Check out these crafty local vendors at FanX next week

SALT LAKE CITY ( ABC4 ) — In addition to celebrity guests and cosplayers, there are also plenty of vendors to visit at the upcoming FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention. Ahead of the con, ABC4.com met with two local vendors for a deeper look at their craft and what they’re excited to share with the community.

FanX this year will be on Sept. 26 – 28. Tickets are still available online.

Stone Cobra Creations:

When Caitlynn Stone was down for a few weeks while recovering from surgery, she wanted a way to keep herself busy. That’s when she picked up crochet, learning with YouTube videos.

“[I] found out that I had both a knack and a passion for it,” she said.

Caitlynn’s love for crochet grew. She’s been crocheting for about seven years, and started her business, Stone Cobra Creations , around two and a half years ago.

“I think it’s being able to make things three-dimensionally, to bring things from my head into real life. To make a small thing from beginning to end, make a whole thing in a day, that really plays well with the way I work and the way my brain functions. I have ADHD. So getting to make an entire project within a day makes me happy, especially when it’s something creative” she said.

Her creations include animals, such as ducks, chickens, and anteaters. She also makes characters from fandoms, including Pokémon and Studio Ghibli. Caitlynn shared that if she finds something cute, it inspires her to make it.

Caitlynn has been to FanX several times as an attendee and volunteer, and this will be her second year as a vendor.

“It’s one of the events that I look forward to the most in the year I like. One of my favorite things about it is that it’s a space where both casual fans of pop culture entertainment, and people who are really, really deeply entrenched in all of it, can come together into a similar space,” she said.

She said at her first year of FanX, the reception was positive, and she enjoyed talking to people who visited her booth.

This year, she shared she is moving from having a table in the artists’ alley to a booth space in the dealer hall, which will give her more space. Her booth will feature her crocheted creations, as well as bleached clothes and crochet kits.

“It’s going to make it so that people can walk into it and interact more with everything that I’ve got going, which is really exciting for me because it means that I can put more clothing items out and maybe if I have them ready, put some of my kits out where you get to make your own parasol at home, for example. That’s one that I’m working on,” she said.

Caitlynn explained she’s been trying to shift her business toward being an educational source, so she’s been working on patterns and developing kits for others to learn how to crochet themselves.

“The first time I made a parasol, it was so hard. I couldn’t figure out where to start, didn’t know where to get like an umbrella frame, any of that sort of stuff,” she said. “As soon as I made it, I had a lot of people reaching out, going, ‘Where do you get an umbrella frame? How do you start this? Can you make a pattern? How did you make the lace?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know how to answer any of these questions in a way that would actually be helpful for anybody, but what if I make it kits? That would be helpful, and it would open avenues to make what was very hard for me easy for others,'” Caitlynn said.

This FanX, you can find Stone Cobra Creations at Booth D408. Follow Stone Cobra Creations on Instagram , Facebook , and her website for more.

Geekology Lab

Geekology Lab offers an array of nerdy delights, such as dice and lego jewelry, and wooden signs. They also sell 3D-printed items, including dragons, mugs, and dice towers, and other accessories.

Lucretia Shatzer, the owner of Geekology Lab, said she and her husband Larry have always been “makers”, and around 2010, she started selling soaps and candles at farmer’s markets. Down the road, she added Lego and dice earrings to her inventory.

“I wanted to make science jewelry or science things like soap. That’s why we’re named Geekology Lab…I got my bachelor’s in biology, so I wanted to do something science-y. But then as it evolved, we ended up doing the dice earrings and started selling at game conventions,” she said.

Lucretia shared that it was around 2014 that she sold her merchandise at a tabletop gaming convention for the first time, bringing her classic dice jewelry and jewelry with science-themed patterns like DNA strands.

Lucretia said the first time she was a vendor at FanX was in 2015 where she shared a six or eight-foot table with her cousin.

“I think I had three feet. It was all that we could afford at the time,” she said. “It was a place to start and just do something with our business and put us out there. It was crazy and crowded, but it was a lot of fun. It was really fun, and stressful, but it was worth it.”

After that, Lucretia said she continued to go to gaming conventions, and this year, will be at FanX for the fourth time.

Her husband, who helps run the booth and create items for Geekology Lab, said early on, he got a laser to engrave phrases and logos on items.

The laser engraver is used to put messages on wooden signs, which are popular among customers. Examples of the phrases are “Game Library”, “Game Dungeon”, “The Family that Plays Together, Stays Together,” and a “Home” sign with a D20 dice as the “O”.

He said that they also started incorporating 3D printed merchandise, which includes their own creations, as well as ones they pay a license for permission to sell.

“With the 3D printed stuff, there’s only a few things that I’ve designed myself, but for the most part, we pay a license to be able to sell what other people create. We make sure that whatever we do, that we’re within the legalities of it because we want to support the other creators,” he said.

Lucretia and Larry shared that over the years, they get quite a few repeat customers and have been recognized as the “D&D Booth,” which puts smiles on their faces. Beyond FanX, their work can also be found at the store Level One Gamers at the Shops at South Town in Sandy. They said they enjoy speaking to people who stop by their booth and talk to them about gaming, their characters, and anything geek-related.

“There’s a couple of people that always come up and see what new stuff we have…you know, just support us, so we definitely have a following of loyal customers. There’s a couple that will go see us at FanX, at Salt Con, or a few other old conventions that we do, or they’ll follow us on Facebook and interact that way,” Larry said.

Larry said he and Lucretia like to have a competition amongst themselves at conventions, keeping track on an app whose creations have sold most by the end of the day.

The two said that it’s not just them involved with the family’s business, but also their children who all play a role, such as their 15-year-old son who paints some of the 3D printed items.

“We’re trying to nurture his creativity…I never was a person that liked to doodle or draw. I didn’t have a lot of talent there. My talent was elsewhere with computers,” Larry said. “He’s got some talent with drawing so we’re trying to expose him to explore his creativity with drawing and we’re trying to get him to incorporate that stuff into what we sell as well so that we can tell him ‘Hey, if we sell this thing that has your artwork on it, we’ll give you a commission on it…We’re trying to also encourage our kids to have a bit of an entrepreneur type of spirit.”

In addition, their kids help with set up and break down and will share ideas with them. Their 13-year-old is even thinking of TikTok video ideas to further share the family business online.

“I think it’s been good for our marriage. We enjoy making things together. We can bounce ideas off each other. I mean, sometimes it’s stressful, right? Sometimes we don’t agree. But for the most part, it’s really good. It brings out a new side of supportiveness for each other. It allows us to support the other person in certain endeavors,” Larry said.

With another FanX coming up, they said they are most excited to connect with the community, both con-goers and other vendors.

“I love talking to different people. It’s fun to see old friends and to see vendor friends. It’s fun to have people come and enjoy our stuff. It’s nice to make something that people enjoy and love,” Larry said.

When it comes to others getting their own business started, Lucretia shared some advice:

“We have a lot of friends that say ‘It’s just so intimidating or scary and where do you start?’…So I would say — just start. I mean, we started little and now I feel like we’re known a lot more in the last couple of years. I feel like now more people know who we are and they recognize us, but we started out little and we just had to start and do it,” she said.

Larry added to look for conventions, smaller markets, or events to get started to begin sharing your art and connect with the others who are doing the same, saying you’ll never know how far you’ll go without trying and getting your start somewhere.

You can find Geekology Lab at this FanX Booth 1737 and follow them on Facebook , and their website .

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