Indiemade Craft Market 2018!
We here at the BFP started the holiday season off with a bang! Our friends over at the Indiemade Craft Market were kind enough to invite us to participate in their yearly table show. The date? December 1st. The venue? The Fearless Fire Co. in Allentown, PA. The menu? An all-day printmaking experience for the good people of the Lehigh Valley! What could be better than that?
The day started off in a whirlwind of that good chaos we all love– flying on a scant few hours of sleep, we gathered up all of our equipment and merch and packed up our cars, finally hitting the road at the gray hour of 8AM.
The rain hadn’t quite hit by the time we arrived, and we said our hellos to Ron Morris (the best dang business owner and event planner a bunch of cryptid-loving printmakers could ask for) and his crew, and then got down to the business of setting up.
Dylan, Manuel, and featured artist Liz Coonan at the BFP’s table!
Downstairs, Manuel and Bryan started to arrange our market stall with the help of our incredible featured artist, Liz Coonan (pictured above). Upstairs, Alex and Dylan began to ready the experiential portion of our day, complete with a linocut card printing station, and our portable screen printing table at which we’d be doing hourly demonstrations. As we set up, we chatted with our fellow craftspeople, wished we’d thought to bring walkie-talkies, and braced ourselves for the opening of the doors at 10AM!
Considering this was our first ever Craft Market, I’m not ashamed to say that we weren’t sure what to expect. Would people be interested in our demos? Would they like our stuff? Would anybody other than our literal family members buy ANYTHING?? Reader, I am here to tell you that within the first ten minutes, all of those anxieties went away.
Bryan and Dylan go over the linocut printing process under the gaze of a curious onlooker!
Upstairs, an influx of curious kids and their kind and encouraging parents approached the linocut printing table, eager to print their own cards! Adults who hadn’t done block printing since high school hesitantly dipped their toes back into the waters of printmaking, and were delighted to find them warm and inviting. With five different blocks to choose from, and a whole color range of water-based inks, there was a little something for everybody. Dylan assisted a number of youngsters with their printing, thrilled by their unselfconscious curiosity and zeal for learning. When the time came for us to begin our screen printing demonstration, a crowd of enthusiastic onlookers gathered around the printing station, listening attentively as Bryan explained the process and asking thoughtful questions as Alex began to print the first layer of the day’s four-color print. By the time our first hour was up, we felt right at home and just about ready to eat every single pierogi they had in the kitchen downstairs.
Key chains and cord keepers printed by the BFP’s own Bryan Czerniawski!
Speaking of downstairs, pretty soon things were in full swing! Manuel and Liz cheerfully greeted everyone who came up to our table, answering questions about the printmaking process and the many prints and crafts we had for sale. Some people bought items for loved ones (the enamel pins by featured artist Emily Ann Ach were particularly popular), and a surprising number were involved in Bigfoot-themed holiday gift exchanges (it was only one person, but that was one more than we were expecting!). Every one who came to chat was filled with questions and ideas, and happily shared both with us as they perused our stock, and hopefully found something they loved enough to keep.
Throughout the day, each of us took a moment to wander through the market, introducing ourselves to our fellow vendors and buying gifts here and there for the people we love. We experimented with making a mold of one of our linoleum blocks with Smooth-On, an industry-leading purveyor of two-component mold and casting materials, and successfully pulled a print from the cast! We bopped and grooved to the live DJ and thought covetously about our celebratory Thai food dinner later that night.
By the end of the day, our original questions were answered. People were interested, genuinely and upliftingly so. People did like our stuff, enough so that several of them took our information with the promise of future collaboration. And yes, people who were not Dylan’s mom did indeed buy things!
Alex, Bryan, Manuel and Dylan are caught taking a selfie in the wild! It came out blurry.
All in all, we couldn’t have asked for a better first market experience, and we can’t wait to discover what the future has in store.
Until next time, with all our love,
The BFP.