BELFAST - This Friday evening, May 17, at the Tarratine Tribe Hall, 153 Main Street in Belfast, a series of craftsmen, artists and innovators will strut their stuff at PechaKucha Night Midcoast Maine, emceed by poet Arielle Greenberg Bywater.

PechaKucha, which is the Japanese term for the sound of conversation "chit chat," was originally devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. The way Pechakucha Midcoast works is eight people each present their work, ideas and creative process in a 20-second-per-image, 20-image engaging, fast-paced slideshow.

Friday's eight include Michael Beaudry, timber framer; Sarah Boisvert, Maine FabLab; Rob Brown, painter; Nicole Magnan Caruso, Peaceful Nest Yoga; Rhonda Feiman, Japanese-style acupuncturist; George Mason, artist; George Haselton, Rockport Mechanical; and Laura Waller, artist.

To get an idea of the diversity of each presentation here's one to watch this Friday.

'If you can dream it, you can make it"

Sarah Boisvert is the founder of Maine FabLab, a "fabrication lab" in Biddeford where students and adults can dream up an invention and use the lab's sophisticated equipment to build potential product prototypes. A volunteer for MIT, Boisvert adapted the concept from the ideas of Neil Gershenfeld, a professor at MIT's FabLab as way to encourage more young people to use science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). From In an interview on a guest blog post for www.kcharry.com, Boisvert gives an example of whatever can be dreamt up can be made real. In the Maine FabLab, they offer equipment that anyone can use.

For example, Boisvert said, "3D printers are machines that build complete things in plastic from CAD drawings, so if you can imagine something, and create a CAD file, then you can have it in your hands in a day or so, complete with moving parts!"

According to FabLab's website, this can be used to create everything from customized hand brace orthotics, implantable joints, ornate bricks for construction, parts for NASA satellites, housing for consumer electronics, iPad & iPhone cases and holders, as well as artistic creations such as sculpture, jewelry, and toys.

Doors open at 6:00 p.m., program begins at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 at the door.

The next PechaKucha Midcoast Maine event will be on September 13 in Camden and November 15 in Rockland. For more information, email pechakuchamidco-ast@gmail.com or visit midcoastmagnet.com/content/pecha-kucha.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com