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lavender bird hand woven fabric
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We were fortunate to have good weather for our sale and that always encourages good attendance. We have a great cadre of regulars who attend our sale each year. Some are friends others are just lovers of fiber arts and hand crafted items. They come every year to see what we are up. This year we welcomed many people who were visiting our display for the first time because our event was part of the Winter Art Walk. Many people stayed to chat and some even tried our demonstration loom with its rainbow warp.
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| Anne's demonstration loom with colour gamp warp |
The annual show and sale is a major undertaking for the guild. The small sales committee starts planning for the sale early in the new year. The hall must be booked and timetables coordinated with other groups participating in the Winter Art Walk. Promotional plans need to be in place in September, which means designing and printing materials. There are always props to build, repair or locate. The sales committee is too small to staff the 3 day event so the entire guild gets involved. Just organizing the volunteers to work during the show is a major task. We are fortunate that so many people (even those who do not put anything into the sale) come forward to help.
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two shawls
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| Pat's shrug with red hat |
Dressing the show is one of the most difficult tasks and also one of the most sensitive. The set up group have no idea what will arrive. One year we might have a few skeins of hand spun yarn or like this year we may have an abundance of yarn for sale. Some times we have shawls but few tops but another time it may seem that everyone in the guild wanted to make a scarf. This year we had more tops than usual but fewer tea towels.
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| shelves full of scarves |
It is difficult to impossible to make sure that every item is shown to its best advantage when the doors open. The best compromise we have found is to move items around over the course of the show in order to bring items that may be in the shadows for a time into the limelight. The sales committee re positions the show at the start of each day.
This year we had an abundance of everything. That meant lots to see and a lot of choice for shoppers.
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| wool & mixed fiber shawls |
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| hand woven rugs |
It is great that our members have been so productive over the past year. It was also nice to see items from newer members or those relatively new to spinning and weaving. We had positive comments from visitors from other guilds. It is always a bonus if another fiber artist appreciates your work.
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| tops and hats were very popular items |
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| red hat hand spun yarn |
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| open work knitted scarf |
Weaving and spinning/knitting skills were both well represented. We had plenty of knitted items, scarves of many kinds, shawls, caps, mitts, slippers and purses.
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A selection of funky knitted scarves
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Selling a item that you created is a bit like giving away a puppy. You want it to go to a good home. You hope the person that purchased your piece values it and can see it as you do. Many items left our sale over the 3 days. Some were immediately united with their new owner but many will go into gift boxes for others. Where ever they end up we hope they will be appreciated and enjoyed.
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| table mats & runners |
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| knitted tam and scarf |
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tea towels galore
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So, now that it is over what are we up to? Well eating and visiting is high on the list as our pot-luck lunch takes place in December. After that we need to get busy again. Next year we have to produce items for both our annual sale and a gallery show.
Earlier in November a group had explored warp painting using cold reactive dyes. As a result there were painted warps just waiting to be woven. I've included some photos of the dyed warps. The intensity of the colour varied with the amount of dye and with the type of fiber that was used. Some of the cotton and cotton-mix warps took on soft subtle colourations while other fibers gave quite brilliant results.
