All I have to say is .... BUSY! Yes, my husband and I were very recently accepted into a group of crafters and artists by invitation, who gather their creations once a year for a HUGE show and sale. We had looked into this a few years ago and came away with the impression that this exclusive group would never be within our reach for membership, but things change and now we're both in. It's exciting but left us with alot of work to do before the show. The night we signed up, was 6 weeks from the show dates and our inventories were both rather low for exhibiting.
Now the show is only two weeks away and we find we can see light at the end of the title. We've been putting in ten hour days to make things worthy of this venue and it has paid off. We are very hopeful this move will open some doors for us. As soon as the show is over, I'll be posting tons of things on here for you see. We don't expect to sell everything so there should still be lots left.
I've been watching a favorite fiber artist's blog (Andrea Graham). Check out her site as her work is just fantastic, and so very inspiring. www.andrea-graham.com She is also my wool supplier, and I was a bit saddened to learn she is selling her wool business. Selfish I suppose, as I can see how busy she is and I certainly understand how that business would cut into her time severely. I emailed her and found out that she will continue to sell wool in larger quantities. Hmmmm ... I get that it suits her so much better to do this, but can I afford at this point to buy in larger quantities? Well, actually .... maybe I can, as long as I'm more careful and stick to my plans. If my work sells well in two weeks I might be in a position to start buying dyed wools in half pound lots rather than by the ounce. An ounce is still a good bit, but won't go far in a rug, so having half a pound lying around would actually be better. Again, this fits the business plan of commissions much better, but who is that lucky to be able to survive on commissions alone?
My newest thing is rugs. I've always been fascinated by those Cheticamp Hooked Rugs. They're simply beautiful. I have discovered that felting to a jute backing works and once the jute is covered, I can go crazy with dimension, color and detail. I can actually get some very fine detail using the needle felting method and colors are basically unlimited. The three I have done so far, look really nice and after doing a bit of research, I have decided a fair price for me would be $45 per square foot. Hey, wool isn't free and I'm too old to chase sheep after dark. We still don't have much of a supply base for roving here in Nova Scotia. Some shops are charging lots of money for little tiny bits, but not really feasible for large projects, so I'm forced to order all of it from away. This increases costs, of course and then there's the waiting. I'm not comfortable dealing from the states as I don't really trust the mail crossing the border with such precious cargo.
Well, it's time to get back to work. Every flat surface in this house is covered with projects of some kind in various stages of completion. We're running out of space. As I write this, my darling husband is standing at the work table behind me, mounting some of his work on black backgrounds, using spray glue and asphyxiating me, so I have to run along a get my light box out to transfer some patters onto jute. I'll be back later.
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