That's That Then

I have a confession. I've been holding onto a bit of a lie for quite sometime and now that it's been rectified, I feel the need to share. I know, I'm building this up a bit too much, really it's not a big deal. When I first started selling on etsy, I was simply ignorant. After a while I just started ignoring the details sticking to my, 'it's a hobby' excuse, but things have been snowballing for a while now and it needed to be taken care of. That's right, I am now legit. Business license is in hand and complete terror over future tax implications has set in.

It all came to the front as I prepared for the Maker Faire. I felt that if I was going to go out in public for the first time and vend, I needed to be above board. I had been reading threads on etsy for gosh...years about other people and their levels of similar denial. It seemed like such an official step meant for "real" business, not little old me and my tatting needles, but a letter from the city finally pushed me over to the planning department. I had meant to wait until we had purchased and moved into a home, but since we are still waiting to hear back from bank number two that didn't happen. Now, don't think I was flying entirely under the radar. I paid taxes on every cent I made, I just claimed it as hobby income. I do have a healthy fear if the IRS after all.

So that was my day, waiting in lines and coming out an official small business owner...weird, uncomfortable and slightly terrified, but official. I really can't believe how long I stalled on taking this step, but I never wanted to own a business, I just wanted to tat my lace and not get a job outside the home. I do have several more pieces to get listed in the store that had been made for the Maker Faire. I'll get some more up today and then save a batch for after I return home. I'll definitely be writing on Monday, but then the blog will go quiet. I may try to write from the road, but I imagine it'll be spotty. My other blog, the Wunderkammer, will go quiet for the entire week unless someone want to keep it going for me during my absence. Though I confess I really have no idea how that would work. Alright, that's it then.

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.

More Maker Faire & Corset Talk

Turns out that while I chose yesterday to gush about teaching people to needle tat with the help of Instructables, they were in turn posting some stories about who they met at the Maker Faire which included me. There is a lovely photo and some very nice words. Go, check it out and leave comments so I appear much more popular than I actually am: Maker Faire.

I spent a good part of yesterday still recovering from the weekend. I know, I know, I should be over it, but I'm such an old biddy already that three days of late bedtimes and standing on my feet in heels for 10 hours did me in. I was also on a mad corset search. The one I am currently using has gotten...a bit too comfortable. Sure it's still tight and it restricts my movements, but I've found that I can now slouch in it a bit which means its getting loose. So yay for progress, but now I need another smaller one to continue on my path to recovered waist and stomach.

I really love the work at Dark Garden Corsetry and I even met the proprietress at the Faire, but fine quality aside, I cannot justify spending over $500 on a garment meant to trim my waistline and not dazzle the public. I was going to go with another off the rack one, but I think that these next few inches will be a bit harder to work on, so I really should go for custom. I did find one shop with custom prices under $200, Mechantes and they take a ridiculous number of measurements so I have faith in their process at least. So there's my current waist training corset adventure.

I had wanted to tell more Maker Faire stories today, but it appears that I have already rambled on quite extensively so I shall save them for later. I finished up the mask I was working on yesterday, so now it's onto remaking the pieces that sold at the fair. To be honest a lot of what sold was never listed in the store anyhow, so it didn't deplete stock like I feared. I do want to get a few done before I up and close the store again on the 9th for my trip to the Seattle/Tacoma area. I've never closed up shop for a whole week so I'm a little afraid of losing the attention I so obviously feed on while I'm gone, but there's nothing to be done about it. I shall close up for a week and hope that my silence does not cause a vacuum that someone else fills up.

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.