Valkyrie Pewter

Saturday of pirate weekend at was sold out... and sweltering levels of humid/hot ... with afternoon showers one day and then an after hours tornado and some flooding on Sunday ...

Despite all that the show was busy and vibrant, whether it be all the excellent pirate costumes, the crafting of things by artisans, or even a certain super popular whip act that was so packed that it was hard to even get close to it.

Brian slipped out to grab some photos as is his practice. As always, you can get longer form posts with additional description on his Instagram () or his Facebook (Brian Carnes)

Next up is Highland Weekend, and we are busy getting ready for the weekend in the casting shop. Brian of course will be providing lots of cool images of the The Highland Crew Audience Participation Highland Games.

We hope to see many of you there, but for now enjoy these pics!

Brian says:

I continue to enjoy offering my new pin to the Rennie community. It's kind of fun but today's customer of my pin is actually also an , the lively and talented Karen Seyge Turnbough, a pro chainmailer that I have had the pleasure of working with at both GenCon and at the .
As I'm selling these I've noted that my customers enjoy using the thumb hole on the pallet as a place to hang beads, my brushes, and other little bits of Rennie trinketry.
It's funny but we decorated this one up during the day and I hadn't gotten a good look at it until the end of the day when I spotted it on her garb I went to take a close up and realized that she has added my artisan 'gifting of favors' and 'children's trinket trading' item of the week to the pin as well.
During the decade or so that I had the pleasure of teaching CAD technology to children, I had developed a style of cute critter sculpting I loosely describe as 'My Little pony' sculpting, mainly in reference to my childhood where young girls would bring their ponies in to show the class at school and I always admired the kind of soft and sweeping curves and detailed creases without excessive detail simple elegance of these toys.
I would use these critter models to demonstrate to children that really beautiful models could be made from simple shapes with a lot of bending and forming them into new shapes.
A few years later I adapted my Nessie model into pewter earrings. The one hanging from the thumb hole is my Bronti model that came out a year or two later.
While as a professional artisan I make money by selling pairs of handcrafted metal Nessie and Bronties, I also had need of an item that I felt comfortable as an artisan giving away instead of tiny plastic mushrooms and other mass produced trinkets that generally were out there.
I figured for me personally if I was going to give something away or trade with children I wanted to give a little piece of my art. So a 3D printed plastic versions of my design seemed perfect.
Love seeing the reactions and creativity of garb display with this piece. Makes Art Nerd Brian happy!

If you'd like to purchase my Art By Humans pin, you can come see us at the Ohio Renaissance Festival, for the next 6 weekends, if you cant make the show you can DM us. If you'd like a cute Bronti or Nessie, you can buy it from our pewter shop as a earrings pair, a necklace or as a statuary piece OR if you'd like a free plastic trinket version you can find me (SeaDogBrian) at ren fair and i usually have some in my pouch to gift to special people!

Art love to you all!
Brian

We have a whole cottage cheese bucket full of new goodness... This was all cast and finished this week thanks to the efforts of my team of David Oberting Ted Coulter and Wanda Gatewood Harmon for our pewter shop. It's Pirate weekend and Saturday is already sold out so I hope to see some of you there...
-Brian

Week two of 2026 was a busy weird one ... Saturday it rained several times, with each shower adding to the epic mud of the festival grounds. It was so crazy that we started plotting how to get pea gravel for the next morning. Despite this, and perhaps because the festival has been selling fixed day tickets and generally selling out, the patrons were broadly prepared for this so out came the umbrellas and the festival was still super busy.

Patrons were slipping and sliding in the lanes when it would rain, then in between they would dodge around the puddles. On more then one occasion a toddler could be found playing in the puddles and mud as parents would have to come break up the fun!

At the pewter shop, we were debuting Brian's new Art by Humans Pallet pins and brush earrings. We had a fairly limited number and we of course sold out of what we had and have to make more this week!

Sunday, after supervising putting out gravel and getting a few projects started, Brian figured he'd take a tool around the sun drenched muddy grounds.

The day was sunny and often breezy, Many vendors had put down straw of gravel or whatever would help with the mud but there were still areas that were fairly unpassable, especially with strollers or scooters. This issue got markedly better as the sun dried the mud up and drainage started to catch up.

The Vikings were out dubbing puddles as a "cove," fireballs were flying Dragons were being friendly, Artisans were making cool things. Brian has a passion for showcasing the artisans of the realm, this week featuring Adam's wirewrapping and Dara's wax whimsey.

Week three is coming, Arrrrgh you ready? It's gonna be pirate weekend! ... Ohio ren is a not to be missed show. Come see the show and visit the pewter shop! We'd love to see you!. In the interim enjoy these pictures!

And so it begins ... Opening weekend was crazy... It was sometimes busy, sometimes a little laid back, and we had 3 different vibes weather wise.

Our shop was vibrant and busy, with old friends dropping by and new projects getting made.

There are SO many changes around fair with new rides, stages, buildings and that includes our local neighborhood which got a bit more 'art and culture' vibe, with Safer Swords old space being epically reworked into a manor with curiosities, and a pretty vardo named Luna taking her place near our shop. People seemed to want to selfie in front of the vardo. The facelifts done by Madame Mortelle have really added a lot of curb appeal to the street, which used to me more of a side lane to the outer loop.

People seem to be enjoying my shop rework as well ... At the Studio we are looking to get Brian Carnes new Art by Humans pins and brush earrings cast as the molds are ready, and also we want to bring back the old candlestick designs.

The funny thing is it's epically busy but it will be over before we know it... Ren fair season is always to busy it's a blur!

Brian did not manage to escape Saturday to do photos, but he did Sunday, so please enjoy some images of week 1! As always longer descriptions of many of these images can be found on Brian's Instagram (SeaDogBrian) or his Facebook (Brian Carnes)

Do come see us through the run if you can, and be mindful that O-ren now routinely runs capacity crowds so pre-buying a ticket and finding a day that is not some out is essential for our ren friends that want to visit. We hope to see you there, and even if you cant or till you can we hope you all enjoy the photos!

Custom torch weld job by using a handcrafted alien sculpt by Sarah Jane Christensen. This is hand constructed with an oxypropane torch on site at the Ohio Renaissance festival at our Valkyrie pewter shop. Hair model is the wonderful Miss Layla Camm.

It is opening day at the Ohio Renaissance festival for valkyrie Peter we have added a new area to the side of our shop with lots of additional pretty making space and have worked hard to hopefully make this one of the best years yet for the festival. We hope to see all of our Ohio Renaissance friends throughout the run either this weekend or whenever you can make it with the schedule. For those that might be traveling from further away to see us do be mindful that the fair does now routinely sell out on certain days so be sure and pre-buy your tickets and schedule it for a day that's not sold out.

Brian here:

I had hoped to get up one last photo post for final weekend of The Great Lakes Medieval Faire for 2026. Somehow between loading out of our booth at Great lakes and loading in to Ohio ren, then having issues with my truck requiring my attention it's been a busy week and I just got my edits finished.

Its been a great season! We hope to see all our great lakes friends again next year but in the interim enjoy the pics and feel free to check us out at Ohio Ren in a little over a week!

It is a pleasant day feeling almost 🍁 fall like here at The Great Lakes Medieval Faire . We had a super brief shower but other than that it's been breezy and glorious.

It seemed like a good opportunity to shoot a 2026 Great lakes team photo with our shop. Our neighbor was happy to help me take that picture. We improved our garden seating area a bit which has been enjoyed quite a bit today including a visit from the mushroom people and thier furry friend.

Just a few more hours left before we wrap up this show officially for the year and then comes the long process of packing everything down and getting it down to Southern Ohio for our Ohio Renaissance festival season in 2 weeks.

Brian's Ren faire log: It's the last weekend of Great lakes medieval Fair and weather looks pretty good at the moment but threatening weather is supposed to be coming later today. I always hate it when it gets rainy and last weekend because then we have to transport it between shows and it's never quite as sorted as you'd like because you have to batten down the hatches. Hopefully it holds off mostly or at least dries up nicely by when I load my trailer Monday.