This weekend, the Ida Lee Rec Center will be filled to the brim with booths boasting of different odd ends and trinkets. From woodworking to syrup and jewelry to ceramics, you can find it all at the Holiday In Leesburg craft fair this Saturday (Dec. 7) from 9am-4pm and Sunday (Dec. 8) 10am-4pm. The fair sports small business owners who take the opportunity to sell their innovative crafts and promote their unique businesses.
One such independent business owner, Erin Landavere, has been participating in the craft fair since 2020. “I sell pottery, and bath and body items [like] handmade soaps, soy candles and sugar scrubs,” she says of her business, Slate Roof Studio.
For Landavere, reaching out to the community via the craft fair has its perks. “It is a fun and rewarding experience, especially when repeat customers come back and they tell me how much they enjoy a mug they bought, etc,” she says. She is always excited to interact with fairgoers who stop by her booth. “I try to interact with everyone who stops by my booth, but I don’t bother people who just are looking around and don’t have questions.”
Along with allowing small businesses to reach out to their community, the craft fair fosters relationships between vendors. “I see several vendors every year and we know each other by now. Many of us keep in touch via social media. For many it is just another selling spree…” Every year, she sees a lot of Christmas décor, but she enjoys seeing what newcomers bring to the fair. “Some of the crazy things are the expensive gadgets that are a fad and I know I won’t see them the next year.”
While shoppers can peruse the fair at their own leisure, they more often than not remain unaware of the hard work that goes into creating the fair experience. “It is a lot of work!” Landavere exclaims. “Making pottery in my spare time, not including when I am teaching pottery to students, and then bisque firing the pieces and then glazing them and refiring them. Packing up everything is also very time consuming.” Additionally, several of the vendors “drive 3 or 4 hours to sell their crafts!”
Liberty Landavere, Landavere’s daughter, assists in the craft fair for Slate Roof Studio as well. She is technically a senior at Loudoun County high school, but most of her schooling comes through online courses at Liberty University as opposed to physically being present in the building.
The experience for her “includes reviewing [her] mother’s work with [her mother] throughout the year so she has her products ready, as well as set up and take down. [Her mother] does the bulk of the crafting process by herself and [she] assists in the set up, formatting and sale process.”
“We pack everything into boxes for safe travel and carry an estimated 1000 lbs of product into the recreation center in just about four hours, then organize and set it all up for the proceeding sale,” Landavere describes. “Our mutual least favorite part is set up and breakdown at the end. By the end we are all usually tired—but satisfied with our results.”
For her, “[the craft fair] is an opportunity for me to spend time with my mother and interact with the community as well as her customers. I enjoy watching her small business grow and evolve over the years.”
Like her mother, Landavere interacts with the other vendors. Of all the small businesses, Landavere asserts, “The coolest would probably have to be Shalom’s candles. My first year working with my Mom, I bought a really cool candle from him that was a circular shape with all sorts of fancy designs. We had a short conversation but I was wearing a mask so I didn’t expect him to recognize me the following year when I saw him again, he did and he also knew me by name which was cool.”
Landavere is not the only teenager who participates in the fair. “I do see the occasional teenager with their parents or relatives running a booth, but the most common vendors are middle to elderly ages.” Despite the prominence of adults running the booths, the presence of teenagers goes to show that small businesses are closer than a lot of us think.
Small businesses are not just a pursuit for adults but for high school students as well. In fact, some Tuscarora students and alumni have small businesses. William Just, an alumni of Tuscarora, class of ‘24, ran a candle business that a fellow staff writer, Sydney Nicklas, explored in her article “Loudoun Candle: A Business Run by Tuscarora Student William Just.” Likewise, Tuscarora senior Arieanna “Ari” Phuenphiphop is the co-owner of Ichigo Thai. “I do pop up tents with my friend from parkview and my mom,” she explains. “Me and my friend focus on the sweets, selling croffles, Thai snow cones, and drinks… My mom focuses on entrees like rice meals, wraps, and skewers.” She was 14 when she started the business with her friend, and now she helps to run the NVA Thai Street Food and Cultural Festival where she sells her food too.
Both Just and Phuenphiphop show that small businesses are not out of reach for those ambitious enough to pursue them. For people who would like to start a small business, Landavere advises, “Keep consistent in your pursuit. You may see others with a similar creation or idea but everyone is unique and whatever you create will be too. Additionally, starting your own business is similar to any entrepreneurship journey, there is feast and famine, success and failure, and perseverance is the difference between realizing your business and not.”
The existence of craft fairs are products of the passion individuals put into their small businesses and reaching out to the community. “… I often wonder if craft shows will become a thing of the past or not,” Erin Landavere reflects solemnly. “Many craft shows are booming but I think that the Ida Lee craft show is becoming too expensive for beginner crafters to enter and sell their items.”
She adds, “I think that small businesses are the backbone of our country and they should be promoted more by local municipalities and the media. They are the ones, not Amazon or the big box stores, who sponsor school events and sports teams, and they should be supported when it comes to gift shopping.”
