Maker Faire 2009

I participated in this years Maker Faire as a vendor for the first time. This show was actually my debut as Tiny Sparks Design and I made my very first sale at 10:10 Saturday morning.

I have been working hard to get everything together for this show without any solid ideas as to what was going to happen. I didn't know if I was making too much or too little inventory, if my prices were set right and which designs would be popular if any, etc., etc. I had no clue. I was really hoping that I was creating work that would be enjoyed by others. Something worthwhile.

A few weeks ago I purchased a lovely pile of locally harvested wood from a very small lumber mill north of San Francisco. I came back with Elm and Oak and Chinquapin. All beautiful and really nice to work with. While milling up the boards I have been listening to a lot of great music at silly volume after the neighbors at my studio have gone home. I have been designing at home late at night when I am too tired to sand any more boards, and burning new screens in my son's room in the morning while he sleeps in our bed. In the last few days I built my booth and my displays for the show.

I have really enjoyed all the work I have been putting in.

On Friday I arrived with a van packed with stuff. I imagined that there was going to be a rush of vendors setting up and that it might be a bit of a competition for allotted space. I think I was the fourth person to show up and it felt like an empty room for most of the day really. All the experienced vendors just breeze in at the last minute. Boom. Done. I was there all day.

Once the event started there was a nonstop flow of people. Ten hours straight on Saturday and eight on Sunday. All of it was fantastic. The crowd was incredibly enthusiastic and nice and a lot of them were giving me money. Way beyond my expectations. One buyer tipped me! What? I didn't want the days to end. I refused eat or take a break, seriously pissing my wife off. Part of that may be due to control issues but really it was all tremendously exciting and encouraging. I came back to my shop this morning with a lot of empty boxes.