I was out late last night, having dinner with some of the folks from the Movies & Makers show at the old Fox Theatre in The Beaches. It was like doing an acting gig, being geared-up and needing to decompress with other folk who’d been in it.
I met a lot of great folk who really understood and loved what I was doing. And, not to be mercenary about it, it was great to be in front of a crowd who had the money to buy things, too. That more than makes up for the money I’ve spent since being here — much of it on supplies so I could make more “bind your own book” kits when the friends I’m staying with convinced me I should have a lot more of those to display. So I hustled around town several days after work to find the bits then spent Friday night late at work in the Production department cutting up paper. And? They didn’t sell. Still, so much else did that it’s quite alright, and I may still shift a few to people at work who’ve been asking about them.
It’s so hard to decipher what people will like and want, and it’s very different from show to show. I can empathise with my brother-in-law, who’s trying to figure all this out for himself, too, with his woodworking. Do you make a lot of inexpensive things that people will snap up, or do you go deep into your craft and develop things you really care about but have to charge significantly more for?
What was most exciting, though, was talking to people who really understand what I’m doing, and who caught the spark of it themselves. A number of them took the cards I’d made for the podcast, and several bought bookbinding presses (which is a package I’m really happy about — much more tactile and interesting than the book-bits-in-a-bag kits that slide around the table and don’t really suggest what they are, unfortunately). So I’m jazzed to imagine what those people might create, especially after having received so many kind e-mails about the podcast from people showing and telling me the great things they’ve done, which, before, they didn’t realise they a) were allowed to do, or b) were perfectly capable of doing on their own.
So it was a big, exciting day. I admit that life in Wick can be pretty isolating, so it’s nice to balance that with these trips, especially when I get occasions like yesterday to get out in front of likeminded people.