One season gone and another creeping up behind us. We’ve been busting out inventory like you can’t imagine. We’ve worked so hard to make our shop display more presentable. We now have better signage, black table clothes for contrast, we spray painted our busted up clear card racks, and even introduced a handful of new items. (Vinyl Coffee Mugs!)
This past October we had a show every weekend, which helped us to learn how we should be showcasing our merchandise, in and out of the trailer. It was definitely a busy month (keep in mind we’re a fully operational design company first), but we wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s all about the experience right?
We reopened up our etsy shop and now offer a good amount of our personal stock online. Everything we make at these shows goes back into the project of making Brick & Motor come to life. We have the trailer all sealed up for the winter months (thanks to my fabulous Uncle Brian). Here’s a peek at her current status. (Doesn’t look too pretty yet, does it?)
We’re now in full blown holiday mode with ScrantonMade’s Holiday Market less than 2 weeks away. Almost ALL of the vendors we’ll be showcasing in the trailer will be there! So if you’re in the Scranton area, it’s a great event to see what we’ll have in store. Not to mention, we should all shop local for the holiday season!
Here’s a few graphics I’ve made over the years. Feel free to take them and spread the word!
Want a little recap of our fall shows? We busted our buns planning, producing, and traveling for these shows and we are grateful to everyone who had us!
As you know from the last post, Scranton Fringe Festival was the first weekend of October. As a sponsor, we set up a small booth at their preview party with some of our friends and BAM artists – Cole Hastings, The Post Home & Body, Little Gems by Em. We spent the rest of the weekend attending shows and making new friends. The Fringe was a huge success and they’ve already began planning for next year!
Backyard Ale House’s Fall Fest! This is where we first debuted our coffee mugs, beer prints, and beer vinyls.
Beer / Art / Music. What more can you ask for?
Rock Against Dope. A friend we made at Indralokafest invited us to this show in the summer. It was the only show I’ve been to where there was poetry in-between the band sets! There’s some really talented people out there. Of course all of the proceeds went to support the awareness / rehabilitation of a very powerful drug. We also donated a bunch of vinyl stickers to the cause.
Lancaster Punk Rock Flea Market. What a day! Our mugs and stickers were a huge hit!
Last but certainly not least, early in the month we made a huge decision to try an out of state show. Since we’re obsessed with Halloween, what better place than Salem Massachusetts? Tim and I try to go on one major adventure every season, when we found out about the Salem Open Market, we were sold. It was our first real taste of what Brick & Motor really will be. Traveling to sell our art and handmade items from many talented vendors. We decided to do a small run and only took a few pieces of inventory from the office, along with our full line. We found a cute tavern / inn called the Crows Nest (it was actually the hub in the movie A Perfect Storm) just a half an hour outside of Salem. We loved it so much that we actually ended up staying an extra day. It was a huge success and now we’re more excited than ever to get our project in full swing.
Here are some photos from our trip!
Funny thing is, our booth was right in front of a movie landmark on the walking tours and we didn’t even realize it! I charged my phone in the Olde Town Hall in Hocus Pocus!
With the planning it takes to help put on the ScrantonMade show we took a few weeks off to restock, replan, and brainstorm new ideas (like a custom mug on a mug!). But we’ll be back at it again this weekend with a new Scranton event, Petersburg Small Business Saturday Block Party and the Berks Punk Rock Flea Market Black Sunday. Wish us luck!
Oh, and have you heard about the Branding Contest Shanty Town has offered for our 2 Year Anniversary? Meet Izzy! We’ll be launching her new brand come the new year : )
