Getting started with the most recent events here: This past June WASTEWORLD exhibited at the second annual Open Sauce event in San Francisco. It was a busy week for me—on the same day of my booth setup at the event, I took the Philadelphia civil service examination, celebrated my birthday, and was technically “walking” at my graduation ceremony back in Philly. Of all those things, displaying my toys at an event of this size with my friend (and let’s be honest, adopted dad), Joe Kopena, was an honor and a privilege.
As usual, the sign for my booth was made the day before the event. After dumpster diving for the perfect piece of cardboard, I used some thumbtacks, super glue, and POSCA markers to put together a banger of a sign! And as always, once finished with it, returned it to the trash from which it came.
The reception of the toys was better than I had hoped. People don’t really know I make toys. Unless you’ve seen the proliferation of the vehicles and figures I’ve made inside my house, then even long-time friends would remain unaware of all my efforts. I don’t usually share the builds outside of a select few friends, so I’m truly appreciative of positive reception the toys received whenever I do get to demonstrate them and have them play-tested by people. It was also an absolute pleasure seeing people I met at last year’s Open Sauce, hearing about what they’ve been up to since last we met, meeting new people that showed an interest in my work, and the advice that was given to me made my heart grow three times its size each day of the event. By the end of the four days I believe my heart had grown an order of magnitude larger. Its size is a concern now. My blood pressure has dropped substantially. But it’s appreciated, nonetheless!
Before heading out west I had decided to make a sort of yearbook with all my doodles and technical drawings of my work scanned and glued into it. Then, I would have anyone that played with my toys or talked to me for a bit sign and share their thoughts, comments, ideas, critiques, contact information, and anything else they wanted within it. The goal was to help me remember all that happened throughout the busy event and assist in my recall when trying to think about it fondly. I would say it was a rousing success and made the plane ride home and days following everything much more productive. I now had suggestions of what to do with all this stuff and advice with where it could take me should I pursue it further. People sharing their names and contact information in addition to their advice proved most fruitful, giving me opportunities to continue conversations and ask follow-up questions. So, sincere thanks to anyone that signed my Open Sauce yearbook!
Lastly and most importantly, biggest thanks of all to Joe for spending his Father’s Day with me. It meant the world to me. Thank you!
