RICHMOND, Va. -- After a brief hiatus, a Richmond festival that celebrates creativity and art is making a triumphant return.
At its peak, RVA MakerFest attracted 8,000 attendees and featured 100 makers at the Science Museum of Virginia on West Broad Street.
Build, RVA, the Build Forward Foundation, and Blue Cheese Robotics are reestablishing the popular event on Saturday, Nov. 2, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Deep Run High School in Glen Allen.
This year, they’re calling the festival “RVA MakerFest Resurgence.”
Josh Stolberg is the foundation’s co-president and founder of CapWorks.
“MakerFest is unique in that it gives you a chance to show how you make your products. For me, it’s not really practical to bring people into my studio,” Stolberg explained.
He invited CBS 6 to his studio at Build, RVA, on Rosedale Avenue. The facility serves as a space designated solely for makers.
Stolberg sold his artwork and coasters made from bottle caps at farmers' markets before he was encouraged to join Build, RVA, by co-founder Mary Arritt.
The GE mechanical engineer, who worked on gas turbines, then converted his side hustle into a full-time job.
“A lot of people say, ‘I don’t want to work for the man.’ I was okay with a regular paycheck, but I wanted to do things that were worthwhile to me, and that was making things and being creative,” Stolberg recalled.
MakerFest is an opportunity for makers to showcase their work to the general public.
Stolberg will showcase his own inventions at MakerFest that help him create vibrant pieces of art and coasters from beer bottle caps.
Nicholas Daglis, owner of Ground Up Glassworks LLC, will demonstrate glassblowing at this year’s event for the first time.
“It’s an amazing thing to watch. It’s an amazing thing to show people and talk about. Not many people do it anymore, and we’re just trying to keep the industry going,” Daglis stated.
In his private studio in Richmond, he showed CBS 6 what 15 years’ worth of talent looks like in the glassblowing space.
He likened the process to a dance where each move is precise to prevent injuries and create the perfect glass object.
Daglis’s wares range from memorial jewelry made from ashes to candy canes and Christmas ornaments.
“Well after I’m gone, all the stuff I’ve been making my whole life will be floating around out there somewhere, hopefully,” Daglis said. “But if not, at the thrift store, and someone else can enjoy it.”
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