Great Plains Ren Fest

Hi, y’all! Michael and I are going to apply for a vendor booth for the Ren Fest (Oct. 8-9, 10a-6p). If just us, we’ll likely go for the small vendor space (15’x15’). But we figured we should first reach out and see if any other Makers would like to join us and split a large vendor space (20’x30’). Could be like a MakeICT Guild.

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I believe Rustin said the Renfest would look positively on our selling maker Items from the MakeICT tent we already do.
@rustin.atkeisson ?

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Hmm led throwies would get me burned at the stake.

Anyone have nettles we can have the kids make cord from?

Maybe black construction paper, tempera paint and a straw and do aboriginal hand paintings

We did do weaving once and gave out cardboard looms…

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Yes, there was already an agreement to allow 1st time vendors to operate out of our tent.

I would need to let the organizers know ASAP though so that they can make sure to have unique product there instead of 20 sword vendors.

We still need to figure out a 20x30 tent for the event… The 20x20 we have been borrowing is not holding up well. I’m not sure how long it will take a new tent to be made, but renting one is about half the price of buying one. There were talks of lacing a bunch of 10x20 garage tents together, but I’m almost thinking we could just find a heavy duty 10x20 tent and tying a 20x20 shade fly to it.

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Based on my cutting and sewing of boat covers a 14-16 foot seam takes about an hour to sew.

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Can you have the kids make them out of period-appropriate materials? Maybe a little pitch on a piece of cloth weighted with a small stone? Just light it on fire and throw – it’ll stick to anything!

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Michael and I for sure want to vend. Jewelry, art prints, paintings, resin art, planters, polyhedral dice, D&D candles, etc.

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you might have to be more detailed on what kind of jewelry you are selling (like if they’re resin or hand made silver), but the rest of the list looks pretty unique.

also having a crazy idea on the tent… wood is slightly cheaper than pipe right now… I’m wondering how much it would run if we made our spot look like an old pub… something like how the front gate already looks.

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That looks awesome!

Handmade jewelry: sterling silver, wire-wrapped gems and crystals, polymer clay, resin, and beaded

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Literal silversmithing. If we had a small coal forge and a bellows it could be demo’d in the same way as blacksmithing. Might be something to shoot for next fall.

This fall just want to try selling the wares.

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This link has some ideas about masking popup canopies. The lodge looking one catches my eye.

https://www.moirandalls.com/popup/index.htm

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I’m definitely digging the Cover for the designs by Kate tent.

It looks nice while minimizing the anxiety of building a beefy tent from scratch in two months.

designsbykate

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I figured that one would grab your attention.

I would totally be interested in selling some of my charms and things. I could even make some new designs that are more fantasy themed.

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Will we have to be there all weekend or can we work out a way to support each other? I have art and pillows.

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If you guys were doing individual booths, running a booth for one day would be frowned upon, but as a group of 1st time vendors, shouldn’t be a big deal or prevent someone from being invited back.

The unofficial word from the organizer is that this mix of items is acceptable.

  1. This would be the first time they’ve seen pillows sold at the event.
  2. Jewelry is a pretty common item sold at fair, so jewelry might not sell well unless there is a niche not filled by other jewelers at the event
  3. Hand made art on canvas is less common and might sell well (organizer is unsure of how they’ve sold in the past)
  4. We might think about capitalizing on the ballista that will be sitting in front of the tent
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#4 says 'fire the balista ’

I mean yea?

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Also have the electrical bard cranked with Algal.

Remember that whatever tent/building we build will need to be stored somewhere.

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Checking in. If we vend under MakeICT’s tent, how much space should we plan for?

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