Huzzah, faire friends! It’s been a good chunk of time now since the 2022 Lavonia Renaissance Fair, which means I am, as usual, overdue for my recap post. Hey, it happens.

This year, I wanted to focus on upgrades. I upgraded some business stuff, my costume, my mannequin costumes, my displays, and my products—so that’s basically everything?

I was also sadly forced to upgrade my canopy because prior to Lavonia, I attended what I’m guessing will probably be a one-off fair in South Carolina. That fair was in March, about 6 weeks before Lavonia happened in May, and it fell victim to some pretty brutal winter weather that overstayed its welcome, including biting cold and excessive winds. I was unfortunately ill-prepared and right as the fair began, the winds picked up and ripped my canopy frame apart. Now, I don’t think my canopy—or any canopy—would have been strong enough to withstand these winds. Even if I did have enough weight on each leg (which I didn’t), we’re talking sustained winds that were probably at least 10-20mph with gusts up to I think 40+mph ALL DAY. THE WHOLE DAY.

I had to leave early, about 2pm, because I was so thoroughly frozen solid and shivering so bad that I was starting to get sick. Thankfully I wasn’t the only one, as several other vendors had already left due to the cold, wind, and lost canopies as well.

When searching for canopies, I have now learned that it’s ideal to find something that is commercial grade, not consumer grade or whatever the alternative is called, because that will be significantly stronger and also better made assembly-wise. I also learned that, when information on an event is lacking, it’s important to be prepared for any eventuality, like being in a literal wind tunnel. 0/10 do not recommend. At least I made back more than enough to cover my quite expensive booth fee, gas to get there, and the cost to replace my canopy, plus enough to stop at the local ramen place afterwards to warm up.

Now then, let’s talk about the upgrades I actually intended to make.

Square chip reader

Another thing I learned, though thankfully not the hard way, is that if you use the little Square swiper that plugs into your phone’s headphone jack, then there’s basically no protection in the event a customer were to dispute the charges. The Square chip reader, on the other hand, provides at least some level of protection, and for a mere $50 plus shipping, you can get one yourself. This may not be a big deal to some people, like if your biggest transactions in a day may not exceed $40, but for me, $40 is on the low end. Most of my sales are card sales rather than cash and I have a pretty sizable amount of high-dollar items, like the $150 belt (pictured) that was purchased with a card. I would absolutely die if a sale that big was disputed!

Update: Square has since updated their system so that iPhone users are able to just use their iPhones to accept chip cards, so I no longer use my dedicated Square chip reader. If you’re an iPhone user or considering getting one, this is definitely a perk. That said, do keep the swipe tool handy for the occasional card that isn’t a chip card or won’t scan correctly.

Business cards

Sweet Christ, I can’t believe I was dumb enough not to bring these my first time to the ren fair. I had them at the SC fair, but due to the wind I had to manually hand them out, which was much more of a pain with frozen fingers. At Lavonia, I had my business cards set out and available for people to pick up, which was excellent because I always have people ask me about customs, about a website, etc. and frankly, even though it’s 2022 and our whole lives are supposedly going digital (looking at you, Zuckerberg), business cards definitely still reign.

In addition to business cards, I also had some simple logo stickers made to hand out with purchases AND I ordered what I call care cards. Basically, these are cards that have your usual thank you card information on them, but they also include a handful of tips on caring for leather goods in general. I handed out my care cards with all of my larger items, like my pouches, and they were a surprisingly popular addition! I’m quite proud of myself for that idea.

New products

I love making new things! This year, I added an absolutely stupid amount of new products that I didn’t offer last year:

Journals
Vambraces (aka bracers or forearm armor)
Drawstring pouches
Sword frogs
Potions bottles (I learned that lesson)
Tiny leather boxes
Wands with matching holsters
Men’s & women’s wallets
Tote bags
Earrings
Bracelets
YES THERE WERE BELTS

I didn’t sell any of the wallets because I ended up packing my table completely before I even got them out so they just stayed in their box. #ComingSoon? I also didn’t sell any of the earrings, which was kind of disappointing, but I think that was only because I wasn’t able to display them in South Carolina due to the wind and lowkey got my hopes up some. I didn’t sell any of the tote bags, either, but I think those were poorly placed. I had planned to hang them on the canopy frame, but I didn’t test it beforehand and that ended up not really being ideal. I’ll need to sort out better displays for them I think.

I absolutely DID bring and subsequently sell a shitload of both potions bottles and belts.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have much in the way of beautifully tooled armor because I had placed an order with my leather supplier of choice, Springfield Leather, about a month and some change ahead of time. Their processing time was a bit higher than usual, which I accounted for time-wise, but then the package got delayed. I picked the 2-4 day ship time for a reason, Fedex! Then, when they finally did arrive, I was missing the giant veg tan hide I’d ordered. Idk if that came out of the box in the GIANT HOLE Fedex had ripped in it or if it was accidentally missed during packing, but I called Springfield and they got it sorted out right away. A+ customer service as always!

Ultimately, I got my veg tan hide about a week and a half before the fair, which was not nearly enough time for me to make anything that would’ve been any kind of quality I’d be proud of.

I also didn’t have any black belts because, well, I’m an idiot. That’s on me…

New displays

To go along with all these new products, I had to add a couple new displays! Nothing fancy, just a few things I grabbed off Amazon. I ordered a cute spinning earring rack, a 4-bar bracelet display, a tiny wood and acrylic shelf, and a bamboo coffee mug holder for the potions bottles. I was able to rearrange my pouches to fit only in/on 4 crates and used my 5th crate to put potions bottles in. That saved me from having to buy and stain any more, for which I was grateful. I stacked the coffee mug holder on top of the 5th crate to add some height to my displays, then tucked it neatly into the corner since I knew it would still be seen. All in all, these worked pretty well. I think I am going to try to make something different for the potions bottles next year for 2 reasons: 1, the bamboo and acrylic/wood pieces don’t match at all, and 2, they’re both a bit too small so they don’t hold the larger bottles well.

I also picked up a cheap wood coat rack from Walmart and ended up tying that onto the canopy frame, as well, but I wasn’t super pleased with it. It absolutely got the job done, but I ended up putting the belts off to one corner that ended up being behind our chairs, so the belts were also fairly hidden. I had to mention that I had them in order to upsell quite a few, but at least they moved!

Clothes!

Last but not least is clothing! I am psyched to have discovered a website called Medieval Collectibles (not an affiliate link, just FYI). They sell a ton of costume elements of all different kinds and their huge variety allowed me to upgrade my outfit and my dress form’s outfit. They are pricier than the cheap, weirdly sized garbage you can get off Amazon, HOWEVER the few products I’ve ordered so far seem to be of pretty high quality and their stuff thus far has also been true to size which is a huge win in and of itself.

For myself, I bought a new Viking-style apron dress that has some really beautiful embroidery on it (pictured). The neckline features a small Celtic-style design while the hem’s embroidery is a much taller version of the same and also reinforced somehow. My sister bought herself two skirts from Medieval Collectibles, a pink one and a cream one that I borrowed and layered on my dress form to show off my skirt hikes. And guess what? They sold super well! I had one of my sister’s corsets from Corset Story on the dress form, as well, and that whole outfit was a huge attention-grabber. So many people stopped and asked about the skirt hikes and the costume overall that I’m honestly, seriously considering adding small costume elements to resell next year.

I also bought Corey a really nice-looking linen shirt off of Medieval Collectibles and I bought my headless male mannequin named Frank a new shirt off Amazon. I had actually ordered the shirt for Corey in a 3X which was the largest size they had, but y’know, Amazon sizing… It fits Frank pretty well, too, which is good. At least it won’t go to waste.

Next year!

Time to start planning for next year! I’ve got a lot of ideas floating around in my head, including adding fairy lights and curtains for more of a vibe, expanding to a larger space, and maybe even doing some demonstrations? I don’t know! I feel like I can say with some level of certainty that I’ll be getting two 10x10 spaces next year. That will allow me to really expand all my displays, include all my products, and give people more room to look, too. My booth got SUPER crowded so I want to try to spread out and make sure there’s plenty of room for all my lovely customers.

I’m going to have to narrow down some of these crazy ideas and also make sure I include enough time to test new displays and such, too. Anyway, ‘til next time, faire friends!

2022 Lavonia Renaissance Fair Recap