Lowell Folk FestIval

Dusty Santos
Jul 28
4 min read

Updated: Aug 8

Lowell Folk Fest was amazing. Met a bunch of people and made some surprising sales. Surprising because I wasn't planning to have a particular product at the festival.

A few posts ago I listed all my unfinished projects. That simple act shook me out of a rut. The rut? I kept starting projects and not finishing others.

I decided to take care of the list before continuing the current project I started.

Since then I:

Made a jewelry holder (which becomes very much needed)
Finished stands for my sons Skylanders collection
Fixed a wooden toy
Printed more stickers
And I figured out my K-Cup holder problem

For those just joining my journey, here is my K-cup holder.

The trays slide in and are perfectly spaced to optimized space between the k-cups. Trays have an intricate design laser etched into the curves.

The holder wasn't market ready though for the longest time. The problem? I wanted to protect the top from coffee spills.

I tried a couple of things. First, was a non stick bottom with a vinal sticker. I researched popular Keurig holder colors and made a nice design for the sticker.

Immediately after putting it together I realized, it felt cheap.

A new idea formed... Leather.

Leather, would look so professional. Really up the price of my product or at least make it look more expensive. Plus, I have a bunch of free veg-tan leather I could use.

I tried many times to make a leather topper. And I ran into many problems.

Cuts were never clean.
Staining such a big piece was never uniform.
Leather held indents forever.
- Opening a stain bottle, while it was on top of a piece of leather, left a permanent indent caused by the bottom of the bottle.
- What do you think will happen when a Keurig sits on top?
Pieces were drying out.

So I took a hard look at what I was doing. Shame to say but I had to let the idea of a leather topper go.

Instead...

A clear table topper:

Description said it was easy to cut and virtually invisible. Easy to clean and even heat resistant!

With this the wood would be protected and beautifully visible.

Lucky for me, the topper came just in time. I came home Saturday night, after the first day of Lowell Folk Fest, and cut my first pieces.

Just look at how gorgeous the K-Cup holders look...

Upcoming Events:

No new events scheduled

Thank you Lowell Folk Fest for hosing Lowell Makes!

Amazon Affiliate Time

Seriously, this is the easiest way to support my business!

Click the link and anything you buy

- within 24 hours -

gets attributed to me and I get a small %

If 24 hours passed just click it again.

You don't have to purchase what is showcased, you can get anything!

Featured Item:

Every product featured I've purchased and approve.

- Amazon Link -

Day 1 - Lowell Folk Fest

First day of the festival was really busy and really hot. I opened and was there until 4:00.

Everything was going well. I brought my jewelry holder to hold another artist's products. My daughter out sold every other artist with her stickers. So proud of her for that!

After I left and the night shift came in, I was told my stand blew over twice. It hadn't done that all day!

They used my new jewelry stand instead to hold all my keychains. So happy I made that! It really saved the rest of the show.

Day 2 - Lowell Folk Fest

On the second day I was scheduled to open, and it was raining! Not crazy hard but enough that our tables were soaked through.

All products were stored in a POD overnight so it was only the tables that were wet. I set it all up, and hoped the rain would stop.

We had one scare where a huge band of rain came in and we had to quickly move some paintings. After that the rain cleared up and I had my best day.

Stickers, two keychain charms, a matching game, and my newly added K-Cup Holder sold!

I could not be happier about my K-cup holder selling. A product that I put together last minute because I took a look at my business and fixed problems.

I got my business sorted out and instantly felt the benefit.

If you're indeed the person who bought that holder from me, thanks! I would be very grateful for a testimonial from you.

Enjoying the Folk Fest,

We met "The Stick Man" AKA "Sticks". Really talented walking cane artist.

I had this amazing 'hot dog' (which actually goes by a much better name that I couldn't pronounce) from FealMA. Hope I got their name right, it was on the sign at their booth.