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Category: Festivals Finds
Wander the festival and see what’s there!
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We’re Staying Home for the Holidays (And Bringing Something Special)
This week in the workshop, Rex discovered something we’d almost forgotten – the joy of sleeping in our own bed while still sharing our craft with an incredible community of art lovers.
After a year that has tested us in ways we never expected, we’re beyond excited to announce that Sarkanys Rising will be part of Tucson’s Holiday Arts & Crafts Fair at Reid Park this Thanksgiving weekend. For the first time in what feels like forever, we get to be part of something magical right here in our hometown.
A Fair with Four Decades of Heart
This isn’t just any craft fair – it’s a Tucson tradition that’s been bringing together artisans and art lovers for more than 40 years. Over 140 vendors from across the Southwest gather at Gene C. Reid Park, creating a marketplace where every single item is handmade, unique, and crafted with the kind of care that’s becoming harder to find in our world.
When we read that requirement – “all items must be unique, handmade goods” – we knew we’d found our people. This is exactly the kind of event where stories matter as much as the pieces themselves, where customers appreciate the difference between mass-produced and carefully crafted.
Why This Feels Like Coming Home
After months of cancelled events due to health challenges and financial pressures that seemed determined to test our resolve, the simple pleasure of driving across town instead of across state lines feels like a gift in itself. No over-packing the van & trailer, no wondering if we’ll have everything we need, no sleeping in unfamiliar places while fighting to feel our best.
Instead, we get to wake up in our own home, make sure every piece is perfect, and drive just a few miles to share what we love with a community that gets it. Sometimes the best adventures happen closest to home.
What We’re Bringing (And What We’re Not Telling You… Yet)
You’ll find our full range of handcrafted treasures – those chatoyant mahogany boxes that shift and shimmer in the light, cutting boards with stories that span decades, pens that turn everyday writing into something special, and pieces that defy easy categorization but somehow find their perfect homes.
But here’s where we get a little mysterious: we’re also bringing something extra special that we haven’t talked about before. Starting November 1st, we’ll be launching a gift with purchase program that we’re honestly more excited about than we probably should be. Rex has been working on these pieces in between everything else, and seeing them come together has been one of those bright spots that reminds us why we do this work.
We can’t spill all the details yet (October has its own surprises we want you to focus on first), but let’s just say that anyone who finds us at Reid Park will discover there’s more to the story than what meets the eye.
The Details That Matter
When: Saturday, November 29th (9 AM – 4 PM) and Sunday, November 30th (9 AM – 3 PM)
Where: Gene C. Reid Park, 920 S. Concert Place (west side of the park off Country Club Road)
What to Expect: Over 140 Southwest artisans, all handmade goods, and the kind of community gathering that makes the holidays feel magicalWe’ll have our full range of pieces, from affordable treasures to investment heirlooms, plus those special surprises we keep hinting at. And as always, every purchase comes with the stories, the lifetime guarantees, and the kind of personal connection that turns customers into community.
A Thanksgiving Weekend to Remember
There’s something perfect about spending Thanksgiving weekend surrounded by the work of makers and creators, celebrating what it means to build beauty with your hands and share it with people who appreciate the difference. After a year that challenged us in every possible way, being part of this community tradition feels like exactly where we need to be.
Come find us at Reid Park. We’ll have coffee, stories, and pieces that are just waiting to become part of your holiday celebrations. Plus, if you’ve been curious about that gift with purchase program we keep mentioning, well… let’s just say good things come to those who show up.
Mark Your Calendars
This is our first local event in longer than we care to admit, and we’re ready to make it count. Whether you’re starting your holiday shopping early, looking for something truly unique, or just want to support local artisans doing what they love, we’ll be there with bells on (and probably with Rex demonstrating his craft because he can never resist a good audience).
Thanks for being part of our story, Tucson. We can’t wait to be part of yours.
See you at Reid Park, November 29th and 30th. Come early, stay late, and get ready for some surprises.
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How Artisan Vendors Sell Out Fast at Craft Fairs and Markets
People sometimes watch us pack up an empty booth at the end of a festival day and assume we got lucky. “Wow, you sold everything!” they’ll say, like it was a happy accident. The truth? Selling out isn’t luck. It’s love combined with logistics, and a lot of lessons learned the hard way.
The love part is easy — we genuinely adore what we do. When someone picks up a Magical Jupiter Pen and their face lights up, or when they run their hands over the smooth finish of a cutting board and sigh with appreciation, we feel it too. That authentic enthusiasm is contagious. People can tell when vendors are excited about their own work versus just trying to move inventory.
But enthusiasm alone won’t empty your booth. The logistics are where the real magic happens, and it took us years to figure this out.
One of the first things we learned is that an over crowded table won’t be shopped. People cannot see any one item. First, know your audience. The people at the Tucson Celtic Festival are looking for different things than the folks at Art in the Park Sierra Vista. Celtic Festival attendees love pieces with fantasy elements — our Dragon pens and mystical-looking resin work do incredibly well there. At Art in the Park, people are thinking more about practical home items — cutting boards, bowls, kitchen tools.
Inventory planning is crucial. We’ve learned to bring more smaller items than large pieces, not because they’re more profitable per item, but because they’re impulse-friendly. Someone might admire a $300 lamp but walk away. That same person will happily buy a $45 pen set without much deliberation.
Sometimes things beyond your control affect sales. This day was one of the hottest on record in this location. We still had customers, but most were too hot to really shop or carry items. Display matters more than we initially realized. Early on, we’d just arrange our pieces on tables and wonder why people walked by. Now we think about sight lines, lighting, and creating little vignettes that help people imagine our pieces in their homes. Dawn started bringing battery-powered LED strips to illuminate the resin work, and sales of those pieces doubled overnight.
Pricing psychology is real. We learned to price things as whole numbers so people didn’t have to worry about change. It sounds arbitrary, but it consistently performs better. We also learned to offer logical bundles: pen and letter opener sets, cutting board with matching coasters.
Our notebook and pen display at an art show in November 2025 But here’s the biggest secret: we prep for specific scenarios. Rex brings extra business cards and knows our shipping rates by heart because people always ask. Dawn practices explaining our process — how long pieces take to make, what makes our resin work different, why certain woods are special. When someone’s interested but hesitant, having those stories ready makes all the difference.
Weather contingency plans, backup power for card readers, comfortable shoes, and way more coffee than seems reasonable — these aren’t glamorous details, but they’re what separate vendors who sell out from those who go home with full inventory.
Our booth display at a craft show in December 2024. Pay attention to the back table. We only had time to fill out some of the pen display. We now make many more pens than we carry! The real secret isn’t any single trick. It’s treating every festival like you’re hosting a party in your own home, where you’re genuinely excited to share what you love with people who appreciate it. Do that consistently, with good logistics backing you up, and empty booths become the norm rather than the exception.
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How Artisan Vendors Sell Out Fast at Craft Fairs and Markets
People sometimes watch us pack up our booth at the end of a festival weekend and assume we got lucky. “Wow, you did you sell everything!” they’ll say, like it was a happy accident. The truth? Selling out isn’t luck. It’s love combined with logistics, and a lot of lessons learned the hard way.
The love part is easy — we genuinely adore what we do. When someone picks up a Jupiter Pen and their face lights up, or when they run their hands over the smooth finish of a cutting board and sigh with appreciation, we feel it too. That authentic enthusiasm is contagious. People can tell when vendors are excited about their own work versus just trying to move inventory.
But enthusiasm alone won’t empty your booth. The logistics are where the real magic happens, and it took us years to figure this out and we are still learning new “tricks” every time.
First, know your audience. The people at the Tucson Celtic Festival are looking for different things than the folks at Art in the Park in Sierra Vista. Celtic Festival attendees love pieces with fantasy elements — our Dragon pens and mystical-looking resin work do incredibly well there. At Art in the Park, people are thinking more about practical home items — cutting boards, bowls, kitchen tools.
Inventory planning is crucial. We’ve learned to bring more smaller items than large pieces, not because they’re more profitable per item, but because they’re impulse-friendly. Someone might admire a $300 lamp but walk away. That same person will happily buy a $45 pen set without much deliberation. We have also learned not to put everything out. To give ourselves room & still be able to offer that surprise from under the table if what’s on it isn’t quite right!
Display matters more than we initially realized. Early on, we’d just arrange our pieces on tables and wonder why people walked by. Now we think about sight lines, lighting, and creating little vignettes that help people imagine our pieces in their homes. Dawn started bringing battery-powered LED strips to illuminate the work, and it seemed like sales doubled overnight.
We also learned to offer logical bundles: think pen and letter opener sets, or a cutting board with a knife. Plus, we tweaked our pricing strategy, moving to whole numbers instead of exact figures
Weather contingency plans, backup power for card readers, comfortable shoes, and way more coffee than seems reasonable — these aren’t glamorous details, but they’re what separate vendors who sell out from those who go home with full inventory.
The real secret isn’t any single trick. It’s treating every festival like you’re hosting a party in your own home, where you’re genuinely excited to share what you love with people who appreciate it. Do that consistently, with good logistics backing you up, and empty booths become the norm rather than the exception.
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The Joy of Saying “Yes, I Made That”
…and then watching their jaw drop
There’s this moment—if you’re lucky enough to catch it—when someone’s eyes go wide and their mouth falls open just a little. It’s the moment of realization. And if you’re Rex, that moment usually comes right after he casually says, “Yeah… I made that.”
It surprises him every time.
Honestly, it took five whole years of people telling him his handmade woodworking was art before he actually believed it. (Spoiler alert: I was one of those people—repeatedly.) It’s been a journey, not just of skill, but of confidence. Somewhere along the way, he stopped seeing it as just woodworking. He started recognizing the craft, the story, the artisan woodworking in every hand-carved spoon, every custom bowl, every intensely detailed piece.
It changed everything.
Learning What’s Worth It
That realization meant letting go of the pressure to carry “filler” pieces just to have more variety. No more grabbing “small stuff” to try and lure people in. We’ve learned something important: if the fine art is strong, it doesn’t need to shout. It just needs to show up—honestly, beautifully, and unapologetically.
And when someone gasps at our veteran-made art? It’s a little gift in return.
Yes, there are shows we thrive at (fine art festivals? Absolutely. Renaissance faires? All in. Small craft fairs with no “fine” in the title? Maybe not until we’ve got a motorhome and mobile shop setup.) But now we know where we fit—and where we shine.
The Work You See and the Work You Don’t
Rex has stepped up in incredible ways with his wood art pieces lately. The pride he takes in them radiates right off the festival table. He’ll look at something like “Intensity” or a new hand-carved spoon, smile a little to himself, and say those magic words again: “Yes, I made that.”
And me? Well, I’m doing the same—but behind a keyboard and a camera. The website, the photos, the story you’re reading now… that’s my “I made that.” And when Rex sees something I’ve posted and gasps? That’s my moment.
This journey we’re on—it’s personal, it’s powerful, and it’s full of jaw-drop moments. We’re learning to own our craft, say yes to the right shows, and say “I made that” with handcrafted pride.
Every piece we create becomes part of someone’s story. Whether it’s a cutting board that hosts family gatherings or a decorative bowl that sparks conversations, these handmade heirlooms carry forward the joy of that first moment when someone realizes the beauty in front of them was crafted by hand, with love, right here in our workshop.
As always, we’re here if you have questions or just want to chat about wood! Thanks for being part of our story—we love sharing the journey with you.
Ready to bring home your own “Yes, I made that” moment? Browse our collection of one-of-a-kind wood art pieces, each crafted with 40+ years of expertise and designed to become part of your family’s story.