At last, the pandemic restrictions were lifted. And so the Pilsen Maker Faire could happen. The 3rd weekend in July belonged to the curious, brave, and ever-experimenting makers. We couldn’t just stand by and had to participate. 💪
The Venue
The Pilsen Maker Faire happened at inspiring DEPO2015 – a former transport depot. The entire square and bus hall was occupied by various makers, from Astronomers to ZuBylinka. Before sharing our lessons learned from this great event, I’d like to give a couple of shout-outs about makers I admired.
Digibro 3d SkeletonX
It is impossible for someone who makes a 3d printed petals for an everblooming flower to miss a giant 3d printer! The SkeletonX has a print space of 500x500x600mm with two independent print heads! Jiri spend some time with these guys, and I feel like he’s onto something – I can’t wait to learn what it will be 🙂
Glass Gilding
Alžběta Vachelová performed her skills in turning things into gold. Check her work on Instagram. For me, the most exciting part was when she agreed to try to make the Floower stem, leaf, and petals golden. Just wow! A golden Floower! It’s something we’ll have to consider for some special edition.
Lentti
Lukáš Jiránek pushes wood to its edge to create stunning wooden objects. One of the smallest is a wooden bookmark, and for me, the most inspiring was his “world-thinnest wooden lamp.” Take a look at his website if you fancy wood as I do.
MansterVille
I’m no metal worker, and I don’t work with fire. But I think it’s a stunning piece of mechanical art with a fire show. Propane Punk Circus is a claim on the website, and I get it 🙂 Imagine two gigantic metal hamster wheels bound together – that’s MansterWheel.
xx0x
EH14 is a table watch with an electromechanical display that announces the time with the voice of Václav Knop, who recorded time announcements for Czech Railways. The level of effort put into this table watch is just stunning, and I know I’ve met a genuinely passionate maker.
Floower at Maker Faire
This was our first chance to showcase Floower in public since we started the company. It’s because we started in the same year the Covid-19 pandemic decide to test everyone’s endurance.
Our exhibition
We wanted to show the Floower, obviously, but we wanted to deliver much more than that. Jiri created framed disassembled Floower so everyone can take a look at all the different components. We had a Prusa 3d printer and an SLA printer on our desk next to the homemade CNC machine and homemade wire cutter.
We’ve also got a few semi-complete stems to show the mechanism that makes the Floower bloom. That was the Maker part.
We were also showing off the ring holder and chocolate truffle holder add-ons to show that our everblooming flower is as romantic as its real-world counterpart, if not more romantic.
We made two micro-world boxes for the most curious of all, for children. But I have to say that even grown-ups enjoyed our Halloween Floower, which will bite you if you try to touch its blossom.
Last but not least, we had an entire garden of Floowers that Jiri programmed for this occasion to bloom automatically.
Our visitors and lessons learned
It was awesome. We had a really great time, and the Maker Faire crew took good care of us. All the people we’ve seen were excellent, but that doesn’t mean everyone fell in love with Floower. We’ve learned that Floower certainly is not for everyone.
Useless or brilliant?
Floower is an innovative, maybe slightly controversial product, and so it’s natural it summons emotions. Some say it’s useless or too expensive to buy. That’s ok. Floower is not for everyone. Floower is for those who crave something unique, handmade, and with an incredible wow effect. Not a product of a gigantic factory in china, but artisan craft.
Floower is for someone like the young, energetic lady that came with her daughter and was completely blown away. And it’s her who doesn’t want to leave while her daughter drags her away after several solid minutes spent playing with Floowers. She was a prototype of a person for who we make Floowers. And we met quite a few of them over the weekend!
Open-source is a good thing
When Jiri wrote the firmware, he decided to make it open-source. We sold a few Floowers to enthusiasts who want to play with the code.
Connect Floower to a home assistant?
Connecting Floower to a smart home is something that resonated with many makers and visitors. We’ve already started to explore the field of connected devices, but no promises there yet. Even if we have a company, we’re still doing it in our spare time.
Get it out there
We met a few inspiring people who recommended getting in touch with galleries, premium product stores, and even fancy cocktail bars. I like the bar idea the most – cheers 🍸. We already started collaborating with local brands and sellers some time ago, and we already got 3 Floowers on display at local jewelry.
Thanks to all makers, visitors, and the Maker Faire crew for making such a fantastic weekend event.
Pavel
