I'm having my first "show" on Sunday

[scrollin'fool]

and boy am I nervous!  I still have to finish making the sales table, which I am making out of an old headboard of a bed

and some bamboo to hang things on.  I still have not finished my sign, which looks terrible to me.  I also have to make some kind of pricelist, probably just on some cardboard, and pack up about half of my toys into a rainproof box to take with me.

the crowd will be a bunch of friendly Irish-americans at a Celtic music festival, and the festival manager has waved the insurance requirement for me and even lowered the price to thirty bucks for one day.  I'll be bringing parachute men, flying pencil helicopters, toy jets and tiny sailboats, some small magic wands and oak amulets, a few bamboo flutes, five dragon shields, and some tiny dollhouse bookshelves.

I am worried that the dog will not want to hang around in one spot all day, but theres nothing for it.  If he is not allowed in the festival, neither am I.

and there is a thirty percent chance of rain that day too.  and just as soon as I get back I have to start stringing the thirty three toy banjos I have been working on for the folk festival NEXT weekend, and then making as many cute bamboo kalimbas as I can before next friday morning

well, just thought Id let you know whats going on with me.  wish me luck!

[trackman]

We love pictures!!  Welcome to the Village 

[Iguanadon]

It's a good nervous though... have fun with it and share pictures of your setup and let us know how it goes.  Good luck!

[WayneMahler]

Good luck with your show. Have fun, enjoy it and please show some photos.

[tuner]

Try not to drive yourself nuts, sounds like you have everything covered.

I also wish you luck  and hope you have some fun at it, let us know how you did.

[orangeman]

Good Luck and YES we need pics! Wondering what a flying pencil helicopter looks like.

You should do well; especially if the Irish start drinking

bb

[Phantom Scroller]

Breath and take pictures. Roly

[jbrowning]

Remember if there are no pictures, it never happened . I hope you have a great show.

[Fish]

Things will go fine. Sounds like you could sell a lot if Celtic designs/symbols at a show like that.  There's a lot out there and simple to cut.  

[scrollin'fool]

gee, you guys are really SUPPORTIVE!

thanks for all the encouragement, everyone.

in case you never had good, old-fashioned pencil helicopters as a boy, this is what they look like:

this item is one of the "Loss Leaders" of my toy line.  in other words, I am losing money on them but they draw in the crowd, especially boys, who are my primary target audience.  you take them and SPIN them with both hands, and if you do it just right, these things take off straight up into the air and fly about ten or twelve feet.  they BOUNCV - BOUNCE upon landing.

didnt your mother ever let you have one of those>
ANyway, I am trying to do a bevel cut, 20 degrees, on a roughly twenty-pound maple headboard, so the easel-type leg supports will fit better.  its not easy, cause the damn thing keeps trying to slide off Bertha's table, bending the poor blades all to hell.

 

ah, well, these are still the best times of our lives, you know.  there is NOTHING more fulfilling that making delightful things out of wood

[zimmerstutzen]

Never heard them called that.  I remember them and had some.  Other toys too, like the dancing bear, jacob's ladder, etc.

[lawson56]

Wishing You The Best!!.Like they said,we Love Pics.

[Lucky2]

Joshua, why do you need to have your dog with you?

Len

[amazingkevin]

15 hours ago, scrollin'fool said:

and boy am I nervous!  I still have to finish making the sales table, which I am making out of an old headboard of a bed

and some bamboo to hang things on.  I still have not finished my sign, which looks terrible to me.  I also have to make some kind of pricelist, probably just on some cardboard, and pack up about half of my toys into a rainproof box to take with me.

the crowd will be a bunch of friendly Irish-americans at a Celtic music festival, and the festival manager has waved the insurance requirement for me and even lowered the price to thirty bucks for one day.  I'll be bringing parachute men, flying pencil helicopters, toy jets and tiny sailboats, some small magic wands and oak amulets, a few bamboo flutes, five dragon shields, and some tiny dollhouse bookshelves.

I am worried that the dog will not want to hang around in one spot all day, but theres nothing for it.  If he is not allowed in the festival, neither am I.

and there is a thirty percent chance of rain that day too.  and just as soon as I get back I have to start stringing the thirty three toy banjos I have been working on for the folk festival NEXT weekend, and then making as many cute bamboo kalimbas as I can before next friday morning

well, just thought Id let you know whats going on with me.  wish me luck!

So far i would buy a few pencils to give away ,lets see more of your wares soon ,they will sell!

[Rob]

16 hours ago, orangeman said:

Good Luck and YES we need pics! Wondering what a flying pencil helicopter looks like.

You should do well; especially if the Irish start drinking

bb

They'd have to stop first Brian!!

[Rob]

Good luck, you'll have a great time!  Enjoy it and yes, pictures if you can.  We love piccies.

Rob

[scrollin'fool]

Len, he's all I got.

here is another picture for all you picture addicts.  these are the tiny little dollhouse bookshelves, to be sold only to girls who have a dollhouse already.  I will not be selling them to anyone without a dollhouse.  what kind of weirdo would want one if they dont have a dollhouse?!  oh, I will be asking for 20 bucks each for these dollhouse bookshelves.  they took forever to make.  I had to make each damn book!  I only made 22 of these bookshelves.

and thanks again to everyone who posted supportive messages on this thread.

 

 

[orangeman]

"these are the tiny little dollhouse bookshelves, to be sold only to girls who have a dollhouse already"

would you sell to a transgender who wants a dollhouse

You might make national headlines as the lawsuits are coming.

Just couldn't resist. The devil made me do it.

[Phantom Scroller]

I remember the helicopters and hitting my fingers Roly 

[scrollin'fool]

well, I made about $250 at the Irish festival.  Is that about average?

the folks were very friendly and sweet to me, and the kids seemed to flock to the simple toys.  once a few kids bought the helicopter pencils and the parachute men, they started using them there at the fair, and more kids saw them and then came over and bought some.  one gentleman actually knew about howard philip lovecraft, and he guessed that was where I got the name from.  he then bought two of the little dollhouse bookshelves as CHRISTMAS TREE DECORATIONS!  lol, oh well, so much for my rule about who to sell those to.

now I am almost finished thirty-three small toy banjos, made of sweet smelling cedar.  they have the philadelphia folk festival banjo face painted on the drumheads.  those will fetch twenty for the smalls and twenty five for the large, but I may make some extra money if I braid three bright colors of string to make them into necklaces and attach them to the banjos before sale.  theres about seven or eight hundred bucks to make this weekend.

[Iguanadon]

5 minutes ago, scrollin'fool said:

well, I made about $250 at the Irish festival.  Is that about average?

the folks were very friendly and sweet to me, and the kids seemed to flock to the simple toys.  once a few kids bought the helicopter pencils and the parachute men, they started using them there at the fair, and more kids saw them and then came over and bought some.  one gentleman actually knew about howard philip lovecraft, and he guessed that was where I got the name from.  he then bought two of the little dollhouse bookshelves as CHRISTMAS TREE DECORATIONS!  lol, oh well, so much for my rule about who to sell those to.

now I am almost finished thirty-three small toy banjos, made of sweet smelling cedar.  they have the philadelphia folk festival banjo face painted on the drumheads.  those will fetch twenty for the smalls and twenty five for the large, but I may make some extra money if I braid three bright colors of string to make them into necklaces and attach them to the banjos before sale.  theres about seven or eight hundred bucks to make this weekend.

Congrats on the successful and FUN day... as long as you had a good time and with some cash, it's up to you to decide how successful it was.  $250 to go towards more ideas and projects, I'd say that's a very good day.

[scrollin'fool]

yeah, it is up to me to decide how successful it was.  I wish I had something similar to compare it to, though.  and by the way, that money is NOT going towards new ideas and projects.  lol, I need to EAT!

but thanks for the encouraging words anyway

[Iguanadon]

58 minutes ago, scrollin'fool said:

yeah, it is up to me to decide how successful it was.  I wish I had something similar to compare it to, though.  and by the way, that money is NOT going towards new ideas and projects.  lol, I need to EAT!

but thanks for the encouraging words anyway

As you do more events you'll find out what sells and what you may not want to continue offering.  And then it's a matter of what you enjoy making versus what you make purely to make money.  Nothing wrong with that.  I truly stumbled into the whole animal puzzle thing and got lucky in that I enjoy making them and they sell well.

[boulpat]

$ 250 is a good start

[rjweb]

Congratulations on your sales, way to go, I see you are from philly, where are you located, i moved to Texas last year, but lived in the far northeast. I miss wawa, cheese steaks, and soft pretzels, RJr