On Demos, Booths, and Craft Fairs

It seems that we as human beings are visually learning creatures. Through this visual learning, we're able to clarify and gain a further understanding of things we had not understood or even known about.

Tis true for blacksmithing.

This topic for this blog entry spurs from our weekend at Harmonie State Park in New Harmony, Indiana. This past weekend was their annual Trade Fair and we were so lucky to be apart of such a wonderful event. Really folks, if you're from the tri-state area and have a trade or craft, you need to get in on this. So very well put together and worth every bit of your time. It was for us.

Doing things like demos and setting up a booth at the craft fair, the forge burning up coal, and the hammer flattening red, hot, soft steel helps people understand what exactly it is we do in this trade... and what exactly it is that we don't do. These kind of events allow us to show people of how we turn that plain, boring piece of steel into something exciting and inviting to the eye. Many people don't realize how it's done, but many have a general idea of what a blacksmith is... kind of. Perhaps it also facilitates a greater respect and appreciation for the work that we do.

However, it also gives you some killer one liners about your trade. Here are a few, bless these people's hearts.

"So uh, you doin' some blacksmithery over here?"
- Yup.

"Are you going to anvil that iron now? Right? That's how you flatten it or shape it?"
- I'm going to anvil this iron so hard that it's going to become hand hammered steel.

"So how long have you been a horse-shoer?"
- Well, I haven't shod a horse in 23 years! (...I'm only 23 folks)

"...can you make me a sword from Lord of the Rings?"
- Sure, come back in 30 minutes and I'll have some Orcs ready for you to test cleave, too.

"I know what smithing is... I've played Skyrim."
- I have too. Many, many hours. If you forge a ton of daggers in real life, your skill really will increase, ironically.

Now, I'm just poking fun. People don't know things unless they ask questions. There really are no dumb questions, just ones that are more fun to answer than others. It was so wonderful explaining the trade to folks. I was actually very surprised at the number of people just starting blacksmithing that strolled by, or people that had family members that were blacksmiths. Of course, it was wonderful making the connections and potential client connections that we made.

Below are a few pictures of our setup. It doesn't look like there's much around us, but all of the booths were across from us. We were on the edge with the most space.

Cheers! Thanks for looking!