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Archive for the ‘Craft Business’ Category

A Holiday Tradition

Posted in Craft Business, Holidays, tagged , , , on December 6, 2013| 2 Comments »

Charlotte, our mom and I have an annual tradition that takes place the weekend after the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Hey!  That’s today!

We’re heading out to the Landmark Center in St. Paul, MN for the 35th annual Old-Fashioned Holiday Bazaar.

The historic Landmark Center. There’s public ice skating right across the street too!

The Holiday Bazaar is two floors of handmade goodies and treasures you can’t find at your typical commercial stores.  It’s fun to shop with Mom and Charlotte because after we’ve gone through the entire affair we split up and buy stuff for each other.

Even without the Bazaar the Landmark Center is beautiful to look at.

Of course we’ll have a nice ladies’ lunch after our shopping.  Then, after I get home I’ll start decking the halls of my house.  The afternoon the the Landmark Bazaar has become the official beginning of the Christmas season for me.

Before the crowd arrives.

 

 

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A Post About Having No Time To Post

Posted in Craft Business, tagged , , , , , , on October 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Last night I had plans to write a post about some of my recent adventures, but I couldn’t because first of all I had to play tennis with Charlotte.  After that I had to watch The Blacklist (I love On Demand).  Yes, I had to watch it.  Charlotte and I are fighting over who James Spader (or perhaps his character, Raymond Reddington?) loves more, me or her.  I say it’s me, of course.  We used to fight over him when he was on Alan Shore on Boston Legal too.

Raymond Reddington, Alan Shore, it really doesn’t matter. Spader’s got something I want.

After seeing the show I decided to get to work because I’ve got this show coming up and I’ve been dragging my feet getting the loose ends tied up.  The show ~ Ruttger’s Oktoberfest.  I had to review the sheet magnet situation to make sure I had enough to go around.

One of seven in the Walken Series. Sheet magnets are pretty popular at the Auntie B’s Wax booth.

I’ve done this show once before and decided to give it a try again.  The thing is, October is three-quarters over and an outside show this time of year can be chilly, to say the least.  Not only do I have to pack up my wares for the show, I have to dig out my sweaters and thermal skivvies for the trip.  The weather guy says it’s going to be a dry Saturday in Deerwood, MN, but the high will be a brisk forty-two degrees.  Keep in mind Husby and I will be setting up around 6:00 a.m. and it will be a lot colder then.  I think mittens will be on my list of things to bring too.

So the posts on my adventures will have to wait a little longer.  Maybe in the meantime I’ll have some new adventures to write about too!

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Take A Picture, It Lasts Longer (except please don’t)

Posted in Craft Business, tagged , , , on September 30, 2013| 15 Comments »

One of my favorite things to do in my business is going out to festivals and shows to display and sell my wares.  There is no substitute for genuine and spontaneous responses to my products.  Responses can range from boisterous laughter at a magnet to a sneer of distaste at the sniff of a candle.  The opposite can be true too ~ some people look at the magnets with blank stares, not relating at all to my sometimes warped sense of humor, yet will ooh and ah over candle scents.  All feedback is valuable.  But there’s a new response in town, one that wasn’t around when I first started doing shows over fifteen years ago.

Picture-taking admirers. They loved the magnets but didn’t realize a real person made them and deserves the consideration of getting permission to take a picture. *

I’m not the only one who has witness people taking pictures at my craft booth.  Just last week I talked to a woman who hand-painted sayings on colorful sign boards and she said the picture-taking public is starting to get on her nerves.  I’m kind of on her side.

Could it be that I’m getting too old to appreciate the high-tech nature of our society?  In this age of Instagram is it unreasonable to expect people would refrain from taking photos of the hard work of artisans without bothering to buy that work, much less acknowledge the artisan him/herself?  Will our work serve only to fill up the boards on Pinterest while our pockets grow lighter from lack of sales?  After all, why buy something when you can just take a picture of it?

What do you think?  Is it too much to expect someone to at least ask of they can take a picture?  Do you think this photo-snapping behavior is acceptable, especially at the expense of artists’ and crafters’ livelihood?  Should it be flattering that someone wants to share our work with their hundreds of Facebook friends?  Or should we have our guard up against copy cats and cheapskates?

* For the record, the above-pictured picture taker did in fact buy a magnet, but only after I confronted him. 

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The Wineries

Posted in Craft Business, Events, tagged , , , , , on September 26, 2013| 5 Comments »

What’s going on out there?  I’ve been so into my own thing these last few weeks I’ve inadvertently cut myself off from the outside world.  Except not really.  I’ve been out to a couple of winery festivals which put me in contact with a very specific cross-section of society.  Those winos have their own little subculture going you know.  They’re my kind of people.

A couple of weeks ago I was at the first ever Dancing Dragonfly Winery Grape Stomp and Rib Fest.  There were ribs, there was stomping, and there was even some music along with the artisans selling their wares.

It was a blustery weekend; perfect for some nicely seasoned ribs, or a highly stacked pulled pork sandwich.

Some of the staff at Dancing Dragonfly took to the grapes and did a little stomping. The lady at the far end is one of the owners of the winery. I don’t think she expected the stomping experience to be so…invigorating.

A fun group of guys playing winey music.

Last weekend I was at the Chateau St. Croix for another wine festival.  This year they had lots more food than they’ve had in the past, as well as a very good selection of artisans to peruse while sipping a glass of vino.  Of course they had music.  Everything from a thirty-five-piece German oompa band to some low-down blues.

The Bavarian Musik Meisters presented me with a pin for being such a good sport. I participated in learning a couple of their dances and showed dozens of people how uncoordinated I really am.

Croix Daddy – getting better and better every year.

There’s a clear shot between my craft canopy and the wine tent at the Chateau, and Dave over there is always ready to pour me a nice glass of wine.  A nice glass.  As in big.  It’s good wine too.

No, that’s not me chatting it up with Dave, but it looks like he’s ready to give her a nice glass of wine too.

I’m still trying recuperate from all the activity. One person can take only so much fun, right?

There’s another show on the horizon. I’m heading to Deer River for some more fun at Ruttger’s Oktoberfest in a few weeks. There’s no rest for the wicked.

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Come See Me When You’re Old Enough

Posted in Craft Business, Nostalgia, tagged , , , , , on July 22, 2013| 4 Comments »

This past weekend I took my wares to the Cannon Falls Art & Wine Festival in Cannon Falls, Minnesota.  It was my second showing there, and I consider it one of the nicest venues I’ve been to.  Artists and representatives from local wineries are situated in a way that lets those attending the event meander gently through the park sipping wine and enjoying (and hopefully buying) the work of local artisans.

My magnets are always a good draw to my booth.  The pulp fiction magnets to be exact.  They’re colorful, they’re funny, and best of all they’re kind of naughty.  On my previous blog I wrote a little piece on the background of my attraction to pulp fiction cover art.

January 21, 2010

When we went to my Grandma’s house I was always intrigued with her True Story magazines.  My mom would never let me even look at the pile of them laying by Grandma’s chair because they were not something a child should see.  They were, okay I’ll just say it, smut.

Maybe it was those taboo magazines that gave me a fascination for trashy publications, or maybe there’s just some kind of naughty-girl archetype that lives in all of us.  And the best part about smut?  The pictures.

Auntie B is proud to present to you for the first time over the interlinks her version of  Pulp Fiction Artwork, magnet style.  These images-turned-magnet are the cover art of actual paperback novels.  The ones from which your mother would shield your eyes.  They gave good girls bad ideas.  They fed your alter ego. 

At the Wine & Art Festival there were two young girls, grade school age, looking at the pulp fiction magnets.  Their mother came along and one of the girls was giggling and said, “hey Mom, look at this!”  The mom stood in front of the magnets for a while and then quickly led her children away.  I gave her a little nod and she looked relieved that I understood.  She also looked like she wished she could linger for a while more for her own amusement.  It’s good to know there are still mothers that don’t want their kids looking at smut.

Shortly after that a woman was looking at the magnets and commented “I really want to get this one for my camper, but it’s kind of naughty.”  I told her “you totally should get it, it would be perfect.”  She bought it with a shy smile.

Sin on Wheels

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