busyDealers we bought from:
John Perkins Fantasy Artwork
John Perkins does paintings in oils, acrylics, dyes, and airbrushing; custom framing; and woodburning scenes onto guitars and boards. The results are impressive. We got to watch him working on a guitar in several stages, a scene of fantasy creatures gathering around a Bard. We also brought home a large painting of the battle of Helm's Deep, done in smoky grays with a few bright fires in yellow; dyes on plexiglass. It looks spectacular, and we got it for an absurdly low price. (He said he was tired of carting it around.) That's my big score for the weekend.
The Tarot Garden
They sell popular, unusual, and rare Tarot decks. This is the place to go if you're seeking a new deck, because you can handle several dozen samples and decide which you like best. This time, Doug and I were hooked by the oversized Epicurean Tarot, which has a recipe on each card -- a very apt recipe, like the Devil's food cake on the Devil card, or the lobster bisque on the Moon. Having recently done a Midsummer ritual that featured the Tarot card the Sun, we thought that this would be a handy resource for planning Feast if we do another Tarot-themed ritual later.
The Enchanted Art of Mickie Mueller
Pagans take note -- here is one of the salient artists of the field. Mickie Mueller illustrates the gods and goddesses of old in beautiful color. She also did the artwork for the excellent Well Worn Path and Hidden Path divination decks aimed at Pagans. The two decks can be shuffled together, but can also be used separately in a two-part reading to show the overt and covert influences on a situation. I picked out one of her "Drawing Down the Moon" bookmarks.
McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers
This publisher has multiple lines of books, many with a scholarly flavor, about science fiction literature and media, and some on Pagan or magical topics. They've got a good niche going; there isn't much else like this available. Doug picked up a two-volume reference set from them.
Atomic Fly Studios
Mitchell Davidson Bentley, M.A. does fine art, cover art, graphic design, pre-press, and web work. I was captivated by his colorful space scenes, and wound up buying one of the magnets.
Black Dragon Workshop
They sell costumes and boxes. The boxes are intricate things, made out of common and exotic woods, some with little divided drawers inside. They also sell hand-tooled magic wands, most of them for $5. These are similar to other wands you can find online for $50-$100. I bought a nice one made of solid redheart wood. So now I've got a wand that will show up well in an open ritual -- my first wand, made by a friend, is a quartz-tipped antler tine barely bigger than my hand, that I generally save for solitary work. I was particularly pleased to note that this craftsman makes business card holders from wooden scraps, an excellent way to conserve resources ... and your purchases are then wrapped in fabric scraps (from the costuming side of the business) for safekeeping. Waste not, want not.
Artczar
John L. Sies does cartoons, digital art, web design and assorted other computer services. We were most captivated by his black-and-white and full-color cartoons. Doug bought some color ones; I got a black-and-white one of a dragon in a bathtub and had it hand-colored. John also draws a comic strip, "Ricky Roach."
Diane & Bill Johnson Custom Fantasy Art & T-Shirts
In addition to the art and t-shirts, they also offer a selection of buttons at $.75 each, which is considerably better than average -- and the quotes aren't the same ones every other button vendor has. I bought a handful of these, some for my collection and some to give away. I often bring home little gifts for friends and family when I travel; buttons are a favorite choice.
Other dealers worth a peek:
Lady MacSnood
Sara Dunham specializes in snoods and hair ornaments, but also makes hats and other garb. I couldn't make up my mind which of several items I wanted most, and wound up spending my money on other stuff. I'll probably drop by her booth at the Wentzville Faire come spring, though. She will also be at the St. Louis Pirate Fest in September.
Starcat Designs
Lee Billings sells handcrafted jewelry, much of it Pagan themed, and altar items. The website is still under construction.
Horizon Music
Dave Kaufmann sells ambient electronic music. This stuff is wonderful just for listening, but if you write science fiction or enjoy roleplaying games, it makes terrific background music to set the mood. Artists include Roedelius, Lightwave, and Steve Joliffe.
Sign of the Unicorn -- ltedison@candydarling.com
Laurie Edison makes handwrought jewelry and sculpture, available by appointment.
Plan B Books
Abby Hupp has written the book A Wizard in the Kitchen: Magical Recipes for Kids of All Ages which is worth checking out if you're a fan of that kid who wears glasses and hates You-Know-Who.
Midnight Entertainment -- midnight_filmandtv@yahoo.com
Jim Yelton produces film, television, and multi-media.
Allison Stein, Artist & Author
She draws cats, gargoyles, and other critters. I am intrigued by the angular character of her stylized art. She also has a LiveJournal.
That's not quite everybody we bought stuff from. I think I forgot to grab a card from the guy who made the t-shirt "A word is worth a thousand pictures" that I got, and the Kansas City 2009 bid table didn't have the "Library of the Imagination" t-shirt in my size so that one is getting mailed to me later. And there may be a few others. I'm still getting the hang of this ... blogging is changing the way I do event reports, and the way I cruise events. I like the networking. But I have to remember to grab people's cards, write a memo on the back, and give them my card so they can read the report later!
It still saves me a LOT of time over the original method of sending individual messages to a bunch of friends about what I did over the weekend. It's easier to do (because I can break it into managable chunks) and gets more eyeballs than the previous method of writing one big report and mass-mailing it to everyone at once. Nice changes, but will take some getting used to.
