The Spring Renaissance fair if coming up quick! We will have a booth as well as an event focused on siege weapons! Which means we will also need volunteers for both to not only setup and tear down but also run.
If you are interested, people are also welcome to vend at the event, as long as they coordinate with the event host a head of time (at this point me).
We’ll need people to help setup and tear down the tent and castle facade as well as run a small project area. We’ve done catapults and laser cut thrones in the past, but we’re definitely open to more or different ideas, but I’d highly recommend what ever prototyping that needs to be done, be done in February, and aim to be ready to crank out copies in March (less last minute maker panic)
Arkillion stepped up their game heavily last fair. They had a lot of kid focused events (like teaching kids how to LARP), but they were also focused on more physical activities, and less putting together puzzles or projects. So that still gives us a major niche at the fair.
So we do have quiet a few tasks to crank out before the event in 3 months from now.
Improve the bow string and fiddle with the chicken lobbing bit
Figure out what kind of make-and-take projects we want to prep
a. LaDeana may have a few thrones left over from last year, might need to make more
b. Definitely thinking origami dragons would be a good one to do with kids
c. Not sure if catapults are a big draw like they use to (might look into simpler siege weapons)
d. Might not be too difficult to make chain mail flowers (might be fun to try anadizing scales before hand)
e. would it be all that difficult/expensive to do wax seals?
f. James is digging the idea of making a miniature 3d printed version of the big castle that assembles with magnets
Finish building the castle
a. yeah… there’s a lot left, but I could really use help pealing off the rest of the tin foil on the 8 panels that are in the boiler room at the makerspace right now, next step: paint?
b. there’s also some metal frame work that we need to get to moving on
c. we should have all the panels for the towers laid up this weekend
Help people with garb (Patrick Hutchinson can vouch for how much he underestimated the time it would take to make a tunic)
Figure out better ways to decorate the inside of the castle
a. some kind of tapestries? Or more ways to advertise what we do at MakeICT
b. some way to make it not feel like a tent on the inside
c. some way to make it feel more inviting
If you are interested in volunteering or vending, let me know and I’ll update the charts below.
Great Plain Renaissance Festival
Volunteers Needed
1
2
3
4
5
6
Setup April 11th (10am - 6pm)
Rustin A.
Aaron R.
James L.
Matthew C.
April 12th (9:30am - 6pm)
Rustin A.
Aaron R.
Matthew C.
April 13th (9:30am - 6pm + tear down)
Rustin A.
Aaron R.
James L.
Matthew C.
GPRF Vendors
Volunteers Needed
1
2
3
Sept 28th (9:30am - 6pm)
Sept 29th (9:30am - 6pm + tear down)
I’ll try to post another meeting for the middle of February, but I’ll be doing what I can in the mean time, so feel free to tag up with me on what you want to help out with or find out when I’m planning to tackle another big step. Help is greatly appreciated.
The process of rolling the curved sections of the frame on the ring roller is very tedious but it works. A tubing bender would be far faster but the parts might need a little tweaking on the ring roller. I think for this project, using 3/4" square, 16 ga steel tubing, a form made from hard wood would probably be ok. I have a bender sketched up in my head but if somebody wants to cut the pieces out, probably easiest on the shop bot since it can cut a consistent radius, I can put together a model pretty quickly.
I can help with garb questions! I have some patterns to use if someone is close to my or my husband’s sizes (XLs). I also have some stuff to borrow if people want to look.
We have a few quick make-and-take projects lined up, but trying to make sure we’ve got all our boxes checked…
And just realizing we haven’t really made a sign for the new castle yet. Anyone up for carving up a sheet of plywood on the shopbot with the makeict logo? I know Dean has a really cool idea to carve, but can someone help with this project?
Hey! Jae who does the wax seal workshops here. I’d love to bring my own make-and-take (thinking pre-made seals and scrolls) on Sunday, is there room for another vendor? I’ll bring along my art prints and magnets as well for sale, but I won’t need much space.
I’m having to move prep and pack from 7pm to 8pm. If someone does get there at 7pm, feel free to give the targets for the seige contest a once over and set aside any that need repairs and adjustments (or go ahead and make the repairs).
Hey Team,
I can help sunday. I have a soccer game at 3pm so could help before then in the AM or afterward to help teardown. Let me know! Thank you
-Carter Way
I just want to thank everyone for all of your efforts. I wish I could have made it out to help. The final picture looks lovely, especially the B&W version. You all should be so proud. I hope it was everything you dreamed it would be.
A portcullis? Dean brought up the same idea. I like the idea of making it feel less like we were hiding a tent, but i also want to keep whatever we add as lightweight and easy to transport as possible.
There’s a lot of ideas people had for what to do next with the castle, but i’d like to take a month off from renn fair stuff before getting a group together to dig into what to do next.
There are a couple things on the list already:
Improve the jack/pivot on the ballista
Make a longer bow string for the ballista
Paint the inside of the facade panels
Locate the 4th tensioner for the tent
Make an instruction booklet on how to most easily assemble the castle (especially since we have been invited out to the OKC renn fest - Nov 9th and 10th)
