Nick share’s his experience vending at the Summer Magic Fest in Orlando, a pagan and metaphysical event. He discusses his motivation for attending and the challenges he faced in terms of sales. He also interviews various vendors at the event, including musicians, authors, artists, and booksellers, who share their experiences and promote their work. The conversations cover topics such as music inspired by the divine feminine, magical crochet, spell casting, crystal and jewelry making, herbalism, and rare bookselling. The vendors provide insights into their creative processes and the unique aspects of participating in metaphysical and pagan markets.
- https://www.summermagickfest.org/
- www.hecateswheel.com
- www.fibermagick.com
- www.omlife777.com
- www.elleneverthopman.com
- www.uniqreads.com
- www.theravenfaerie.com
- www.etsy.com/shop/SpiritwickSpoils
- Music by Old Romans: https://www.instagram.com/old_romans
You can listen to the episode here (or wherever you listen to podcasts) or read the transcript below:
Hey listeners, Nick here. I just returned from a three or four day event, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, four day event, where I was vending in Orlando, Florida, called Summer Magic Fest. Now this is a pagan ritual and esoteric metaphysical featured themed event that had a vendor space. So I thought it would make
really good sense for me to be there selling my art and my pterodex. The reasoning behind this was I, at some point late last year, I participated in a event local to St. Pete called Spirit Fest, which was actually a touring event that happens at many different locations and it came to the St. Pete Coliseum. And I did really well selling my pterodex, my art there.
In that situation, I felt like I stood out amongst the other vendors because some people were selling tarot decks, but I was the only one who was selling tarot decks that I made. Now, so with that in mind, I thought it'd be great for me to come to this type of event. And while I met some wonderful people there and it gave me the opportunity to allow my wife to go to Disney every day, and we still had some nice evenings in Orlando.
As far as sales wise, it was kind of tough. I think I walked away with about $650 in sales, which really just covers the money I spent on the hotel and the vending fee. But I did meet some cool people and I am excited to share some interviews with them that I recorded while there in the downtime. So this is also kind of like a little practice for what I'm going to be doing.
in a few weeks in Columbus, Ohio at Origins, where I also plan on interviewing some of the creators there and doing quick little tours of their booths. So if you are just listening to the audio version of this, you'll still hear all that great audio, but you won't be able to see the merchandise that these people sell and create. So I recommend you head over to YouTube to watch the full video. Now, as far as why it didn't work out for me, I'm...
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (02:48.077)
It did kind of feel like the people who were attending this festival, which was at a hotel, were mostly there for the rituals and to meet people who have similar mindsets as them. They were not necessarily there to buy things and take stuff home. Spirit Fest, meanwhile, in comparison, was a two day event that was primarily a shopping event.
that had a couple of events around it. But those were mostly like seminars, classroom settings, not like participating in a ritual kind of thing that was happening here. So in regards, I think I need to always research an event more and kind of look at it from the eye of what do I expect the attendees to be doing at this type of event.
Alright, so with that in mind, let's pop over to some of these short interviews. Thank you. Hi, my name is Vicki Scottie, and I'm a singer -songwriter, silversmith, rock painter. Okay. And do you do a lot of events like this? No, I do very few select events, so it's not a lot of different ones, but I do perform in public, we do tour, and do pagan festivals.
and my band is called Hecate's Wheel. I'm the founder of the band. It's a female folk duo and I also do glass work and my music is more inspired by the divine feminine as is my jewelry as well.
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (04:33.134)
So how would you describe your music? My music is, it's more of a, usually like prayers to the goddess. So different songs come to me at different times and it's about different goddesses or events. It depends on what's happening and what I feel called to write. So what drew you to this specific event? Well, I know the organizers and so I've been involved with them. I do their registration for them and things like that.
Hi, I'm Opal Luna and I'm the author of Fiber Magic, a witch's guide to spell casting using crochet, knotwork, and weaving. I'm a crone, priestess of Minerva, and fiber magician. And you can find me at FiberMagic .com. I do magical crochet with intention. I...
Make hats. That's probably my go -to thing is my hats, you know, but I'll make anything that you want. And magical. These are the new items for this show. This is a callback cauldron where you can call back your energies that you've left here and there throughout the day. And this is a spell bottle.
full of rune dice papers in the way, but you can put out your rune dice and get a
There you go. Cheat. And get a message. Have you done an event like this before? Yes, this is actually the third year here. I've been here every year. I also do Mystic South in Atlanta, Georgia and Florida Pagan Gathering. Very cool. Yeah.
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (06:30.861)
Do you do a lot of events like this? I do, and I also do a lot of online things. I'm going to be in next year's WitchCon online and also in this year's Wealthy Witch Summit and Folk Magic Summit put on by the Bruja Power Coven online.
And one last time, so where can people find you? Fibermagic .com, just spell magic with a K, and that'll get you everywhere else, because I'm on YouTube, I have a Patreon, I'm on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok. There's too much of me out there. I'm everywhere. I'm Solora, and I am the business owner of My Goddess.
And I sell crystals and rings, but I also sell my artwork. So I make like the crystal trees over there. So they're all handmade. I make all those. And I make like the wreaths and stuff like that. Do you do a lot of events like this? Yeah, as many as I can. I try. About how many per year would you estimate?
As in metaphysical or... Like in -person events like this? Well, I try and do one every weekend. But not festivals like this, like more than a weekend.
Yeah, I do way more art events than metaphysical events, too. Right, right. So do you have any expectations going into this weekend? Well, this is my third time here, and I just love coming here and spending time. The people are great. Not expectations. I mean, you always hope for the best, but I have fun. And so where can people find you online?
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (08:28.205)
I do have a small website. It doesn't really have a whole lot on there, but I also have the My Goddess on Facebook and My Goddess 777 on Instagram. And that's Ohm as in Ohm My Goddess, O My name is Ellen Everett Hopman. I'm an author, an herbalist, and a druid, and I live in Western Massachusetts in an oak forest.
So where can people find you online? Well, my website is elleneverthopman .com. That's E -L -L -E -N -E -V -E -R -T -H -O -P -A -N .com. As a druid, I'm a member of a group called Tribe of the Oak, which is tribeoftheoak .org .org.
And this is my newest book, just came out. Came out May 7th, 2024. And last time I looked, which was two days ago, it was number one in new releases on Amazon. Yeah, so that's pretty nice. But as you can see, I have lots of books out. And this one came out in 2023.
and that's also doing very well. People love Christmas and radio stations particularly like Christmas so when you do Christmas stuff everybody wants to talk to you so I learned that. So is this your first time doing an event like this? I'm guessing not. No, I've been doing this since the 80s, since the 1980s, but it's my first time at this gathering actually.
Some of my books have gotten awards. As you can see, this one, Once Around the Sun, was a Council of Visionary Resources Book of the Year, Children's Books, 2023, I think. Anyway, as you can see, it has a little sticker. And this book is a book that goes around the Wheel of the Year.
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (10:52.013)
And it's for kids, pagan kids, and it's designed to read original stories out loud. Each festival around the Wheel of the Year has a story based on European lore, not made up stuff. And then there's a craft and a recipe that goes with each story. So you can celebrate, like, salen or bel -tane or whatever you want, with a story, a craft, and a recipe.
And that won an award. And then this one, Secret Medicines from Your Garden, this one two awards. So it was International Herb Association Book of the Year for the year that it came out, whenever that was. And there's so many now, I can't remember. Anyway, but also Council of Visionary Resources. And this one is, it's a combination memoir.
and herbal. So I talk about how I got into herbalism to begin with, which is a very mystical thing. But in the back, there's 40 pages of builders, cleansers, and tonics with instructions on how to make formulas using builders, cleansers, and tonics. So herbalists like it. Hi.
Elizabeth Campbell and I'm the owner and only employee of Unique Reads. I am a rare used and secondhand bookseller. I also sell a little bit of new books but not much. I have been doing these types of shows since 98 which really dates me a bit. I started out selling in the SCA which is Society for Creative and Actualism selling medieval books and then I just branched out to
the pagan groups and a lot of other festivals and fairs. I've done homeschool conventions, I've done Dragon Con a couple of times and my mainstay though is the New Age Pagan Market. It's both easy and hard to do this. I mean, setting things up and everything. I've always dealt with the idea of renewal and reusable, so I've reused...
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (13:14.797)
my bags, cloth bags and stuff. I have tablecloths that are old blankets, random cloths. I have to source my books from other bookstores, a lot of which are not online. People's collections I buy. It's really weird to do this because while it's energetic and lovely and you meet a lot of people on here, it's slightly different being a bookseller because it's a niche within a niche.
and I'm probably mispronouncing that, but the whole idea is that I love books. I've always loved books. I've loved information and I love giving people books and information. I love finding things that they have never seen before or even thought of as a book. And it's a fascinating look into what people have thought over time and seeing trends and things like that. But unlike a lot of vendors, I've...
Like I said, I source my own materials for everything, building things, putting things up, shelving units and the stuff. And it's time consuming, but it's a labor of love on there. And I have expanded to a few other things, like trying to sell some antiques and jewelry and what I have over there, if you show them these little tiny, these here are PDF files of books from the Victorian ages that I put on.
flashcards for people so that you can find the information while the book has been completely damaged and not available anymore. Because the whole idea is to get information out to people and if some people are offended by one author another person is not and that becomes a whole thing. And I would say that selling in the metaphysical pagan markets is different than any other group you can merchant in because people are very friendly and very open and very...
interconnected. I've seen other people that I haven't seen in like a year or so and they still remember my name or remember, it's the book lady and then everybody's always happy to see you and you know if you forget your lunch somebody's always willing to help out a bit and you don't get that a lot so it's a big community and it is fun to do this and yeah if anybody ever wants to start something like this it's always good. Don't be weird.
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (15:36.205)
I'm an Aquarius, of course I'm weird. We need to get Lena in. Hi, I'm Maya. Hi, Johnny. Welcome to the Raven Ferry. We are at the Summer Magic Fest in Orlando. We are located in Lakeland, Florida at 201 Frank Lloyd Wright Way. I know, I feel like I'm in a different universe here. We have an array of things for you to come and see. We would really...
invite you to come experience and journey through the adventure of the Raven Fairy. There's so many things for you to see and do there. We have a fairy forest, we have a temple of the gods, we have the Queen's Closet, we do have lots of workshops and classes for you to sign up for. I think you'd be delighted. I'm Maya, I'm the owner of the shop. This is Lena, and she knows all the things about crystals and gemstones.
This is May, and she works with runes and creates witches runes and futak runes. Also, both of them have classes. This is Andy. He is our herb guy. Anything you want to know about what it does for you and why it does it, he's the one to ask. And I have tarot classes and psychic development classes. And we have the Crystal Throne. We're going to go on guided meditations. Come see us. I think you'll really enjoy it.
And where can people find you online? www .therevonferry .com F -A -E F -A -E -R -I -E, it's the ancient Celtic way. You can also find us on Instagram. Hi, my name is Renee and I'm a local artist and I do all kinds of things from wine bottle candles to fused glass.
And I do stained glass. Like I pretty much made everything on this table. So I just love really doing art and I love it if people would buy my art so that I could keep doing it. That would be fantastic. So I have like everything from like fairies to birds to UFOs. That's all my fused glass stuff.
Chain Assembly (Nick Ribera) (17:51.949)
I love doing the stained glass and the fused glass, but I also like working with the resin. So I do like this kind of stuff with the resin too. And I also make soaps and candles and jewelry with the crystals. But I think that my favorite thing to do is working with the glass. I also work with the epoxy. This is pretty fun too, because you can put your energy into it and you can make organoids and organites, which literally make the...
transform the positive ions into negative ions, which are the ones that are good for you. So I have that too. So where can people find you? You can find me at my Etsy shop at Spirit Wig Spoils. How do you spell that? It's S -P -I -R -I -T -W -I -C -K -S -P -O -I -L -S.
Outro
Chain Assembly: Art for profit sake is recorded through Riverside FM, distributed through Spotify for podcasters, and edited on Adobe Audition. The music is provided by Old Romans. If you learned anything useful or found this podcast helpful, please rate and review us five stars. If you want to learn more about me or my art, head over to ChainAssembly.com.
