Makersville's Practical Microfactory and Handmade Carnival Game

What Inspired You to Make This?

During the pandemic I, like many, sewed masks. I felt it was very cool that I could take a little bit of scrap fabric and turn it into something useful. In fact, necessary. I made lots of masks and gathered a collective of people who sewed masks. I open an outdoor kiosk at Shoreline Village, and we sewed masks under umbrellas at the village. I could look up and see the Queen Mary. I taught a few people to sew masks too! First indoors in our makerspace, but then later under the umbrellas. I am an advocate of learning through history, past and present. I felt I was like Pearl Rogers, who taught punch pillow making in rocking chairs under umbrellas at the historic Long Beach Pike. Later she had a shop at the Plunge bath house. As we all know, the supply chain was restored, and in fact those very masks I was making were now considered inferior (because there were other people making unfiltered, single layered masks. My masks were very well filtered and were not inferior.) But I had made a video and this created a path for me. Here is the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZOAuHAsUwg&t=2s It is called Day 38: Squigglemom's Formula for Saving the US Economy. That video calls for everyone to make masks. At home, in community centers, in factories. Masks are no longer needed to be produced by sewing them. However, I loved the community that came out of many people producing the same thing. So I created the vision of a Practical Microfactory and got a few grants to host the Practical Microfactory. I have practiced this a few times, and find that I am largely the person making the bunnies in the factory. I teach people how to sew, and they sew one for themselves, so they want to take it home. They don't really want to sew them for me. I sewed a bunch of parts so they could use them, but they wanted to make their own parts. For the Lunar New Year celebration hosted by the Long Beach – Qingdao Association in Long Beach, I am testing out an activity I call a Handmade Carnival. I am trying to sew tigers, bunnies, dragons and snakes that can be won at the event when you play a game. I have a microfactory that is creating the top tier prizes. I am still the primary bunny maker, but I do have a couple of other people helping me. I decided that a public Practical Microfactory at a Maker Faire might be a nice way to find folks to participate in my MicroFactory, and then they could connect with the concept by playing the game. The goal is to enhance the value of the handmade. There is something beautiful about making something. And the Handmade Carnival doesn't have to just have bunny prizes. I am working to grow it to include products of small producers so that it can be a really inclusive activity.