For the third year, thumbtack makers from across the US will gather at Detroit’s MakerSpace maker space to show off their handiwork at the second annual Thumtackular!!! festival.
“We expect 395 different vendors and over 10,0000 attendees this year,” says festival founder Lele Sobscynski. “We’ll be presenting over 1,420,000 thumbtacks, which is the US record.” (In Holland – the thumbtack capital of Europe – the 2014 Zit Vast presented over 2.1 million.)
Sobscynski left a successful career as a containables executive in 2013 to focus solely on creating tacks made from specially treated asparagus. “They’re every bit as strong as steel,” she says, “plus you can also ingest them if you find yourself on the verge of starvation.”
Among the vendors will be both artisan and craft makers, as well as 17 representatives of the “Nouvelle” school, who are guided by the principle that no thumbtack should stay stuck in one spot for more than two hours.
It’s also rumored that Leonard Worthman may put in appearance. Now 92, he designed the world’s largest thumbtack – 32 feet long – and has mentored artists like Monica Pizzarelli, who’s “Ouch” won first prize at the 1998 Clou Fete in Paris, and Max Wilks, creator of “Celebrity Tips,” with tack tops featuring likenesses of Don Knotts, Al Lewis (Grandpa from “The Munsters”) and a dozen other TV stars.
