or understanding in other areas to be able to converse intelligently with another person of another area of expertise.”

And that’s how things are invented, Harrison said.

Harrison introduced his 14-year-old stepson, Sean Whalen, to the maker movement, and so far, Whalen has flourished.

“I kind of have a broad spectrum of things I like to do,” said the incoming East High freshman. “I’m involved in music. I’m a perfectionist. I’m interested in electronics.”

But his specialty is pottery.

He started with sculpting classes in third grade and graduated to the spinning wheel two years later, and now he’s trying to sell his crafted bowls and pots, including at Saturday’s Mini Maker Faire.

“There are so many people in this community that can help out and give resources,” Whalen said. “It seems like it’s hard, but it’s actually really easy to find someone who’s willing to help you.

“It’s fun to see what other people made and (the faire) gives me the opportunity to make and observe in the same environment.”

This story was originally published July 17, 2015 at 7:30 AM with the headline "Mini Maker Faire launches at Exploration Place."