Happy Owl Glassworks

The Brooklyn Renegade show: notorious for its heat. We signed up anyhow with hopes of sunny weather and a cool breeze that would make the McCarren Park Pool an oasis of crafty vendors. But hope —it turns out— is best left to little children and fairy tales.

It all started fine enough. We scored a great corner spot near the Tasty Treats truck and enjoyed a constant flow of traffic.



Our handsome display:



But by mid-morning a vicious blanket of heat descended on the pool. It was only relieved with occasional gust. The gust, while enjoyable, helped pinpoint major flaws in our Miniature Pendant pegboard setup.



While the pendants were a hit, the display was not. With each gust, these little critters would fly all over the tent forcing us to scramble away from customers and toward the floor in an attempt to collect as many as we could.

The gust, it turns out, was carrying along isolated thunderstorms. And with the thunder came lightening. There is something disquieting about standing in a pool of water, surrounded by metal framed tents as lighting bolts crash down about you. I pictured the headlines: Hundreds Fried After Crafter Event!



Those selling in the last row enjoyed the history of the McCarren Park Pool as their booths were swallowed up by rising water.



The Sunday morning tent carcasses:



Luckily the whole event was surrounded by a healthy band of shoppers and familiar happy vendors, along with a few new ones. There were our personal favs from Mogo:



Sarah and all her pals from the Egg-a-go-go tent:




We bumped into Faythe and finally met her co-conspirator Courtney; both from Handmade Nation:



Plus we met the lovely face behind Design Sponge, Grace. Also the super-friendly Joi from Stereoette. And, after 4 years of working with them strictly online, we finally met Erin and Megan from Art Star. Here they are attempting to lure customers with an erotic application of suntan lotion:



And as a final bonus, we were reunited with some old faces from our RIT days. It was nice to see fellow Alum at the show.



Nate and his wife Jill run y.not.me, a great design label. They also pointed out another excellent designer and fellow alum, Andy Pratt.

All-in-all, an exhaustive and excellent weekend of sales in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Now if only we could afford to live there...