Sarita and Martin Baker of Bogalusa weren’t thinking about becoming artisans when they first attended the Louisiana Renaissance Festival in Hammond some 20 years ago. They were just looking for something fun to do as a family, a place for their young daughters to play princess.
But today, you’ll find the entire family working hard to build their inventory of hand-painted, foam weapons and armor in preparation for the festival’s 2024 season, the fifth for their business, A Little Tipsy Costumes & Props.
“I actually retired in 2022,” says Martin, a 30-year law enforcement veteran who is now helping with his family’s business full-time. “It was earlier than I might have retired, but A Little Tipsy had so much potential that I took a chance.”
That potential has paid off. Five years after starting with test runs at a couple small craft shows, the Bakers have a regular circuit of festivals in Alabama, Florida and Louisiana, according to information from Louisiana Renaissance Festival. So far, the only limitation seems to be how fast they can make the product.
That’s pretty good for an idea that didn’t occur to them until 2019.
The path to A Little Tipsy started at the Louisiana Renaissance Festival, a happy place for the entire Baker family since they first attended in 2002.
“The first time we came, we went without the kids,” recalled Sarita. “We got there late, in the afternoon, and it was raining, but it was wonderful. After seeing the vibe, I said, ‘We’re bringing the kids.’”
Twins Buffy and Bethany were toddlers, and Sarita put together costumes for them out of their play box. “Very princessey,” she said. They went back the following weekend, and kept going.
By the second year, Sarita and Martin were dressing up as well, and Sarita was making their costumes. “I was always crafty,” she said. And in 2005, toddler Baylee joined the fun, dressed like a fairy.
But eventually, they wanted more.
“For years, Martin and the kids wanted to be more of a part of the Renaissance festival,” said Sarita. “We kept asking ourselves, ‘What can we do?’”
“We weren’t very serious at first,” said Martin. “We were enjoying it so much, and we wanted to be more involved. But we had no idea of how that would happen.”
In January 2019, the Bakers attended Comic-Con in New Orleans. They saw much creative costuming done with EVA foam (also called cosplay foam), and Sarita was inspired.
“We started looking at videos on how to make things out of foam,” she said. “We bought the materials and the tools and started making things. We showed them to our friends, and they were like, ‘That’s cool.’”
“It was just a hobby at first,” said Martin. “We knew it was a new thing; we thought it was possible to make a business out of it.”
“We started doing craft shows,” Sarita added. “But the dream was Renaissance Festival.”
They didn’t wait long to go after that dream. They spent the rest of that year building helmets, swords, mallets and armor, and in March 2020, they applied to be a merchant at the Louisiana Renaissance Festival and were accepted.
It was not a normal year for the festival – COVID lockdowns left its opening in question until nearly the last minute, and even then, many restrictions were put in place for the safety of festival patrons and the people working there.
But for the Bakers, it was a great experience.
“We had just gotten back from a festival in Florida when COVID hit,” recalled Sarita. “The schools shut down, and we were all at home. I said, ‘Know what we’re gonna do? We’re gonna make stuff!’”
Most businesses were closed, but the Baker house was alive with activity. Designs were created and foam cut, built, and painted. Sarita and Martin’s three daughters – college students Bethany and Buffy and high schooler Baylee – were right there with their parents, making inventory and having a blast.
“Buffy was testing everything, hitting people with the completed pieces,” Sarita said, laughing. “They held up.”
When the Louisiana Renaissance Festival opened in November 2020, the Bakers were ready. The whole family worked together, bringing people into the shop, talking to everyone and having as much fun as they did when they were patrons.
“It was fabulous,” said Sarita.
“We were the happiest people out there,” agreed Martin. “We sold more than we had the whole previous year at craft shows; we made $17,000 worth of inventory, and we sold it all.
“We were on top of the world,” he said with a laugh. “I thought I was a captain of industry.”
And every season at LaRF has been better than the last, they said.
“In 2021, on the Saturday of the second weekend, I told the kids to stop putting things out on display so that we would have some product for Sunday,” Sarita said. “Everything was selling so fast. We worked pretty hard during the week, so we would have enough to sell on the weekends.”
“We worried about having an empty shop,” Martin added.
In 2022, they said, they were better prepared and got through four weeks of the six-weekend festival before running out of stock. But they were still busily building during the week and had enough inventory to finish the final two weekends.
And 2023 was another great year, with the Bakers buying a building at LaRF, giving A Little Tipsy a permanent home. And with three years of experience under their belts, Sarita and Martin had supply and demand all figured out.
At least, they thought they did.
“We thought we had a handle on it after 2022,” Sarita recalled. “We had the same amount of inventory that we made for all of the 2022 season, all ready for opening weekend. But by the third weekend, we were getting low – only three weekends without a panic. We had to work furiously for the last three weeks to keep up.”
Bottom line, Sarita said, they doubled their 2020 sales in 2023.
Visitors to A Little Tipsy will find more playfulness than historical accuracy, with strong influences from fandom culture. Mixed among the swords, mallets and armor might be a Klingon bat’leth, or a shield emblazoned with the Captain America star, or some “Baby Yoda” Grogus. Sarita also does special orders and recently built a Renaissance Boba Fett helmet.
It’s all lightweight, safe for kids – and adults – to play with and, above all, enjoyable.
“We’re going for fun,” said Martin. “We want the stuff to be fun. We do mash-ups, like mixing Star Wars and vikings.”
“I made a viking ship out of foam,” said Sarita. “Because it was fun.” This year, she’s amusing herself by making a mounted dragon head.
The Baker’s plan for doing something that would get them more involved in the Louisiana Renaissance Festival has moved beyond just their local fair. In addition to traveling to other festivals, they are also doing work for Mardi Gras krewes and taking more and more special orders.
Sarita said they hope to get to the point where they hire people to do some builds and hand-painting, leaving the Bakers in charge of creativity and freeing them up to do “the cool stuff.”
“We’re only five years in,” she said. “But we have all kinds of big dreams.”
Still, their first love is the Louisiana Renaissance Festival, and that’s their main focus right now, making enough fun stuff to meet the increasing demand there and fixing up their shop at the festival.
“Everybody out here is so nice,” said Sarita. “Now we get to be some of those nice people.”
She added that, when they were just starting out at small craft shows, people came up to them and said, “Honey, you don’t belong here. You belong at a Renaissance festival.”
Sarita agrees – “That’s where we belong.”
