What single thing at faire hurls you off into the depths of rage?

[Captain Dungcaster]

The simple fact that I and many of us have put much into our garb and Faire Personna. For me I do like to be as close to period (1540-1590) as possible and comfortable. Support the vendors for interesting bits of garb and visit with friends and meet new ones. I dislike the staring by ungarbed or poorly garbed "partiers" who seem to form a ClusterF*%# near the pubs.

Rude kids for sure.

Smokers who treat the grounds as an ashtray. I smoke and I strip the remains and put it in the bin.

[Adriana Rose]

Heres a new one for me.

People playtrons and patrons who come into my shop look at the garlands that I bust my hump to make curl their lip and say " I can go get the stuff and make it for cheaper" or the ones that look me in the eye and ask me how I made the garland. This is how I make my living I am in no way going to tell them.

[Archer]

Does this bother or annoy you because you feel you or your work is devalued by it ?   Is it a choice and could one decide to consider it a compliment that they would want to make one such as yours ?   Is it all in how you decide to take the comment ?    Take a lemon and make some lemonade.  Its easier on the stress factors that affect your zen and potentially your health.  

[DT_Masters]

Does this bother or annoy you because you feel you or your work is devalued by it ?   Is it a choice and could one decide to consider it a compliment that they would want to make one such as yours ?   Is it all in how you decide to take the comment ?    Take a lemon and make some lemonade.  Its easier on the stress factors that affect your zen and potentially your health.  

I believe that if it only happened once in a blue moon, it might be easier to take it as a compliment. As this video, http://wn.com/vendors?orderby=relevance&upload_time=all_time, indicates (the first one, the vendor/client relationship in the real world, can't say for the rest), that's not necessarily the case. Now granted, this is humor......but humor impacts a long way when it has a lot as oppose to a little reality to relate to.

Further, there is that essential point, that this is the vendors' cash supply. It's not money on the side, but how they eat and live. Things that threaten anyone's meal ticket are pretty tough to interpret as a compliment.

[Archer]

Does this bother or annoy you because you feel you or your work is devalued by it ?   Is it a choice and could one decide to consider it a compliment that they would want to make one such as yours ?   Is it all in how you decide to take the comment ?    Take a lemon and make some lemonade.  Its easier on the stress factors that affect your zen and potentially your health.  

I believe that if it only happened once in a blue moon, it might be easier to take it as a compliment. As this video, http://wn.com/vendors?orderby=relevance&upload_time=all_time, indicates (the first one, the vendor/client relationship in the real world, can't say for the rest), that's not necessarily the case. Now granted, this is humor......but humor impacts a long way when it has a lot as oppose to a little reality to relate to.

Further, there is that essential point, that this is the vendors' cash supply. It's not money on the side, but how they eat and live. Things that threaten anyone's meal ticket are pretty tough to interpret as a compliment.

That was an interesting video perspective.  No question that there is negativity out there that we are exposed to each day.  Perhaps each of those situations presents us with an opportunity to learn or to teach and to decide what we will not do and how we will not act toward others.   It is human nature to gravitate first, toward negative feelings when confronted with negativity or things that tend to devalue us or devalue what we consider to be something of our own creation and high excitement.  If we make a choice to decide that our method of earning is under attack, the learned behavior reaction is to feel devalued and defensive.   Redefine is the method to make a decision to let none of that negativity impact because it has no real impact unless you permit it by making that choice, to permit.  The comment really does not devalue you or your work or services at all.  A choice could be made to view it simply as a neutral prop that gives you an opportunity to decide how you will or will not behave yourself.  After all, your choices and your words and actions are something you own.  You have to own it before you can control it.  A choice is made each time you decide how you are going to react to negativity or negative comments or negative energy put out there by others.  Its just a tool to consider for the daily life toolbox but,  each individual has a choice to use it, or not.

[raevyncait]

Comments like "I could make it cheaper" at ANY event featuring handcrafted items is in extremely poor taste, and, often, when you get down to it, not true at all.  Admittedly, I have made some of those very same comments, however I did so PRIVATELY, away from the shop, so as not to insult the vendor. 
Some items, like simple chemises and basic skirts, sure, I can make those for much less cost in materials than the price of what most vendors sell, and it doesn't take me very long to whip those things out, HOWEVER, when you calculate in my time, at a reasonable hourly rate, let's say $10/hour for JUST the preparation of the purchased items and the sewing of them, and fuel to go pick up the fabric at the store, unless I hit a really great sale on fabric, a basic cotton chemise is right about $40 in materials, fuel, and my time, and that's a plain, made from 4 squares/rectangles of fabric with an elastic neckline & elastic cuffs, and nothing fancy on it.

Don't even get me started on corsets/bodices, those are generally worth every penny to me.

Something like flower garlands, such as Adriana makes & sells, I would think that by the time materials are purchased and the tedium of getting everything assembled, they would be worth every penny.

Unless a demonstration is part of the booth's offering, I would think asking for instructions, ESPECIALLY after having made a comment about being able to make it cheaper, is not only in poor taste, it IS downright rude, and after enough incidents, I think it would begin to hurl me into depths of rage as well.

[Adriana Rose]

I dont let it get to me anymore, though one of the giels that works for me look like she was going to rip the persons head off when they asked her that. Thank goodness she didnt but I saw the thought crossing her mind, this was for a " How do you make it, and whats in it?" question. She said " Oh just about 8 years of practice and a bit of this and a bit of that"

[kcdcchef]

Comments like "I could make it cheaper" at ANY event featuring handcrafted items is in extremely poor taste, and, often, when you get down to it, not true at all.  Admittedly, I have made some of those very same comments, however I did so PRIVATELY, away from the shop, so as not to insult the vendor. 
Some items, like simple chemises and basic skirts, sure, I can make those for much less cost in materials than the price of what most vendors sell, and it doesn't take me very long to whip those things out, HOWEVER, when you calculate in my time, at a reasonable hourly rate, let's say $10/hour for JUST the preparation of the purchased items and the sewing of them, and fuel to go pick up the fabric at the store, unless I hit a really great sale on fabric, a basic cotton chemise is right about $40 in materials, fuel, and my time, and that's a plain, made from 4 squares/rectangles of fabric with an elastic neckline & elastic cuffs, and nothing fancy on it.

Don't even get me started on corsets/bodices, those are generally worth every penny to me.

Something like flower garlands, such as Adriana makes & sells, I would think that by the time materials are purchased and the tedium of getting everything assembled, they would be worth every penny.

Unless a demonstration is part of the booth's offering, I would think asking for instructions, ESPECIALLY after having made a comment about being able to make it cheaper, is not only in poor taste, it IS downright rude, and after enough incidents, I think it would begin to hurl me into depths of rage as well.

I'm a professional chef, and hear this a lot. I could make it cheaper. Than please do and shut the fu(* up. So could I, after I take away your tablecloth, silverware, table, dishes, server, air conditioning, building you're eating it in, and all that fun stuff. It really is in such poor taste to say that directly to a vendor. Sad.

[Rowan MacD]

This doesn't cause me rage, but it does greatly annoy me - when faires are so out to make a profit that they stop caring about the paytrons. For example, the faire that I went to yesterday, which apparently is known for having hot weather (and is a very dry, dusty faire), was charging $4 for a small-sized soda. That is more expensive than Disneyland. I'm really glad I brought a whole bunch of water with me, but when I ran out, I left the faire. I'm not paying through the nose just because I'm a "captive" audience. And the food prices weren't much better.

If the faires provided a safe, free, drinking water source like a drinking fountain I wouldn't mind that the vendors charge 3-4$ bucks for a bottle of water for the patrons who may not want to drink tap water.  
 Markup on bottled water of just about any brand is 400-500%, and on only one occasion have I ever encountered a vendor that offered bottled water at less than the price of a 20oz. soda.  


For the 'I can make it cheaper' snarks;  I would tell them: 
   "Feel free to run on home and give it your best shot.  However, if you want to wear a nice wreath/hat/ gown now, please refer to the price tag on the item.  Be aware that the price is NOT negotiable."
 

[Archer]

Well stated Rowen.

[Dinobabe]

I think most of us here could make just about anything we wanted.  Yes, it is your time and therefore technically saves you money.  But that's not the point!  I buy a loaf of bread because I don't always have the time to make one.  It would be cheaper for me to buy the ingredients and make it myself (and healthier!).  We buy ready made items to save time, support a well liked vendor, get a better quality than we are capable of (years of experience there!), buy a single item that we may have to buy in bulk, the list goes on, etc.  We live in a ready made, disposable society so even the hand crafted items are seen that way.  It's really too bad that society has gone down that way.  At least we have the support of this community and place to rant about it.

Thank you crafters that have decided to take the harder road of preserving hand crafts, trades skills, and other lost arts!

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

If the vendors aren't there to pay booth fees to increase the faires income, there'd be no faire.  Therefore, my shopping addiction is the least I can do to keep the faire open.    lol

But doesn't it SOUND like it makes a lot of sense???........       

[Lady Toadflinger]

Lady Renee, I wholeheartedly agree with your view! If we don't help support the vendors, they won't come to our Faires, and the Faires will dwindle away. This is why I bought a corset at a recent Faire from a new vendor! It was purely altruism.... (it really helped that the corset was a fabulous price, and just screamed at me to take it home. I truly couldn't turn it down, now could I?)

[Archer]

Now these are some feel good posts.  I must admit that my party on average is "blessed" and will usually drop at least (one or more) multiple 4 digit numbers, spread amoung craftsmen and vendors, over a month time each year, in support of my local faire.  I tend to purchase from other sources only those things I can't locate at the faires I attend.

I suspect that may occasionally be a measure of salve for any good souls that were  in the booth or shop, ahead of me.

I encourage the guests I take or invite to visit particular vendors who have good/quality inventory and positive charged personalities.  

Those tend to be winning combinations for those who attend with intent to support their work and creativity.  

Historically, the arts have always needed benefactors.  The trick is how to be selected by those benefactors.

At the risk of the label lecturer, keep up the good work craftsmen and vendors.  Some supporters will notice.  Not all are able . . .  these days.

Edit to add:  Nothing in this activity or process has, so far, hurled me off into the depths of rage.   

[Rowan MacD]

   Shoplifters and thieves.  Grrrr. 
   Last weekend our clan tent at the Quad Cities games was located next door to a vendor.  They happen to be friends of ours as well as sponsors of many of the Celtic Games in the Midwest.
   I was sitting in my tent crowdwatching that afternoon,  when I noticed a young lady, maybe early 20's, wearing an oversized down vest, jogging pants, sneakers and a long sleeved T-shirt.  The temps were in the upper 60's.  She appeared to be about 5-6 mo pregnant, though otherwise she was very thin.  She was accompanied by a young man about the same age wearing a polo shirt and cargo shorts.   She was also carrying a large camera with a telephoto lens around her neck, though oddly she was not carrying a supply case for it, or even a purse.  Her male companion was likewise unburdened.  They passed our tent and started cruising the clothes racks to the side of the vendor's tent.
  They spent a lot of time looking at merchandise outside the tent, never going inside.  They kept watching the vendors (who were very busy) intently, then started picking up clothing items and turning away so the woman's back was to the register while the man watched the vendors over her shoulder. 
   Hubby returned to our tent right after they started doing this, so I decided to mosey over and watch these folks more closely.  As I walked up, they were flipping through a rack with children's' kilts.  The man had one of these held up to the girls lower belly, which people would dismiss as a cute "what would the kid look like in this?" move.  The girl raised her vest and I could clearly see that she was not pregnant and apparently had quite a bit of fabric (lumps and edges) stuffed under her shirt under the vest.   I was standing right behind the man when she saw me watching them, and she shot him a meaningful look and shook her head slightly whereupon he hastily hung the kilt back up and they took off.  I waited till there were no customers in line before I informed the vendors of my suspicions, and we could see by that time that the couple had entered the athletes tent where the contestants stored their personal effects.
   I headed over there as they started to pick through the stuff laying in chairs and on tables like they belonged there, when one of the athletes walked over to them.  The girl lifted the camera (the first time I ever saw her touch it) and she gestured toward the games.   The athlete did not look like he was buying it, and he spoke to them for about 5 minutes in a not friendly manner.   The couple beat a hasty retreat, and I did not see them after that. 
   The vendors are reasonably sure they did not get anything from them that was expensive, since jewelry and such is kept under glass or on the tables within clear sight of the staff.   They usually lose a percentage of stuff every event to thieves, and I felt bad for not confronting these while they were at the tent,  but since I had not actually seen them take anything,  I did not feel right about making a scene in someones place of business. 
   However, considering their behavior and the fact that she was definitely not carrying a baby under that vest, would have got them hauled into a back office at any store in town.