It was raining pretty steadily, but it was definitely fun. One of the things I liked was the not-so-high-tech makers: the folks who do amazing things with printed pages, the blacksmith, the people who are starting up a sailboat-based freight operation across Lake Champlain and down the Hudson river…

The character of some of the higher-tech exhibitors has changed. For example, Jon Bondy of Vermont Rapid Prototyping wasn’t just doing “Here’s a 3D printer, isn’t it cool,” he was showing how 3D printing and cheap smart electronics could turn ideas and sketches into working stuff.

And although it was 50 miles away, I still ended up seeing a couple people from from Montpelier: Tyler McNaney from Filabot was there (as an onlooker, not an exhibitor this time) and brought me up to date on their big-printer project (they’re not going to use the gantry crane after all, just a bunch of 80:20 extrusion). Mara Siegel of the Vermont Department of Libraries was running a booth and talking about library makerspace projects (and boxes with 10,000 Lego pieces in them). Didn’t see any of my kids’ friends or their parents; I’m betting they had the good sense to go today when it’s gloriously sunny.

Other people apparently enjoyed the Faire too — one of the local people who has been on-again, off-again about pushing for a local makerspace emailed me late last night, and is emailing some powers-that-be with what might actually turn into a plan.