Wow.  What an amazing weekend!  This was the debut of my period woodworking demonstration booth and it went better than I ever could have imagined.  I set up the canvas canopy, took my tool chests and some boards and my portable workbench, and set out to make a little chest completely by hand.  Within about ten minutes of me starting to saw out the sides I had people stopping to watch and asking about what I was doing, the tools, the methods, and it was great!  I also had other woodworkers stop by to talk shop.  But two things really stood out for me…

One was talking to the kids.  I had a family that came by multiple times to ask questions and watch me work, and there was a little girl, too short to see over the top of my workbench, who was just absolutely fascinated with everything I was doing.  I asked her if she’d like to make furniture someday, and mentioned she could make a toy box or a desk or a chair and her eyes lit up and she said “I could make ANYTHING!”  That was great.

The other was all the people who would come and stand and watch… and then casually say “My father used to do that” or “My grandfather was a woodworker” and you could tell they were having a special memory, the sight or the noise or the smell of the wood shavings was triggering something for them.

So the demo booth was a roaring success.  People loved it, I got lots of good feedback from the organizers, and some invites to come set up at other Ren Faires.  My furniture went over pretty well too.  Lots of good compliments, handed out a ton of business cards (so many that I think I might need to order more) and most importantly lots of sales!

And I got to be on the news!  That was fun and terrifying but it all went well.  The magic of editing.  Met some new friends and reconnected with some old ones.  A grand time was had by all.

So, a few updates.  Going to be adding some new sections to the website over the next couple of weeks.  A page of past and upcoming events, a bit about my demo/living history stuff, and some sort of web based shop.  So if you are new here, welcome!  Thanks for your interest, follow the blog and like me on facebook etc, etc.

This weekend, weather permitting, I’ll be volunteering my time and skills again at the Demonstration Gardens by building a pergola, to go along with the fence I built for them last spring.  Hope to have it up in time for the plant sale, wish me luck!