Guild Sale 2023

Jackie our greeter

Elegant Threads has come and gone for another year.  If you were able to attend we hope you enjoyed your time with us and perhaps found a treasure to take home with you.  Maybe you had a chat with our friendly "greeter" or added your piece to our group tapestry. 

tapestry in progress

 The entire guild is involved in putting on this event.  In addition to the volunteers that you may have interacted with there are those that designed and set up the display, managed the inventory, did the publicity and dealt with the sales

Every guild has its own system for putting on sales.  Our guild combines the inventory from all those members who wish to sell.  The inventory is then displayed according to categories and all sales are tracked electronically.  This year we had just over 1,000 items to gather, display, and track.

piles of tea towels and hats

We take in the items a few days prior to the sale.  Our studio is packed with roughly sorted piles of goods. Each item has been checked against our standards and logged into the master inventory.  For those managing the intake it is like show and tell on steriods.  There are a lot of "wows", "I never thought of doing that", "feel this", "just my colours" etc etc etc.  It tends to slow the process down a lot. 

"just my colours" scarf

On the evening prior to the sale, items are transported to the sale site where they are grouped according to the display plan.  Prior to their arrival a crew has brought in the props and set up the tables.  The items vary from year to year so the display is always slightly different.  

display of handspun yarn

setting up

rack of hand towls

display of baskets

blankets & throws

The fun starts when we open the doors to find a line up.  Some are old friends or fellow artisans and some are always first time visitors.  We thrive on their positive comments and love the opportunity to explain how items were made or what inspired us.  

just having fun

checking out the goods

curves shawl

Thanks to all of you bought something, we can all now justifying buying more supplies and if your stash is over flowing in your cupboards you know how important that justification can be.  And thank you from the guild as a whole.  The commission on items sold and the proceeds from the silent auction will support our guild activities in the coming year.