DULUTH — Anna and Nathanael Bailey, of West Duluth, won an award at the 2021 State Fair — without even entering a competition. "It was one of the 'Best' awards" the fair presents to outstanding vendors, said Nathanael Bailey. "The first year we went, we got an award. So that was pretty great."

The Baileys constructed a 22-by-27-foot booth outside the Coliseum, where they sold products from their company, Bailey Builds.

"We sold a lot of artwork," said Bailey. "We do a lot of wooden earrings and jewelry ... probably our biggest seller was our Bailey Buildables. They're DIY kits; we actually cut all the pieces for the customer, and then they have the chance to paint them and glue them all together and make their own little piece of artwork."

Also popular, perhaps surprisingly for a woodworking business, were the Baileys' baseball caps. "There's a series of artwork that we launched called the Jericho series," Bailey explained. "It has a moon phase on it, and then it's a mountain. It's just a really cool design. Whether people know about our Jericho series or not, they like the design of the hat."

The Baileys will be returning this year, with more variety. Despite a COVID-related attendance slump last year, "we were very, very happy with how we did," said Bailey. "Just the fact that we're at the State Fair, and there's so many people that come through ... we've had a lot of people come to our art fairs that saw they saw us for the first time at the State Fair."

Bailey's memorable customer interactions included sharing a beer with the head brewer from Summit, being approached by a customer who offered to swap his own new hat for the last Jericho cap (Bailey accepted the trade), and meeting an interior designer who was working on a house for pop star Nick Jonas.

"He took a piece of our artwork home to have it at his house," Bailey explained, "but also see if Nick Jonas might be interested."

Just another day at the Great Minnesota Get-Together.

"Every year," said Bailey, "I'm sure it's going to be a new thing for us."

This story was updated at 12:05 p.m. Aug. 24 to insert an accidentally omitted word. It was originally posted at 10:16 a.m. Aug. 24. The News Tribune regrets the omission.