Good Housekeeping!

The engineering of maximum space usage can be quite intriguing!

New uses for old space

For about 30 years, The Toycrafter made toys in this room. It was several different things over the years we had this space, but mostly this was the print shop where we pad printed a few million toys - yes - really a few million over the years. We even pad printed easter eggs for the White House Easter Egg Roll for a few years. Before that, John Habersett made wonderful trivets, puppets, and turned wooden vases in this room. Before that, Beechnut Foods made various kinds of canned goods here.

It is now the studio/practice space for a band --- The Edge of Jupiter. In a closed space like this, they are very loud.... they were quite pleased when I told them they were louder than the CNC routers we used to run. Loud as it was, I found the music quite interesting. A check of their web site revealed that they have three albums, and all of their music is available on the web for listening or download. Go check them out!

Drumming up business in Syracuse!

I've written about craft shows, and people's sense of ownership of their little 10x10 ft. piece of real estate and the conflicts that can arise, but this weekend, ownership of the air space became an issue. One of the joys of outdoor shows in particular, is the presence of entertainment. Some shows have particular locations with stages, etc. to present music. In Syracuse, NY this weekend, there was a wide variety of musicians, including some wandering minstrels, bagpipers, Morris dancers, Native American Dancers, belly dancers, and the above group of African drummers. While there were a couple of static location performances (the Native American dancers stayed in the food area for example - see last paragraph below the video), most of these groups wandered around, stopping here and there for a 10-15 minute presentation! Along with sunny weather (mostly), children's activities, and a lot of very nice customers, these entertainers made for a wonderful weekend. One folk singer utilized our stool in front of the booth to seranade us for several songs!

The exhibitor below however, seemed to find the entertainment a distraction from her ability to sell her wares, and in "no uncertain terms" told the drummers to leave. The young man listened politely - a woman from the audience gently guided her away - and the drumming continued. Video below.

Another conversation overheard among performers - I guess they have air space issues too! One of the Morris Dancers commented about the distant sound of drums from the Native American folks disturbing their performance -- Quote - "I guess they didn't scout out a place where they wouldn't disturb other performances like we did!" Replied another Morris Dancer - "They have been in that location for about 2 hours".

Philadelphia

Here we are in Phildelphia! Tried a new booth arrangement with a sort of window/counter in the side wall..... corner booth. It was visually fun, and made for a great over the "window sill" conversation spot.
Here are Cheryl and Christina enjoying the new window.

Here is Don and our new friend Ed Bing Lee on the other side of the booth!

Probably not the ultimate oddity???

I love odd things..... here is Cheryl standing in front of a picture of a store. The Cumberland Mall in Atlanta, GA. ---- remodeling a store. The "covering" over the work area is a picture of three stores! The t-shirt over Cheryl's left shoulder says - Detroit. That is where she is from? Also note the folks walking by in t-shirts.... it is March, and back home it is 15 degrees with lots of snow on the ground!

Baltimore

I meant to show more of the process of space conversion that happens as a craft show is set-up, but I forgot to take an earlier picture of the crate with all the walls stacked on top, neatly shrink wrapped, and sitting next to the little 10x10 foot square of carpet we ordered for our booth. About a week ago, that crate was in our studio, neatly packed, and ready for folks we don't know, and probably never will, to load it on a truck and take it to Baltimore for us. Quite an amazing process if you stop and think about it. I walked in today, and there it was, looking exactly like it looked last week in Rochester, NY ( just a couple of extra labels added) and now sitting in a big hall in Baltimore, MD, right next to "our" space! Usually we drive our big van to shows with all the walls, product, etc, but this time we have two shows almost simultaneously, with only one van, so we shipped to this one..... a lot less work!

Here is the view from the front of our space. Lots and lots of unconverted space.... vans being unloaded... electric cords laid out ready to power lights, etc. Last week, maybe there was a car show here, next week maybe a boat show. Week after next maybe a foot of dirt will be right there with flowers growing out of it for the flower show? About 30 years ago, I attended a Dave Brubeck concert here ---- I think the stage was right behind where that white van sits now.

Just empty space that several hundred of us will mark out with walls, curtains, sheets of cardboard, to seperate our 10x10 foot space from the next 10x10 foot space. And it will really be our space. Most of us will be very friendly, like the US and Canada, even helping each other out with heavy walls, or sharing our food from the deli. There will be some border disputes however. Somebody may decide that the space behind their curtain is the perfect place to store those extra boxes, but the space behind the curtain is my space, and like the US and Mexico, I will try to send their stuff back. The most common problem is folks pushing those ugly orange extension cords under the curtain into the next booth so they won't clash with the beautiful glass vases! (somebody needs to invent attractive extension cords) I like our hard walls - folks can't slide that big vase to the back of the table, creating a big bulge on my side of the curtain! On the other hand, when we like our neighbors, which is 99.9% of the time, we can't just slide the curtain aside and say Hi!

Below is our space, as I marked it out today, and put up our stuff! That big crate is inside the grey display on the left. I learned long ago that it can take hours for the show folks to return the empties at the end of the show! I don't know who will be next to us on the right - still empty space when I left tonight, or the space behind. To the left is a big aisle that will carry the crowds our way. In front, between us and the aisle is nothing --- just a line in the carpet, but folks will generally stay outside the booth, thinking that they need some sort of passport to cross the line. I remember the "line" my brother and I drew down the middle of our room. "MOM! He's looking at my side!" We want them to look, and we'd love for them to come in, but most won't, even if we specifically invite them.