I can honestly say I am very impressed with the results from Threshold’s Bizarre Bazaar. I was made very welcome, and given the “Spider Room,” with furniture made by my friend Downtown Willy. They took out the spider ottoman, but left the huge metal web and throne made of powder coated rebar. While I may not have been the perfect subject for the throne, it certainly was nice to have such a place to sit down.
I expected the looky loos. That’s very common for the Threshold crowd. What was different was this was the first time showing at Threshold with an artist’s clothesline. The art held their attention and there was a lot of feedback to staff that the crowd was glad to have fetish art at the bazaar.
What has me bewildered is the cards and stickers did ok, but didn’t fly off the table like at other places. People would look, laugh, and stare for a long time, then leave. The paddles didn’t move at all. On occasion, someone picked up a paddle, gave it a feel, then put it back down.
But, then the originals began to move, and special thanks to Etsy for their credit card processing, which saved my ass at the bazaar. Originals are not typically big sellers at events. This is why I’ve moved more towards doing things like calendars, cards, stickers and paddles.
Most of the time, Threshold frowns on photography at their events. So I couldn’t get crowd shots, but I did get some “celebrity photos” of folks out in the scene.
Originally, I set up greeting cards in bundles and an original piece of art for the silent auction. Threshold put it all together as one set. Kim Airs bid on the whole thing and won the lot. Kim now runs private parties for selling adult toys to women. These may end up at her parties in the near future.
On a final note, I should mention something about leather, gay, and kink culture. There’s been a lot of talk, especially in LA about how gay and kink aren’t mixing anymore. Rick Castro has been hesitant to come to events like Bizarre Bazaar and SMUT because he feels the kink crowd is a het crowd.
Just because a place like Threshold isn’t packed with gay men groping each other, doesn’t mean they’re not gay positive. Modern kink got its start with places like Folsom and the leather communities. While you will find a lot of straight, dominant men at places like Threshold, their roots are in gay leather culture. Many members are gay positive, bisexual, and gender bent. The piece above got snatched up very quickly by a regular at Threshold who absolutely loved it.
Places like Antebellum, and Tom of Finland Foundation should not underestimate this crowd.
On a final personal note, a lot of my favorites got new homes this weekend. I’m going to miss them, but it is an accomplishment of a greater mission. It really does hurt to show again and again, at so many places to have no one buy the original pieces that I loved creating so much. Even worse has been to knock down the prices repeatedly just to have my best pieces overlooked. So, in the big picture, Bizarre Bazaar was a big success because people actually wanted the originals and took them home.
I’m going to miss these pieces, but it feels so much better knowing someone loves a piece as much as I do. It’s a validation after years and years where I’ve been to the point of giving up. Thank you kindly to the folks at Threshold and the staff of Bizarre Bazaar for having me and for such a great time.