Finally Recovered

Yesterday I began the long drawn out process of listing the pieces on etsy that I had made just for the fair which did not sell. I made a large amount of pendants and bracelets in a multitude of colors and most of what I did sell were in my, well standard colors anyway. Lots of black, brown, burgundy and a dash of purple. The point being, check out the shop throughout the week for more colors to arrive in many pieces. I have no plan to finish this task before leaving next week for my trip to Washington state though.

The family is attending a military reunion for my in-laws. We're basically using the event as an excuse for a bit of a family reunion for their family. I have traveled very little in my life, so this is my first time up north. We'll be stopping in Oregon for the night on the way up and back and I am honestly dreading not only packing for a family of four, but also keeping the younguns entertained on our longest car ride ever. I figure that when we return I will continue the listing process and perhaps that will bring attention back to the store front.

I also wanted to talk about another thing I learned at the Maker Faire. The first day myself and Choklit camped out in the back corner of the teams booths, figuring on comfort and control. What we did not fully anticipate was the sheer volume of the crowd and only the bravest amongst them were heading our way. Sales weren't awful, but a quick look at Tom's booth, fine maker of masks, revealed a whole other picture. So on day two, we appropriated the spot Tom held since he was not attending day two and things did change a bit. Now our wares which I imagine appeal well beyond the SteamPunk fan base were front and center. This was the day that I talked to the most people, made twice as many sales and sent a vast array of folks to my Instructable library for learning.

The moral of the story is, no matter how comfortable you want to be, there is no substitute for sheer exposure. Sure, we were colder, had less down time and fended off even more looky loos, but the advantages were clear. I still don't have any plans to become a fair vendor, but should I venture out again, I have learned that lesson at least. I had hoped that one piece or another would have also stood out for future reference, but that was certainly not the case. The masks caught peoples eyes, the butterflies sold like wildfire, but aside from that the sales were quite mixed. A few chokers here, a mask there, a few different bracelets and a random selection of pendants. I was told that just means I have a well rounded selection and since I liked that answer, I'm accepting it.

There are a few other dramas swirling around in my world right now, but I think that I'll save something to babble on about tomorrow. Until then.

Instructables At The Maker Faire

Well, I'm a bit more rested today, but absolutely not recovered. There are still at least a dozen things that I need to do in the next week before I leave again for a whole week this time. I think that I might be getting a bit ahead of myself though...I shall endeavor to calm down a bit. I have so many stories that I could tell from the Maker Faire. The people that were met, the sites that were seen even from our tiny corner not to mention the things that were learned about physically selling my pieces, but I don't want to bore you with a week of anecdotes. I might still do so though, so be warned.

The first thing I wanted to share was a bit unexpected though in hindsight I should have known it would happen. I haven't vended at a lot of events, but I've been to my fair share. Thing I don't like a bout the craft fair environment are customers who treat it like a flea market, fairs that allow flea market type vendors to sell as well as the whole why pay that much when I could make it myself, when they most surely could not. This was not one of those fairs. This was the Maker Faire, almost everyone who walked through the gates makes something or has a real respect for those who do. There was no price haggling, and when someone wondered if they could do that themselves, it was out of genuine desire to learn something new, not to avoid paying our prices.

This turned out to be the perfect environment to advertise not my wares so much as my lessons on Instructables. I received visits from at least three members of the Instructables team throughout the day, first from Christy, the community and marketing manager that left cards for me to give folks directing them to my lessons. I even met the CEO Eric later in the day and he thanked me for sharing. There's nothing quite as surreal as meeting people who recognize you from the Internet especially when they are the geek elite. I spent much of the day directing people to the site, ensuring them that they can and should learn to tat as they often said they always meant to. I sent older ladies, young girls, the crafting hipsters and even a few man folk in the right direction. I demonstrated the technique and explained how easy it was to learn and my ridiculous goal of making tatting the next big crafting craze moved just one step closer to fruition. I should have expected that level of desire to learn from this crowd, but I was awed by it.

That was just one of the amazing things I took away from the fair and there of course are more pieces to the weekend. I hope to hear from many of those I talked to and I hope hey all give tatting a go. Sure that's more competition for my wares, but I still think it would be incredible to be even a little responsible for the emergence of this art into the mainstream, so yay for the Maker Faire.

I'm Baaack!

I'm here and not remotely prepared to face the day of laundry and inventory that awaits me. I'm certain to give a more thorough analysis of the weekends Maker Faire experience but here's the quick rundown. I wish I could say that I saw many wonderful sites and explored the maze of creativity that abounded and the fair, but truth is I arrived at 8 each morning, trudged back to the Carnival Mechanique and laid anchor. The crowd volume was intense and there was little time for anything other than minding our tables and talking to the hundreds, perhaps thousands of people that swarmed by us. I literally did not use the bathroom the entire time I was at the fair.

The wind was awful both days requiring us to continually rescue our own displays as well as our teammates. This also made it almost unbearable cold in the shade, so awesome outfits were hidden by wraps and jackets. We also had the added bonus of a steam powered locomotive directly behind us that sounded its horn at intervals throughout each day causing us to stop and plug our ears mid conversation. The sport of choice was browsing with a side of extreme business card grazing, but I think all the members of our group as well as the folk that sent in items to sell, sold something at least. Though I have yet to do my inventory, I think I did fairly well overall. I feel that at least the trip did not end up costing me any money.

The absolute best parts of the faire for me were the people. I heard and uttered the phrase, 'I know you from the Internet' countless numbers of times. I finally met all me new best friends form the steamteam and found my blind date fear of rejection was ill founded and they were fabulous and my daughter bonded unexpectedly with the other Pamela aka ClockworkCrow. I met several folks from instructables and got my special button for my presence on their site. I also spent many hours explaining tatting as well as Steampunk and I think we brought many people into both camps.

I have much more to share, but for now, here's a few pictures...sorry to say they were not many taken...except by complete strangers.

Carnivale Mechanique

Carnivale Mechanique
Originally uploaded by exoskeletoncabaret

So, I'm off later today to San Mateo in preparation for the Maker Faire. The etsy shop is closed up, the outfits are chosen and most of the packing complete. I shall return with an account of what has transpired during my stay at the Carnival Mechanique. Hopefully there will be more good stories than horror.

If you're planning on attending the faire, stop by and say hello. I'm awful with names so please forgive me if I know not who you are.

See you all on the flip side!

Doodles

My minor finger injury resolved itself enough for me to pick up my needles yesterday and it's a good thing because I had an idea. No, not a new design, but rather an idea planted by one of the many craft fair checklist sites I visited in preparation for this weekend. I wanted to make sure I had everything I should in order to survive the weekend and I ran across a tip. One suggested that you make something small for the children to handle so that they leave other pieces alone. So, I made doodles and I NEVER make doodles. Small four ring butterflies, single ring flowers and spiders...for the boys.

They fly off the needles at a phenomenal rate, so I have dozens already completed. I still want to make more of them because I think they will in fact keep the children entertained and I know how much my kids like it when they are allowed to buy something small just for themselves. No, they aren't the most useful pieces. I've seen them used as appliques and I suppose a jump ring and they could be a small pendant, but the point here is distraction plain and simple.

I'm still stressing on the outfits for the weekend, oscillating between a desire to be comfortable on these 12 hours outside days and the desire to look over the top since I get so few excuses to play dress up. On the plus side, the corset training I've been doing ensures that I shall be comfortable in the most restrictive of corsets and the weather should be in the mid 70's and comfortable. Maybe I should just go all out...yeah, I still don't know.

I'll be pricing all my pieces today. I did a little price adjustment on the site yesterday to make everything a little easier over all, now it's just the physical labor of putting on those little tags. I made a few signs yesterday and gathered a few more things together, but I still have many details left to go over. The store will be shuttered on Friday morning to avoid any inconveniently timed sales, though sales have been slow lately anyway so it's probably a non issue. I haven't even thought about packing up the rest of the family yet...oye. I've got tot get to it.

I Dreamed A Dream

The dreams have begun. You know the ones you get right before any event that play out all the possible scenarios in strange detail, both relieving your stress and creating new ones at the same time. You brain imagines how things will play out and mine always seems to create many more awkward situations than my waking mind could fathom. So, my Maker Faire dreams have been torturing me with everything from looking like a fool to well...no it's mostly just the looking like a fool one. I know, I know, suck it up , it'll be fine and it's not like anyone forced me to do this so I should stop my whining.

I'm still having wardrobe issues and I need to tag my stuff, but I think I've made all that will be made. Of course it really doesn't matter since I managed to slice the tip of my left index finger on the corn can last night. This makes tatting...problematic, so even if I wanted to make more, it would simply take too long. I still feel certain that I am going to come off horribly unprofessional amongst my peers, but at this point it can't be helped. I'm not a professional and I don't have a nice SteamPunk wardrobe to work with, so I'll just attempt to work with amateur as best as I can.

If you haven't guessed yet, I will be taking my entire etsy store inventory with me. So from the 29th through the 31st, the store will be in vacation mode...which I still need to set up. I also have no way of knowing what will be coming back nor how long it will take to remake what has sold. This is where I tell you that if you have your eye on something, especially the one of a kind sort of pieces, you might want to act know or regret it later.

Network It

This is going to be another 'I love twitter' post, so if you're sensitive to the subject, look away now. I began my twitter life the same way I've approached almost all of my Internet habit since joining Etsy, that is I followed etsians. They provide a ready made audience with at least one guaranteed thing in common. Eventually that got boring honestly and I ventured forth into worlds unknown. I followed those who followed me regardless of familiarity and soon I had a brand new group of twitter friends.

I'm not honestly sure how I happened upon a group of fashion minded bloggers, but I did and they have been wonderful people to talk to. They have also helped expose my work and tatting in general to a whole new audience of people, which is the most wonderful thing of all. It is easy to share my craft with other artisans, but it is preaching to the choir for the most part. To continue the metaphor, I want to leave the church and take it to the streets. Twitter, my friends, has done just that for me without me even having to be a promotion machine. I just tweet my blog posts in the morning and new listings as they occur and remain chatty randomly throughout the day.

I just got another google alert yesterday morning for another wonderful blog feature from a lovely gal I met through twitter. I love the surprise of finding features of my work I didn't know were happening. This one is at Broke & Beautiful, another great blog full of tips and finds that I would have never found without twitter. Am I saying that you NEED to get on the twitter to get attention? No, but it certainly doesn't hurt to network. I never enjoyed MySpace, haven't joined Facebook and there are half a dozen other places one can go for this alleged 'social networking' business so go where you like, but this socializing online stuff is here to stay and you might as well find a place you're comfy and settle in.

In other news, I am starting week two of the corset waist training and it's going well. The corset is now almost completely closed all day long and I'm feeling no discomfort at all. It continues to cause me to modify my behaviors, but not drastically so. I am finding issues with compatible clothing, particularly as it is getting hotter, but I will endure. My current plan is to go for a three month period and see if I can get this stomach under control. Speaking of clothes though, I am still going crazy over what to wear to the Maker Faire. I have this great bustle skirt, but will it be too much for a day long show, plus it's two days so I need two outfits of steamy goodness...aargh! I'll figure it out...I hope.

I'm Up, so...

I wasn't going to write this morning, but I'm up early so here goes. Yesterday was my daughters birthday. All due celebration commenced. The Pokemon themed party took all of my energy, first the set up and then the inevitable cleanup. My house is currently littered with balloons and Pokemon toys, but her favorite present had to be the Enterprise toy. How elated was my husband that his daughter, through no coaxing, requested said toy. The child is on her way to future geekdom and we didn't even really try to make her one of us.

For those of you just tuning in or detail deficient, I will be attending the Maker Faire in San Mateo this coming weekend. So May 30 and 31st, I will be trying my hand at vending with the Etsy Steam Team. We will not be in the regular vending area as we exist as a supplement to the SteamPunk contingent that will be know as the Carnival Mechanique. Really, I'm going to meet all these people that I have conversed with for quite some time, but I will have my wares with me and I am forcing my family to attend as well. Though they will be mostly on their own, since I don't think they are ready to be put into slave labor just yet.

I'm certain to not shut up about this event until it is well over and done with as it is taking up more than its fair share of my brain space. I apologize for the over exposure to it, but just a week more and it'll all be over. Of course then it is on to other things. Hopefully, we will hear soon regarding our house bid and that should take over a lot of space. Then there is a family trip to the Seattle/Tacoma area which we leave for on June 9th. I'll be strangely absence during that for a whole week. It'll be nice to take load off, but I'm afraid of a little blogging/tatting withdrawal that is likely to occur.

As is often the case, the day in which I thought I had nothing to say, I write a long winded monologue. Ah, it is my way.

Suitcase

Getting closer to the Maker Faire has got me a bit antsy. I'm working on putting the finding on piles of lace, pressing and taking inventory on what I actually have on hand. Not only did I realize how many supplies finishing up everything at once used up, I ended up having to order more clasps. I also finished up my suitcase display. I was hoping that it was the only thing that I would have to drag around during the event, but it's becoming clear that I'll need something else. Of course it's good that I've come to that conclusion now, with a week left, rather than next Friday as we're about to leave.

The suitcase isn't quite as cool as I was hoping it to be. I just really didn't have the proper skill set or base item to get it where I really wanted it to be, but having said that, it will work just fine. I'll leave some things inside and the pendants hanging. Then I'll place larger pieces that are now just tucked inside on the table. I know it's lazy displaying, but this is most likely not just my first fair but my last...unless of course it changes my mind entirely. I doubt though as doing any craft event requires that I travel and I don't like to travel when it's not fun or relaxing.

Just a few more details to finish up before then, but I won't have time for that this weekend. My oldest is having her birthday and party. So my weekend will be bounce house, presents and small children running about with wild abandon. I haven't even decided whether I'll write on Monday or not. Yes, I am still wearing the corset and now I can add yard work to the ever expanding list of tasks I've done whilst wearing it. I'm also maintaining a steadily increasing series of exercises in the evening. Here's hoping all these current events including a vacation to Washington in a couple of weeks and the potential move thereafter don't wreak my momentum.