Gillian Mutti of Make: was at Maker Faire Miami. “I feel like it was a lucky 13th year for them. The team at Moonlighter really was great. The camaraderie and the support from some key makers was also wonderful to see, like Vida Custom Designs, Placitech, InterlinkKnight from PCB way, 501 Legion, Robot Renegades with Palm Beach Combat Robotics, and of course the Maker Faire Orlando team.”

Here are some of the Makers of Merit from last weekend’s Maker Faire Miami.

Christina Ernst, who has been featured in Make: magazine, exhibited a dress she made and gave a Maker Talk.

Andres Vidaurrazaga had an exhibit for his company, which does custom design and fabrication. On LinkedIn, Andres shared how much he got into the spirit of Maker Faire.

Ilana Preuss is the Founder & CEO of Recast Leaders. Her focus at RecastCity.com and in her book, Recast Your City, has been how cities across American can encourage the development of Small-Scale Manufacturing businesses, like the kind that makers create.

We hand $50 million in incentives to a company to relocate, while we tell the small business owner who's been building wealth in our downtown for fifteen years to apply for a $5,000 micro-grant.

This is still our reality in too many places.

I've watched this movie before. Fifteen years ago every economic development organization started talking about tech entrepreneurship the way they're talking about it again right now. Most of the dollars went to tech chasing a unicorn on the coasts. The entrepreneurs already in our towns kept fighting for scraps.

Lip service is cheap. Position papers are cheap. Strategic plans are cheap. Budgets are real.

I want parity. Real parity between what each jurisdiction spends chasing companies and what each spends on the entrepreneurs already in the community — the producers of hot sauce, handbags, and hardware who pay 50-100% better than retail and keep 3.5x more money local than chains.

I want policy change. Real estate. Business development support. Access to capital. Not another micro-grant program with a six-month application.

If you could wave a magic wand tomorrow and get your council, your governor, or your economic development authority board to adopt one, two, or three policies or budget changes that would actually move the needle — not the kind that fits in a press release — what would you put in front of them?

— Ilana Preuss

On MakerEd’s Substack, I published an interview with Superintendent Jason Van Heukel whose innovative high school in Winchester, Virginia introduces hands-on, career-based learning to all students. The school also does it in a way that encourages student agency and autonomy.

On the Make: Substack, I wrote about Peter Vivian’s Iron Giant Made from Wood. He told us that this figure was “made from hardwood off-cuts including American Black Walnut, Ash, Mahogany and the base is a section of a piece of 100 year old English Walnut I was gifted.”

Another wooden figure from woodworker Peter Vivian's workshop

Dale Dougherty

In a project from Make: V97, Seattle woodwork Len Collum explains the Japanese art of charring wood called yakisugi. One of the typical uses is to make siding boards.

Make Things is a weekly newsletter for the Maker community from Make:. This newsletter lives on the web at makethings.make.co

I’d love to hear from you if you have ideas, projects or news items about the maker community. Email me - [email protected].