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Pressing issues
2011-Dec-19, Monday 14:03I survived my 1st season of the Dickens Xmas Faire.
Indeed, I plan to do it again next year.
The weekend of 10 & 11, we had maybe a half dozen pieces at the end of the weekend.
Its been a marvelous run. Things were selling as fast as we could shelve them.
Saturday morning, we had pieces coming out of the kiln being packed at well over 250f
to go to the faire.
Chatting other merchants, things went well. Ballena Bay Pewterware (safe alloy)
was having inventory shipped up from their shoppe in Tucson and things were still selling rapidly.
People were paying $25 a head to come in and then they were buying stuff after they came in.
It seems that people are tired of doing with out and are ready to splurge.
"Made in USA" definitely made a difference.
Recent research has shown the average family credit card debt to be lowest in several years.
I note that most of our sales were on plastic.
I believe this to be a harbinger of improvement for the next year.
I dont believe things will take off, rather, they seem to have bottomed out and have started a slow climb up out of the doldrums.
Sunday, we opened up and then had enough staff that I could go off and "play".
As luck would have it, I ended up helping out at a print shoppe.
I was operating a 150 year old letter press and I had a blast.
I hadnt done anything like this in years.
I ran into Jeannie & Fred, who were working down at Lynnes clothing shoppe.
Lynne is a blast, even when not in character.
Ive a couple costuming projects to do and Im not getting to them.
I may just hire them out to Jeannie.
Saturday, I worked morning shift and managed to catch ALL of the Extravaganza at Mad Sals alehouse at the end of the day.
Ive been "jonesing" for a large artificial pewter tankard.
Id been deciding between the 18oz with lid or the 24 without.
I finally went with the latter. Of course this mean I was going to have to walk back into the booth where I work, where we sell porcelain mugs & tankards.
I was SO hoping Id be able to get it to my bag in the back room without her seeing it.
No suck luck! The scowl on her face will be in my mind for a long time.
At least it wasnt from a competing ceramics vendor.
I did pop by costume approval just to show off that my outfit is continuing to evolve & improve.
After traumatizing the poor lay at the start of the run, I think she was quire relieved to see it moving in the right direction.
I told her that Id bee doing additional research and I knew my sporran was wrong for the era, even among royalty, it was wrong and I couldnt find anything even remotely right, so I would have to make one from scratch, now that I found pics from the museum of Scotland to work from.
I think she was relieved to find me finally doing homework.
At the time, usually the cantle was leather and if it was metal, it would be brass.
Possibly silver if and only if royalty.
Even John Brown, Queen Victorias favorite servant, had a leather cantle on his sporran.
My biggest challenge is not knowing how big the pouch is behind all that horse hair.
I have a year to get it wight.
Saturday night at closing, a customer came to us having lost the mug she bought from us on the previous weekend.
Shed been tired and had set it down and got to the car before realizing shed lost it.
She came to us HOPING it had somehow made is way back to us.
All we could do was steer her to list+found where shed been before.
In the parking lot we saw her again.
Shed made another trip to lost+found and it had JUST been turned in.
Lodema & her pottery is magic.
Besides people shopping, there is all sorts os stuff happening in the street.
Sunday morning, a couple grubby street urchins about 12 were abducting another younger kid.
I presume to sell to Fagin. (Actors).
Im reluctant to call him gentleman, but he was indeed dressed the part, he cam by the printer around the corner to confront them about the fact that hed been waiting 2 years for his order to be fulfilled.
He threatened the printer with bodily harm in quite appropriate victorian fashion.
Later in the day, I spotted him out on the street with a cricket bat.
He was stalking a one of the attendees (not an actor).
This teen had this HUGE mohawk spiked.
I asked, "Dear Sir, what would you be doing with that cricket bat?"
He pointed that the guy in the hairdoo and said "Look at that rooster!" and continued stalking him in the crowd.
It was hilarious.
In the end they did finally get his order typeset and on Sunday I was the one who printed it.
There were several processions of people in their "Gin is Sin" sashes and the inevitable encounters with actors staggering down the street with their bottles.
Finally, around 8pm the Coventry Carolers swept the public out so we could start pack up.
We packed as much as we could into 2 SUVs.
Most of whats left is the flats that form the walls of the shoppe.
The garlands were all stapled up and had to come down.
Years of stapling are taking their toll. We have to find a less destructive way to do this.
Our lighting is provided by faux gas lamps on the walls.
The flats have a duplex outlet on the top of each one and are connected together by male to male plugs.
This is very dangerous.
We must find a better way that includes low profile so that we dont have dangly bits that get caught.
We have a year to figure it all out.
We were on the way out of the Cow Palace sometime after 11pm.
We were unloading at Lodemas around midnite and I was finally in bed around 2.
Then I was up at 8 on the road to work at 9 and Im in physical pain.
Tonight will be an early night for me and I will "crash & burn"
Still to do is xmas shopping (I really havent started)
Indeed, I plan to do it again next year.
The weekend of 10 & 11, we had maybe a half dozen pieces at the end of the weekend.
Its been a marvelous run. Things were selling as fast as we could shelve them.
Saturday morning, we had pieces coming out of the kiln being packed at well over 250f
to go to the faire.
Chatting other merchants, things went well. Ballena Bay Pewterware (safe alloy)
was having inventory shipped up from their shoppe in Tucson and things were still selling rapidly.
People were paying $25 a head to come in and then they were buying stuff after they came in.
It seems that people are tired of doing with out and are ready to splurge.
"Made in USA" definitely made a difference.
Recent research has shown the average family credit card debt to be lowest in several years.
I note that most of our sales were on plastic.
I believe this to be a harbinger of improvement for the next year.
I dont believe things will take off, rather, they seem to have bottomed out and have started a slow climb up out of the doldrums.
Sunday, we opened up and then had enough staff that I could go off and "play".
As luck would have it, I ended up helping out at a print shoppe.
I was operating a 150 year old letter press and I had a blast.
I hadnt done anything like this in years.
I ran into Jeannie & Fred, who were working down at Lynnes clothing shoppe.
Lynne is a blast, even when not in character.
Ive a couple costuming projects to do and Im not getting to them.
I may just hire them out to Jeannie.
Saturday, I worked morning shift and managed to catch ALL of the Extravaganza at Mad Sals alehouse at the end of the day.
Ive been "jonesing" for a large artificial pewter tankard.
Id been deciding between the 18oz with lid or the 24 without.
I finally went with the latter. Of course this mean I was going to have to walk back into the booth where I work, where we sell porcelain mugs & tankards.
I was SO hoping Id be able to get it to my bag in the back room without her seeing it.
No suck luck! The scowl on her face will be in my mind for a long time.
At least it wasnt from a competing ceramics vendor.
I did pop by costume approval just to show off that my outfit is continuing to evolve & improve.
After traumatizing the poor lay at the start of the run, I think she was quire relieved to see it moving in the right direction.
I told her that Id bee doing additional research and I knew my sporran was wrong for the era, even among royalty, it was wrong and I couldnt find anything even remotely right, so I would have to make one from scratch, now that I found pics from the museum of Scotland to work from.
I think she was relieved to find me finally doing homework.
At the time, usually the cantle was leather and if it was metal, it would be brass.
Possibly silver if and only if royalty.
Even John Brown, Queen Victorias favorite servant, had a leather cantle on his sporran.
My biggest challenge is not knowing how big the pouch is behind all that horse hair.
I have a year to get it wight.
Saturday night at closing, a customer came to us having lost the mug she bought from us on the previous weekend.
Shed been tired and had set it down and got to the car before realizing shed lost it.
She came to us HOPING it had somehow made is way back to us.
All we could do was steer her to list+found where shed been before.
In the parking lot we saw her again.
Shed made another trip to lost+found and it had JUST been turned in.
Lodema & her pottery is magic.
Besides people shopping, there is all sorts os stuff happening in the street.
Sunday morning, a couple grubby street urchins about 12 were abducting another younger kid.
I presume to sell to Fagin. (Actors).
Im reluctant to call him gentleman, but he was indeed dressed the part, he cam by the printer around the corner to confront them about the fact that hed been waiting 2 years for his order to be fulfilled.
He threatened the printer with bodily harm in quite appropriate victorian fashion.
Later in the day, I spotted him out on the street with a cricket bat.
He was stalking a one of the attendees (not an actor).
This teen had this HUGE mohawk spiked.
I asked, "Dear Sir, what would you be doing with that cricket bat?"
He pointed that the guy in the hairdoo and said "Look at that rooster!" and continued stalking him in the crowd.
It was hilarious.
In the end they did finally get his order typeset and on Sunday I was the one who printed it.
There were several processions of people in their "Gin is Sin" sashes and the inevitable encounters with actors staggering down the street with their bottles.
Finally, around 8pm the Coventry Carolers swept the public out so we could start pack up.
We packed as much as we could into 2 SUVs.
Most of whats left is the flats that form the walls of the shoppe.
The garlands were all stapled up and had to come down.
Years of stapling are taking their toll. We have to find a less destructive way to do this.
Our lighting is provided by faux gas lamps on the walls.
The flats have a duplex outlet on the top of each one and are connected together by male to male plugs.
This is very dangerous.
We must find a better way that includes low profile so that we dont have dangly bits that get caught.
We have a year to figure it all out.
We were on the way out of the Cow Palace sometime after 11pm.
We were unloading at Lodemas around midnite and I was finally in bed around 2.
Then I was up at 8 on the road to work at 9 and Im in physical pain.
Tonight will be an early night for me and I will "crash & burn"
Still to do is xmas shopping (I really havent started)
