Martin Christiansen

I started learning to blow glass in February of 2005. Since then I have worked festivals all over the country. At these festivals i did live demonstrations, and sales. I have also been selling wholesale to stores, and galleries, ever since. In 2010 my business partner Tracie Waters 678-665-4547, and myself started The Hippie Hookup LLC. We had a teaching studio, and an office. We taught up to ten people at a time. We brought in teachers from all over the country. We also ran wholesale distribution out of the office part. We had two office people, four full time drivers, and over a hundred artists we worked with. Although we are still doing the wholesale distribution, we stopped the teaching in 2015. We also scaled back the distribution to just us, and around twenty other artists.

I actually started working renaissance festivals when I was eight in 1885, however that was only seasonal, at the MN fair. During those years I taught Crystal sticks (juggling sticks), worked games, pulled cabriolet, worked site crew, security, and in the kitchens. Crystal sticks I worked for Bill Vestal who has since then sold his company. Sadly I have lost contact with him, but I hear he is living in Crested Butte, CO. Games I worked for Dave Allbright, who sadly passed away. The rest I worked for the fair (MNRF). I doubt there is still anyone there other than the owner, Jim Peterson, who might remember me. After 1995 I simply took the best jobs I could find. Please understand these are all temporary jobs, as the fairs only run between one, and eight weekends per year. Many of my jobs were management. The most notable was from 2000 to 2004 I was independently contracted by Scarborough Fair, and their Halloween show screams, in TX. It was my job to hire sales people, make stock, due all ordering, and inventory. I had actually been working for Scarborough every year since 1996, however that was site crew, and in the kitchens. In 2004 I opened my own candied nut booth at the Louisiana renaissance. In 2005 I opened a bakery, and dessert booth. In 2006 I opened a glass, and incense booth. For all of these I had to acquire contracts, build the structures, hire, and manage employees, make stock, order materials, do sales, keep customers happy, and everything else that came up.