Every year, deer cast their antlers to the ground, awaiting new growth in the summer. Vendor of the Week Dana Walker would gather the antlers and fashion them into handmade pipes with stems of cactus skeletons inlaid with semi-precious stones. He would sell his crafts around the country at festivals and concerts and barter fairs.
"I've basically been a wandering adventurer all my life, went everywhere and did everything." He lived in a converted school bus for 20 years, pooling money with a group of people to tour the country. For a while he drifted in the wake of the Grateful Dead.
"The parking lot of a Grateful Dead show is the best craft fair I've ever seen in my life." Vendors of all sorts would gather in the parking lot, to sell and trade their wares.
Most recently he was vending espresso from a mobile trailer at festivals. "Basically the four-dollar a gallon gas put me out of business." Now he sells Real Change in Olympia in front of the Olympia Co-op, a natural foods store that is collectively owned by people who shop there.
"Wonderful people go there and I've met a lot of people doing this that I wouldn't have met otherwise. Basically all I do is stand and interact with a whole bunch of nice people."
Walker enjoys his job and is hoping to earn enough money to find a place to live. He's had a difficult time finding a job due to the economy and his history.
"I spent a few years in prison because a friend of mine had a bunch of marijuana and I got out and found it's a lot harder to make a living when you have a police record."
Walker has his eyes turned to Alaska for his next adventure. "It's just big, wild, spectacular and I've always wanted to go there."