What to crafters and geeks do at the weekend? Go to Brighton Mini Maker Faire of course! It’s a one day event full of stalls catering for lots of different interests: electronics, knitting, sewing, laser cutting, 3D printing, science labs, workshops and programming to name a few. Good fun whether you’re an adult or a kid. Anyway, onto the good stuff… what we saw!
The Faire
We saw a lot of great projects that day so I’ve summarised my favourite 3. If you’re curious about the other makers you can view a full list here (it’s worth checking out some of the 3D printing projects).
Luminous Loafers
These Luminous Loafers by Robin Sterling are a safety device for runners. LEDs are placed on the heel, a battery pack and circuits on the top of the shoe and you can program the lights into different sequences. I’d like a variation of this for cycling in the Winter.
DIY Microscopy
DIY USB powered microscope kits by StoneTurners. My parents bought me a microscope kit when I was a kid and I had hours of fun scouting out things to put under it. It would be nice to do that again, especially with something I’ve built myself.
Knitting the map
A group of ladies were spinning and dyeing their own wool and knitting it in to a 1792 Map of Brighthelmstone. I even got a chance to see some wool bring spun – it looks tricky. If you want to find out more, they have a website dedicated to their impressive project.
Other things
You can’t go to Brighton without going to the beach and playing ‘dodge the seagull’.
On Saturday night Seb Lee-Delisle was hosting a laser light and music event called Laser Light Synths, as part of Brighton Digital Festival. Check out the video below to see what it’s all about. You can also see us having a go at 3:43 🙂
Good food in Brighton
A trip anywhere wouldn’t be complete without a happy belly. We found some great places to eat:
- Gelato Gusto: fantastic gelato made above the shop, flavours changed daily. We were piggies and went there 3 days in a row. Well, its not every day we get to go to Brighton is it?
- Food for Friends: great little vegetarian restaurant on the outskirts of the laines, a few roads in from the sea. The coconut curry with sesame dumplings was deeelicious.
- Curry Leaf Cafe: really really good Indian food. This place wasn’t on our list of restaurants to try but when we walked past the window at lunch and saw what people we were eating we decided to go for dinner. So pleased we did!
- Cafe Nest: a cafe in the laines that did really good toasted sandwiches for lunch.
Accommodation
We stayed in a private apartment in a Regency townhouse (found through Airbnb). It was close to Brighton centre and the sea but also nice and quiet at night.
This place had retro moss green armchairs, crochet cushions and a welsh blanket. What’s not to love?
And best of all, they left us lots of goodies for breakfast in our kitchen!
And that’s our weekend in Brighton at the Maker Faire. We’ve been swooning over 3D printers for a while but after seeing so many that weekend we want one even more. Time to start saving!
It all looks great – and that apartment smashing! Love the idea of lights on running shoes!
It was! If I lived in Brighton I’d want to live in a townhouse like that.
that apartment looks amaizing. and I need a recipe for that curry and dumplings.. nom nom nom. i miss Brighton so much now
Next time you’re in Brighton you HAVE to go to the ice cream place, you’d love it. Peanut salted caramel, need I say more!