A Great Canada Day

     I couldn't have asked for better weather! I was able to drag myself out of bed at an early hour, feed and secure the dog for the day, and get on the road early. I grabbed a coffee at Tim's in Elmsdale for the trip in, and arrived at the free artists' parking area early. It wasn't far from there to the artists' area and after registering with the coordinator, I was directed to a table at the far north end under a canopy. It was the only table that had a canopy! The early bird gets the worm! In this picture of the Halifax Dartmouth Ferry, I was located directly behind the vessel. The air was crisp and refreshing, and there was barely an odor from the Harbor. The sewage treatment must finally be up and running. To my right were some painters who had their dog with them, a beautiful male whippet. However, they were in full sun so I was a bit concerned for the dog. Directly across were a nice lady and her son selling t-shirts and bags with fabulous silk screened fish prints on them. I loved the art and found out the son did the design, this was his first selling event and he was going to Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. To their left was a pottery table with wonderful, original things of all types.  


     It didn't take me long to set up. I brought a table cloth that just fit perfectly, whipped it over the table, fussed with it for a bit, duct taped it down and laid everything on the table. Still Going Strong, my old ladies sculpture, took front and center position and I hung the purses from the canopy support bar over my head. Looking around, I decided I had the very best spot on the boardwalk! It was only a matter of minutes before two lovely ladies came and chatted with me for quite awhile, then purchased several items. They also took my card for a friend. Great! 

     One of the painters approached me and asked if I would mind sharing my shade with their dog for a little while. I had no problem with that so had a very pretty dog tied to my table for about an hour. He was a people magnet as well. I got to meet a famous former mayor of Dartmouth which was nice. A very nice lady. Quite a few of my friends stopped by and they were very kind to purchase a few items, some of which were a bit higher end. I even received a commission for an interesting purse. I'll be making it next week and look forward to designing it. It's a unique concept based on two of my other pieces with elements of each. 


     In return for dog sitting, I asked the painter to watch my table while I went in search of a bathroom. It wasn't far and on my return I stopped to chat with a very sweet Pakistani lady who was selling lovely treats from her native land, in the middle of the terminal building. I ordered a lentil samosa, and while it was heating up she told me she was 70 years old (she sure didn't look that old!) and was taking the rest of the summer off after this event. The samosa was delicious! When I returned to my booth, and I'm calling it a booth now as I feel very special having the canopy, I'm the envy of the other sellers as they're in full sun. Some have brought large patio umbrellas. Good plan except the wind was picking up. They were beginning to spin at an alarming rate! Then it was calm again. The next few hours were much the same, with occasional gusts that forced me to rearrange my wares and tack some items to the table. 

     The first disaster of the day happened shortly after 1 pm. The young man across from me walked out from between his table and the pottery table. He tripped over the table leg and caused the pottery to go flying! Oh my goodness; what a tragedy! The casualties were the unique but obviously top heavy sign the potters had made, from pottery, with their shop name on it. Also in pieces were a piece that had been on a wrought iron stand. Such a shame. The look on the boy's face was heartbreaking too, as he clearly wanted to die. I was afraid he might cry, adding further shame to his already shattered inner being. His mother came to his emotional rescue and made things right with the pottery folks. I'm sure they were pissed though. For an artist, each piece is dear to the heart, and we constantly hope to find a home for them where they will have the respect they deserve. 

     Another drama soon ensued. Two of the sellers from inside, a young man in a red shirt and an older gent in khaki shorts approached the bicycle police in a frenzy. Red Shirt was using some pretty foul language and saying that Khaki had "laid his hands" on him.  I heard the part where they were beside each other inside but didn't hear exactly what happened. A couple of the terminal security arrived. Could they not find bigger men? These two giants drew looks from sheer size! Red Shirt slunk off back to his table, leaving Khaki talking to the authorities. Red Shirt had been hanging out at my booth earlier (booth; notice the attitude I've developed over this prime real estate) and he was just plain weird. I was glad when he buggered off. Khaki and the Two Giants headed back inside to have a chat with Red Shirt. I saw them later in the day working in close proximity of each other and successfully ignoring their neighbor's existence, so I guess it all worked out. Khaki had the popcorn stand and Red Shirt was selling God knows what, looked like fridge magnets and key chains but I wasn't going close enough to investigate. 


     A great gust of wind came up, sending those aforementioned patio umbrellas airborne. The one shading the t-shirt folks landed on the pottery table, sending more precious pottery to the cement. It was hard to look. I really couldn't watch this. My heart broke for the t-shirt family. The potters only stayed for a little while longer, then packed up and left. So did the painters next to me. I stayed until 5:30 pm, then packed up as well. I was among the last to go and there really wasn't a lot of traffic on the boardwalk by then, as everyone was seated at the free concert or the beer garden. I didn't make any great amount of money, but a lot more than I came with, and the entry fee was so low it was really a great day. Lots of cards were given out to sincere people who were genuinely interested. Overall,  I was fairly pleased and well attend this show again next year. 




     

First Rose of the Year

     This was peeking out at me this morning when I went outside to put Daisy in her pen. It's the first rose this year and it's just beautiful. The bush is literally drooping with the weight of buds and since my lazy butt didn't get to pruning it properly this spring, there's likely going to be breakage. I promise myself to do the pruning after the first bloom. The bush loves to be cut back and it seems you can't cut too much off as it grows so quickly. I'm sure my lawn man would appreciate it being pruned as well. I can't help but giggle when he get caught up in some of the longer canes as he goes past on his John Deer ride-on mower.  I'm evil, yes. 


     It's been a great weekend. Warm and dry, sunny and calm. Just perfect weather. I applied to enter the Canada Day Boardwalk Artists event at Alderney Landing in Dartmouth so spent yesterday making sure all inventory items were labelled correctly, printing and cutting business cards and packing the stuff in a way that is easiest for me to transport. A large suitcase on wheels seems to be holding all my stuff and another tote bag with that should be enough for one day of selling on the waterfront. I hope, I hope, I hope it's a nice day as I so much want to sell outside on the boardwalk. There is another place booked in case of rain but it won't be as nice or as busy. The is really a weather dependent event. I wanted to take some of Don's woodworking as well, but the way I interpret the rules, it looks like they want the actual artists of all the work to be there, so I have to ask if it's ok to sell his work there too. There are still a couple of weeks to work out all the details and get my entry fee in. 

     Yesterday, everyone in the neighborhood managed to get their lawns mowed, so this morning was unusually quiet ... for hours there was no sound other than the birds. Even the traffic down on the highway was sparse, and I enjoyed a great sleep in until almost 9. Lazy me. I finished all the laundry yesterday and got the civic number sign mounted outside to appease the powers at the municipal office, who have begun sending out threatening letters to those who haven't complied. It was a very productive day which means I actually have time to work on my art today. I have an idea for a novelty bag with a lobster design. I'd like to get a couple of them done before Canada Day as I think they will sell to tourists visiting our beautiful province. The idea is to have a lobster on them ... since it is one of our native delicacies and who doesn't love it? So much of our culture depends on lobster and novelties with this theme sell very well. 

                  

So, with Daisy content in her pen and Portia happy to sit at a safe distance and watch her, I'm off to work on the pattern for the lobster prefelt which will be attached to the new bag design. Wishing everyone a wonderful day. 

Wet Felted Handbag

 

     Well, here it is. No, I couldn't wait for my new supplies to come. It was calling to me and I had to answer. Actually, it wasn't a trial at all .. it went very smoothly ... only took a couple hours to make and all day to dry. I had already made the strap before as a rope project so that was ready to roll. The only thing I don't care for is the shape of my fringes .. looks like I cut them out of solid felt ... actually, I almost did .. the red solidifies very quickly and I should have teased them apart earlier than cutting them later. All in all, I rather pleased with this. The surface texture is really nice. 


     I had an email from Louet yesterday too. My order has been shipped but one of the colors is on back order and to follow in another couple of weeks. Hopefully the most of it will be here by next weekend, as well as the Angelina fiber from the states. I'm having my friend Lu out for part of the long weekend and she is interested in seeing how this is done.  That gives us something to do, besides our trip to Masstown in search of Dragon's Breath Blue Cheese.  We have both declared this to be the absolute bomb of blue cheeses. 

     It was quite late last evening but I still wasn't ready to retire for the night so I made this pretty piece of prefelt from some of my needle felting wool and the long stapled yellow which I have no idea what kind of wool it is. That turned out well and was a quick process as it's only half felted. It will be used to make cutouts for embellishments for future bags, etc.  I'm kind of thinking about making a pair of slippers too. I saw a couple of different ways to make the seamless ones, but I don't think I have any leather here for making the soles, so that might be a project for much later on. 


     So, I'm not sure what my projects will be this weekend. I think I'm going to make another bag. Can't decide on the color or style just yet. That decision is going to take another cup of coffee. Have a great weekend everyone ... the sun just came out here and it was supposed to be raining, so all is great in my world. 

Marketing Study

These little Santas are cute. I have made a few to test the market, so to speak. I made quite a few needle felted lapel pins. I need the money really badly right now, so they're small, inexpensive and something I can place in local businesses with very little overhead. I'm also taking orders for these. Actually, I have made several kinds: poinsettias, hearts, lobsters and Santas. Some are seasonal and some are not. I made up rather clever little boxes to hold sets of the cards I have them mounted on. Very professional looking, if I do say so myself. I don't have much time to test out the Christmas stuff, and it's not my favorite theme either. I'd rather persue either humor or nature in my work, but Christmas sells, so I can pay for the supplies to make the cool stuff. Don is back to painting the huge civic number sign he made for the front of the property. He is doing the number and street name in reflective paint. Keep checking my blog for pics as it's almost to the stage to begin recording the assembly process. Very neat sign.

We were too late applying to get into the second craft fair in  Middle Musquodoboit. They were full. I'm going to be contacting some retailers in the south end of Halifax in the spring. I truely believe our work is nice enough to be in some of the places the tourists and cruise ships access. I'm going to be struggling this winter however, as I'd counted on doing a lot better at the Milford Craft Sale. Live and learn. It's starting to look like small stuff in quantity pays the bills and the occassional sale of a larger piece, or a commission is gravy. At least I'll be immersed in something I enjoy.

Another Mild, Wet Day

I'm learning to type all over again. My ergonomic keyboard kicked the bucket yesterday and I decided to retire it, rather than fix it again.
I was getting fed up with sticky keys and praying for the @ sign to work. I switched it out for a standard keyboard and find it so small. It's cut my speed in half for now but as time goes on I'm sure I'll learn to use it without so many mistakes.

It's another wet dark day but at least it's warm. It could stay like this all winter and I wouldn't complain too much. Maybe palm trees would sprout in the spring and we'll become the new Florida! Yeah ... nice to dream.. I'm off to check out a new bead supply place in a little while. I need some pin backs to sew onto some brooches I felted. I have a huge bag of red wool and hope to get some brooches sold for both Christmas and Valentines ... hearts are very fast to make. I did a small lobster to make a pin, but don't really care for it. It was harder to sculpt and although it turned out well, lobsters just aren't cute. I have to figure out some small stuff to sell as people just aren't spending big money right now. If the craft show was any indication of the state of the economy, everybody wants stuff for next to nothing and appreciation for the craft seems to have flown out the recession window. Keep trying ... I keep telling myself that perseverence will someday pay off.

I'm back now from what turned out to be a bit of an adventure. Before I left, I had searched out my destination on Google Earth. It clearly shows a road that runs parallel to the 102 and runs southeast of Miller Lake. Do you think we could find the end of it off the Aerotech Park exit? No Sir! We saw a one lane road with a gate ... no public road going that way. Then we spotted a sign pointing to the Old Guysborough Road ... aha! It took about 10 minutes of driving before we were both realized we weren't heading in the correct direction. I hauled the smart phone out and booted up the GPS ... sure enough, we were heading back home the long way. We turned around and went all the way back out to the highway and proceeded to Fall River and went in behind the lake, and had no trouble finding the place.

What a lovely couple! The online bead supply place is run by a wonderful young British couple and their platinum blonde, cuter than kittens, little boy. Brian and Hollie are so very nice and just a pleasure to talk to. Brian liked my dog too. Big brownie points there. They run a home based online beading supply company and carry quality products. By the way, they've informed me that road with the gate is the one we were looking for, but is impassable by vehicle anyway. The way we came is the only way to get there. So, all in all, it was more than worth the trip. Good luck Brian and Hollie. Check them out at http://www.thebeadingroom.com/ . From there you can access their blog which is also very interesting. So, now I have the pin backs I need for my felted pins and I had better get busy as they don't sew themselves to the felt.