As you might have noticed, I spent the weekend being continually shocked at Maker Faire: Austin; not to mention 3-d scanned, felted and laser etched.

Out of all of this, though, there are a few projects and people who really stood out as being extra-super-special-spice awesome.

(note: do to my camera being ganked from my clutches, I lost my photos from the event. Which sucks.)

The 3d Ink Scanner, by Friedrich Kirschner  is the bigger, badder, blacker version of his earlier milk scanner. To do this for you, I was dunked into a bath of ink-laden water, practically affixed to a board while onlookers gasped at my ability to inhale (and violently exhale) large amounts of said water through my nose. For Science! A video of my 3-d scan can be found here.

Dominique Vyborny, on top of being a snappy dresser, is also an incredible artist-  she brought along two of her kinetic bicycle musicmajigs, Plucky and Cranky. Plucky was a coil-shaped steel instrument with steel strings, while cranky was a megaphone-like sculpture with a multitude of hand-cranked music box innards attached, so that when cranked (get it?) they  produced a tune to rival the creepiness factor of any doppler-affected ice cream truck.

Arc attack made the Doctor Who theme even more awesome (it is possible!)  playing it through their twin singing tesla coils.

Aaron Ristau made my day with his kinetic and interactive sculptures made from medical device detritus. 

These are the things that for me, made me want to take over some shop, lock myself in with a palate of Top Ramen, and do nothing but Make. Which I'm pretty sure was the point all along.