Oddly Fascinating / Dark Rain Design FAQ
TL; DR-
"Everywhere I look I see something awesome!" - overheard in the booth
Oddly Fascinating is a husband-and-wife pair of artists who delight in creating cute but slightly demented art, and hunting down obscure and unusual treasures to share. Their booth is less a shop and more an Oddities Experience. They carefully curate their offerings, from animatronic steampunk sculptures and creepy stained glass creations to original artwork to Edwardian antiques and retail oddities from all over the world. Their booth guides the audience through these offerings, creating a creepily immersive world many visit more than once.
And in more detail (for those that still read things):
1) Who are you guys?
Alex has a long history with prop and model making, electronics, painting, stained glass, and sculpture. Sterling sews, crochets, paints, and does leatherwork. Both of us are extremely nerdy and a bit (okay, a lot) twisted. Apart from expressing ourselves creatively, we love to find neat things and share them with our customers.
2) Oddly Fascinating? I though you were Dark Rain Design?
Our registered business name is, and will remain, Dark Rain Design. However, we are now primarily vending as Oddly Fascinating. The rebrand more accurately reflects our focus on weird & unusual items. Anything we make is still branded as Dark Rain Design.
3) How long have you been in business?
We are currently in our 10th year. No plans to stop anytime soon.
4) Is this your full-time occupation?
It is for Alex; Sterling has a day job. Which is boring, but helps pay the mortgage.
5) Do you have a physical store?
No - at least not yet. We sell at various shows through the year, and from this website.
6) What types of shows do you do (or have done)?
We lean towards Oddity shows, and will curate our offerings to fit the theme of whatever event we do. The list below is not comprehensive, but is a good sample of what we've done (reflecting our Steampunk origins, of course):
Connecticut Renaissance Faire
Cryptid Night Market
Darkside Oddities Market
Fang Around the Cauldron
Festival of Peculiarities
Forty Elephants market
Harrisburg ComicCon
International Steampunk Symposium
Land of Curiosities Festival
Laurel Hill Cemetery's Market of the Macabre
Lexington ComicCon
Market of Magick
New England Odd & Unusual (multiple cities)
Pennhurst Asylum Paracon
Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire
Pocono Comic Expo
STEAMPunk Expo
Steampunk unLimited
Teslacon
The Market of Curiosities (2x winner of Most Curious Booth)
The Undead of Winter
The Wicked Oddities Market
The Witches Ball
Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market
Watch City Steampunk Festival
World Oddities Expo (multiple cities)
Zolocon
In addition to the shows, our Clockwork Critters have been the subject of a feature article in Carpe Noctem Magazine and a cover article for the Philly Metro newspaper. They were part of a Steampunk exhibit at the Kemmerer Museum in Bethlehem PA, and both they and us have been featured in many on-line articles and interviews.
7) You used to just sell Clockwork Critters, now you sell lots of things. What's up with that?
We've discovered seeking out weird shit to offer to our customers is just as much fun as making things. The things we sell currently sell fall under one of four categories:
- Things We Make – Self-explanatory. Currently, this is Clockwork Critters animatronic animals, stained glass, and prop items..
- People We Know – Works purchased for resale directly from artists. Enamel pins, art prints, plushies, mugs, coasters, and other items. Everything is sold and promoted under the artist’s name.
- Things We Find – Antiques, collectibles, vintage, and other weird stuff that we hunt for online and in flea markets, estate sales, and auctions all over the country, and from as far away as Japan and Germany. May include uranium glass, quack medical devices, anatomical models, unusual knick-knacks, and disturbing artifacts. .
- Stuff We Buy – What would be considered regular retail items, purchased specifically for resale. This includes books, some prints, and 3D wood puzzle kits. Always curated directly by us.
8) Do you do custom work?
Yes, but it depends on the nature of the request. Because of our show schedule, custom work can take a long time. Your best bet is to either email or speak to one of us at a show and let us know what you have in mind.
9) What's with the Pride stuff?
In our personal lives we are active in the alternative lifestyle community. We want to show our support for the community at large and for our friends. A portion of the sales of all Pride and lifestyle items is donated to The Attic Youth Center, a Philadelphia organization for LGBTQ youth.
10) Hey, you should sell at <extremely large and/or popular event>!
We appreciate the thought, but in a lot of cases this isn't an option. All of our hand-made products take quite a while to make, so creating enough inventory to justify the expense of a large event isn't feasible. Even with more of a focus on retail items, the fees and overall expenses at big events can be far too high for what is still a small two-person business.
11) I run <a new event or one we haven't vended at before> and would like to have you guys join us. What's the best way to get you involved?
Contact us as far in advance of the event as you can - most of our yearly schedule is set at least six months before. Be aware we do have very specific booth size and placement requirements, both for our benefit and in consideration for other vendors.
Beyond that, we'll ask some basic questions about the event, decide if we think we'd fit, and then if we do we'll go through whatever your normal vendor application process is.