Black yarn

I have dyed black yarn before, but I have never dyed cotton black before. The last time that I dyed yarn black I was dyeing silk. It took three dye baths, but I got that nice inky black color. This stuff is coming out a kind of dark grey/faded black. Some turned out pretty good, but not inky black. That yarn started out grey that I dyed black before. It wasn't black enough. I am weaving black and red, and it is turning out not too bad. The red is kind of making the black blend in as I am weaving with about three or four shades of black, none of them that nice inky black.

Crocker Park Fall Fest

It is not a good sign to leave for a show when you don't feel well. Even worse if you start to feel sicker along the way. I did not have great expectations for this show, the stock market took such a sudden tumble last week. I figured that no one would be buying handwovens. I had my deal on my booth from the Guild since I was demonstrating and a cheap hotel room. Gas is always cheaper in Ohio so I wasn't loosing that much.

I did get two alpaca scarves done before I left so that people would know what they were going to look like when I was done. I had a van load and decided to make the best of it. A least I would get weaving done.

It turned out to be my best show of the year, I guess that wasn't really saying a lot, but it was good for me. I sold both of my "sample" alpaca scarves before noon on Saturday. Sales were slower on Sunday, but still not bad. Either the people there hadn't heard that the economy was bad or they decided that after all of that bad news they needed a treat. It was also one of my first shows where it wasn't beastly hot. People would actually try things on. I did like having the double booth to spread my work out in.

This does have the down side of "if you sell well you need to weave a lot to replace that." Back to work.

Dying while Dyeing Black

I have been dyeing some cotton yarn black for over a week now. The first batch turned out black, but it started out dark grey. The rest was natural. I love this cotton, but Webs is discontinuing it and there is no more black. I have gone through almost the entire 8 oz. container of black fiber reactive dye. I am resorting to using Rit dye today. I have started to make the first warp and I don't even have enough black to finish the warp for red and black shawls, much less weft then warp and weft for the white and black shawls.

I like doing painted warps, but that is more creative. This has to be just so and no variations.

I must say that the red and black do look good together.

I got the grey alpaca scarf warp on the little loom for next weekend. I am hoping to get one scarf woven and finished. I really need to get at least two red and black shawls done for next weekend. It is not looking as if there will be any rugs for the next show, unless I get a sudden surge of energy.

Catching Up

Well, the summer shows are finished. The ones that I thought would be wonderful were either just OK, or really bad. The ones that I was not expecting that much from were good. I will never figure this out.

The fact that the economy kept trying to see how much worse it could get and the heat, this was not the summer to be doing shows.

This can also be called the summer of art show storms. In Kalamazoo during set up I had two tornado sirens and a thunderstorm. The ended up being my best show of the summer. Crocker Park it rained the first night after we were set up. The next morning I discovered that a scarf had falled on the ground and was soaked. i just rang it out and hung it in the back. while we were rolling the sides up I forgot about water on the roof. I pushed the back wall in place and got about 2 gallons of water dumped on my head. It was one of those days when my hair actually looked good. Deb and I got a good laugh. We got a brief storm on the last day near the end. I foolishly had taken the sides off early. We moved what we could to the dry side of the booth and then decided that it was time to pack it in. I packed up about 45 min. early. My sales increased there by $9.06 over the previous year. Wow, that was worth it. The Hathaway Brown show had to be my most disappointing. My sales were worse than either of the previous shows, and Kalamazoo was a one day show. Then the organizers were choosing to ignore the storm that was approaching and getting bigger. Deb got me organized and we started to pack up loose things, then stock that no one had looked at. By the time we got to taking the grids down the storm had hit. We were both soaked. At one point we had to stand there and hold on to the booth. Yeah, fun.

I had great hopes for Ann Arbor. The first day was really good, then things slowed down. It was HOT there. The kind of heat where people needed medical care. My mother was not able to come to help so Deb volunteered her daughter Ann. She was a big help getting me set up and came and went during the show so that I could get breaks and she would get food for me. Deb made it there on Friday. Ann still hung around, she was really starting to enjoy the show. We had a brief shower, but Deb and I are so good at this that there was no problem. Everything in the booth and sides down. We even zipped a family in with us. Deb stood at the back of the booth and swept the rain down the gutter. I told the people that I would not let them out until they bought something, but that didn't work. My sales for that show were not where I had hoped, but I will be back.

The next weekend I was at Orchard Lake Fine Art Fair. I figured any show that was 8 miles from home had to be worth it. OK, so I should have listened to Donna and skipped this show. I did the spot on Fox 2 News Morning for the show. I figured that this way people would be just rushing in to see my work. A lot of people said that they saw me on the news, but none of them bought anything. I decided to put my feather gloves out for this show since there were not rules against them. Am I glad that I did that, those were the majority of my sales. I did not even make booth fee there. I did meet some wonderful artists and had a good time. Don't look for me there next year.

I tried Levis Commons again. I had a much better spot, very nice artists on either side of me. The sales were better, but I have to admit that Toledo is just not a wearable art town. Then there was the Mold Spore Inn and going out to eat with other artists and discussing getting "the girls" in position. There was also discussing the yin and yang diet. Yeah, fun time, but off the list for next year.

I will be back at Crocker Park in two weeks. They are doing a new show, Crocker Park Fall Art Festival. I am getting a double booth for free if I will demonstrate weaving for the weekend. Good deal. I am still hotel room hunting and hoping that I do not get another Mold Spore Inn. Back to work.