Tag: craft show

Seeing the light

Or at least that is the plan.
Every year my sister and I try to do one craft show together; she with sewing and hand embroidery and I (of course) with tatting.  We get two booths together at the local Christmas craft show and spend a day seeing the cool things other people make, visiting and – hopefully – selling a few items.  There are only a few booths that have electricity available and they cost a few dollars more, which we’d rather not pay, so I’ve been thinking of ways to bring light to our booths without the cords.  We’ve done the battery powered Christmas lights the last several years, which is great, but there should be other, inexpensive ways to bring more light to the booths if we can just think of them.
A light bulb ☼ came on for me about a month ago – the battery powered lights that are advertised for closets and under counters might just work. 

I bought a package of these push-on lights, and sure enough, they give off quite a bit of light even in a lighted room, especially if they are aimed at something not too far away. 
Then I thought that it would be a little more aesthetic to have shades over the lights instead of them being bare, so I picked up enough little shades for the lights I’d purchased.  The shades were very plain and had to be dressed up a bit – besides, people would be able to see these easily from a distance and be drawn over to our booth, right?  Which was the point in the first place.
I made an edging long enough to go around the bottom of a shade in DMC ecru size 30 as I had two shuttles already wound with it. I put it on a shade (without glue) to see how it looked, then placed it over one of the puck lights.
Oops.  The harp of the light shade hung down so low it hit the puck light, so the light shade sat crooked.
I had to come up with a way to hold the shade up high enough the harp was clear of the light.  I thought and I thought, and I played and I fiddled until I finally came up with something that works.   I’m sure there are better ways but craft sticks, buttons and beads are what I ended up with.  These are for the display only, not for sale anyway, right?  They just had to hold up the shade.
But the whole thing did sit kind of low on the table.  Maybe I needed something to make them taller?
That’s when I thought of the tin can. It had to be decorated, too, of course.
I sure am putting a lot of work into the display this year, especially as I’m not sure just how much light will be seen from these in a lighted room – but it’s such a kick to decorate those lamp shades!
“In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.”
Fancis Bacon
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Another bag!

My sign at the craft show
The show was fun but disappointing in sales.  There also didn’t seem to be as many people as I was expecting.  We saw people making purchases but few walking around with many packages so I would say I wasn’t the only one that didn’t do well.  I do like how my sign turned out 🙂  One of the other venders came over at the end of the show just to check us out because she liked the sign.
I decorated another bag (are you tired of them yet?), this time with a snowman.  I like how the scarf came out. I realized after I had cut out the material for the snowman it was too busy to add face and buttons but it still came out rather cute.
I guess I’m farther along on Christmas gifts now than I thought I would be – as long as I give bags anyway. 
☺
“It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.”
Erma Bombeck

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Getting ready

One day when I felt I should be tatting but couldn’t get myself organized to tat something on my list, I tatted this motif.  Nothing fancy or hard, just tatting and hoping something worth keeping would come out of it.

Lizbeth #651 size 20
The center is pretty much the center from last years (?) snowflake with a little something more on the outside.  Not sure what I’m going to do with it, but I like it. 

Mostly I’ve been very busy tatting planned items, getting ready for the craft show this weekend.  I’ve decorated a few more bags, made a few ornaments and put together a few odds and ends.  I always think I have more time before a show than I really do so I don’t really get busy until the last few weeks – way later than I should.
Then I stress about what I don’t have done, and how I’m going to get it done.
This week I have taken a couple of days vacation just to get ready.  I have a plan, a list of things that still need to be accomplished.  If I don’t have a plan I wonder around in circles (it seems) and get very little done, but with a plan the most important things usually end up getting finished. Sometimes late the night before but finished.  With a few days off this week to get ready could this be the show that I’m ready for early?
Hahahahaha! Probably not.
But I still enjoy doing craft shows whether I get everything done or not, or even if I sell much or not.  Tatting is put out there for people to see, and sometimes I get to talk to a few about it, too. Who knows, maybe someone will be intrigued enough about it to want to learn how.  And I stretch my imagination coming up with new things to make and get to see what other people have come up with.  
A win all around.
“The trouble with the future is that it usually arrives before we’re ready for it.”
Arnold H. Glasow
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Tatting Tea Tuesday

This morning while checking my Facebook I found this page that had some lovely teapots!  How appropriate for Tatting Tea Tuesday, don’t you think?  
Teapot found on Facebook
I’ve had a very busy two weeks for various reasons, and my sister even more so.  She has been planning and crafting for a craft show that was Saturday, June 8.  Other things happened that put a crimp in her time for getting things ready, but with all the money and time she’d already invested she couldn’t not go.  She said she would take some of my things if I wanted, even though I couldn’t go.  It was an outside show held in Hutchinson, KS.   They were only allowing one hour (!) of setup time before the show so we had to make the setup easy.  My husband and I had lent her our pop-up and wind screen, which was definitely needed.  I didn’t want her to have to work very hard on my stuff and I was having trouble coming up with a display that was easy for her to put out.  I finally came up with this. 

This is an upside-down cardboard box with the flaps taped open to make it taller.  I stitched two lines of thread on each of two sides from which I hung my items.  Then I carefully folded up the material and put it inside the box.  It didn’t take much time to set it out!
Unfortunately the show did not go well.  It was poorly planned and the location was awful.  It was not in a place that encouraged or had much traffic that would be interested in crafty items.  Then there was the weather – it was sunny and windy.  I think the gusts were getting to about 45 mph.  My sister said she and the other crafters spent most of their time trying to keep their items from blowing away or chasing those that did.  Between the wind and lack of people all of the crafters packed up and left about noon instead of staying to 4:00 PM as planned.  She was very disappointed. She is now trying to find a show that isn’t too far away and inside.  
Alfred A. Montapert Quote

A little ingenuity

The craft show was last Saturday.  We didn’t do too bad, though not as good as we’d hoped.  but all in all it was a fun day.
I did run into a few issues.  I’ve done craft shows before but I wasn’t selling jewelry or anything attached to a card like I was this year.  There it was, Friday night, we’ve set up the tables and other displays in the show hall but not our sale items – we planned to put those out Saturday morning – when I realized I hadn’t planned on how to display the earrings and wine glass charms.  I had spent time attaching them to cards but hadn’t given a thought to what I was going to do with them after they were attached!
I start wandering around the house trying to think of what I had to hang them on, my mind a blank.  It was getting late and I was tired and getting a little frustrated.  I thought of putting several strands of wire in a picture frame but I would still have to prop or hold up the frame and that was the problem.  I figured I could lay out a few on the tables here and there but that wouldn’t do for all of them.  
Then I had an idea.  Do you see it?  Can you guess what it is? (I know, the picture is pretty blurry)
Does this help you see my wire cooling rack?  And an ankle weight.
I found a wire display stand, like you would use to display a book or plate on a table top, but putting anything on it tall enough to display the earrings made it topple over.  So an ankle weight around the legs and covered with a piece of cloth, then the rack wired to the front legs of the stand.  A little garland around the top, and I had an earring display stand. 
Then I had another idea. 
There on the left back – it’s a spool tree, to hold spools of thread.  I only used two sides but it did lift a few earrings up so they could be seen. 
My sister and I are talking about trying another show, maybe in the spring.  If/when we do, I’ll have taken the time to come up with a little better display idea.  But they worked for this time.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Albert Einstein

Variations on a charm

I have continued making charms for the craft show coming up this weekend, but I’ve also been making a few earrings.  These earrings are just a little more elaborate than the wine glass charms, but still just chains around a doodad.  With beads.  

The colors are not showing up true to life.  The four on the left are Christmas Red, Lizbeth # 671, the center two are Navy Blue, Lizbeth # 654 and the four on the right are Burgundy, Lizbeth # 672.  They are all in size 20. 
As most people seem to like silver jewelry instead of gold right now I’ve been doing most of the charms and  earrings in silver.  I have made a few things with gold centers and beads because they just look so good in them.
I’ve not been checking out too many blogs the last week or so.  I just get sucked in and go from one to another and totally loose track of time.  And I’m a bit short on time right now!  I’ve tatted a lot of the charms, now I need to put the rings on them.  And do some more earrings.  And a few other things I’m wanting to get done for the show.  Then there are a few things I can’t not do, like cook once in a while, do a little laundry, that type of thing.  The good news is I’ve taken this week off from work to get some crafting done.  I’m not sure just how much I’ll actually get done, but certainly more than if I was having to go to work. 
After the craft show is over I’ll be concentrating on getting things done for Christmas.  And  cleaning my house, which has been very much neglected.  I have thread, beads and other miscellaneous crafty things all over the place – imagine that!
“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.” C.S. Lewis