The cats were very interested in the tablecloth

     Over these past two weeks, I was preparing for and exhibiting at Dover Delaware's WinterFest event! (Formerly called the 'Fire and Ice Festival'). I was a part of the artist vendor group showcasing our work at the Biggs Museum of American Art. WinterFest is a yearly downtown festival where various businesses participate, hire food trucks, and conduct a scavenger hunt with a stamp card. We also were fortunate to see a bunch of large ice sculptures carved and installed through town (the warrenty of which I would say has been extended due to winter storm Fern...). One of these sculptures was a giant lion carved with a real chainsaw right outside of our Museum....

     My table was housed in Choptank Gallery alongside that of other local artisans. I was not sure what the reception or aesthetics of the other vendors would be, but I was pleasantly surprised by the variety! There were lots of acrylic painters, but we also had two block print artists selling prints and T-shirts, a vendor who made air fresheners out of dried citrus, a plushie salesperson making stuffed animals out of yarn, photography, wood-carving, and more. My fiancée Bea was a lifesaver in helping me duel-wield my combination tabling-desk shift at the Biggs on Saturday, so that clown photograph could finally find a home (among other things). I am a bit embarassed to admit I spent way too many hours preparing as many different products as I could (when you live in a town of retirees, you never know what crowd you're going to get...certainly not just dweebs like me). That meant 4 hours of sleep max between the two days. I'm happy to be able to curl up and sleep snugly now. Snow days rule. 

     Of the items I prepared, I of course had the standard Etsy fare; buttons, pins, shrink-plastic charms, magnets, and stickers. On top of that I offered a handful of foam-board prints for sale, bequest of my father who was a State Photographer for over 20 years (He owns a record store, Shock Vinyl, which sells a radical variety of music and instruments, and you should visit it!). I also made a handful of hand-sewn and hardcover bound notebooks; bound in genuine 1950s wallpaper samples I cut from a travelling salesman's book (thank you goodwill for the wacky finds), and 11 x 14 art prints of the Peripherals, OBAT, and Parasaurolophus paleoart illustrations. All of the 5 x 7 inch prints were done in house, as were the comic samplers which offered guests the ability to preview my webcomic in a print format. My printer got a lot of service and abuse...and was fed ink. So much ink.

     I enjoy the control I have over the paper and quality of items when I make them in house, which is why I stubbornly produce everything I can on my own if I can get away with it. The only things I ordered were the 11 x 14 prints, simply because my EPSON Stylus Photo R220 can't handle that paper size. I had a bit of a headache earlier in the week as the local Walmart Photo service had misaligned print-heads. I almost gave those posters away for free...but my housemate reminded me refunds exists. I was lucky enough to drive to another town the following day and get some GOOD matte prints, though I did advise the original printer to run the print nozzel diagnostic. I hope I didn't come off as rude, and I don't know if that will actually happen, but I hope to save a future artist or photographer more grief. Service workers deserve the world, and I know getting repairs isn't always up to a given department.

     All in all, I managed to sell quite a lot. This was my first time tabling in-person at a large 'convention-style' artist's alley, which was something a lot of the other vendors had in common. On top of the products I sold, I was pleasantly surprised by how many folks stopped to play a live TinkerQuarry Demo which was running the latest 'Quality of Life' patch. I am very self-concious about old artwork of any kind that I made, even games, but everyone who stopped by gave amazing feedback and seemed happy. We're all our greatest critic, but you never know for sure how things will pan out until you try something. The last time I had a demo running, it was my 2021 senior show. I'll post a photo of that to close out this blog post...

     Thanks for reading! More updates soon. For now, I have commissions to complete and merch to restock.