What eleven winter markets taught us
From a school gym in 2019 to a borrowed band spot in 2025, a look back at our winter markets and what they've taught us about our own work.
Anonymous
4 min read
Every December for the past few years, our studio packs itself into the car and becomes a market table for a weekend. We've done eleven winter markets since 2019, in school gyms, a lakeside hotel, a music school, a hunting and fishing club and a shopping mall. Here's what we remember, and what we've learned.
2019: a gym, then a waitlist
Our first was the Waldorf Winter Faire on December 7, 2019, in the school gym. It was a cash-only day, and we hung our work on the gym wall behind the table.
A week later we were at the EcoSociety Winter Craft Fair. We'd asked for a table far too late and went on the waitlist, then a cancellation came through and we landed booth #7. Back then we described ourselves as making "laser cut jewellery and engraved topographic map cutting boards." These days the maps are front and centre. Afterwards the market coordinator told us their dad loved the cutting board, which was a nice way to end our first season.
2021 to 2023: finding our feet
In 2021 the Kootenay Artisan Fair moved its holiday shows to the Rod & Gun Club in Nelson, and we joined them there. In November 2022 we made it into the big one at the Prestige, with an 8-foot steel grid behind us to hang wall pieces on, and a late upgrade to a bigger booth. The day after, someone who'd seen us there wrote to order a custom cribbage board.
2023 was our busiest winter. Studio 88, a music school in Nelson, started a market and thanked us for being their "first official vendor." We asked for the table in front of their big screen so we could put our map designer up on it, with students playing live music around us. In December we went to Trail's Christmas market at Waneta Plaza, then straight back to the Rod & Gun Club, where a custom board we'd finished that week was collected from our table.
2024 and 2025: back to the gym
In 2024 we went back to the Waldorf Winter Faire with two tables, and the kids sold their own things alongside us. We rounded off the month at the Rod & Gun Club.
In 2025 we got the last spot at the Waldorf faire and set up the afternoon before, with an extra table for good measure. It turned out to be sitting in the band's spot and in front of an emergency exit. We moved it, and the musicians got their corner back.
What the markets have taught us
Cutting boards sell best. Almost every market, it's the boards people take home. On the smaller days, map cribbage boards give them a run.
Nearly every buyer is new to us. Markets are where people meet our work for the first time.
Markets lead to custom orders. Some of our favourite custom pieces started with someone seeing the boards on our table, then writing to ask about a place of their own.
The live map designer draws people in. At the Prestige we've set up our map design tool on a large screen behind the table, and it always draws a crowd. People want to see how their favourite place looks.
See you in December
This year we'll be at the Kootenay Artisan Fair's December market at the Rod & Gun Club on December 18 and 19, 2026. Here's everything you need to know about the December market. If you're hoping for a custom piece in time for the holidays, start a design early and ask about picking it up at the market.
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