Advertising/Marketing/Promoting

I was reminded recently that I haven't mentioned the things I sell for a while - especially Magic in the Water now being available for sale in either PDF or print-on-demand.  

Then there is the book/monograph I published in English for Kerstin Fro:berg, Weave a V.  If you are in Europe, you might like to use the link and buy directly from Kerstin.  She has both Swedish and English versions available.

My editor assures me that she will have the final final edits of The IntentionalWeaver done by Friday, but I have company until the 28th so nothing much will get done until March.  However, I do feel (after meeting with Ruth in person) that I have something worthwhile publishing.  I just want to add some more projects and a few more hints/tips specific to the weave structures I am including.  Then this summer I am hoping for a massive photo shoot to make the photos consistent because I've just been cadging photos from my files and they span about 12 years.  And no, I no longer look like that in some of those older photos.  :(  So, for the sake of visual harmony, all of the photos need to be re-taken.  

Again, I am not trying to write a 'how to learn to weave' book, but mining my 40 mumble years of production weaving, teaching and writing about weaving, in hopes of a 'how to weave better' book.

My finances took a big hit last year for one reason and another (a parent dying does tend to kind of knock the wind out of your sails) and I'm scrambling to keep myself afloat during the early months of this year.

So if anyone is at all inclined to either purchase either of the above, or contact me about tea towels (tea towels, I got tea towels!) I would be ever so grateful.  Or you can shop on line - I have six designs listed (more in inventory if you don't see something you like - let me know what you are looking for!)

As for teaching, I've had to cancel one workshop already this year but it looks like the local workshop on Twills will go ahead the first weekend of April.  If you are interested, feel free to email me via my website and use the contact form.

For Olds, I'm still sitting on contracts for four classes - three level one, one level two.  This program is 5 days in person with the instructor, then homework to be completed during the following year.  Right now there are classes in Yadkinville, NC, (although I'm not teaching there) Cape Breton (Englishtown, NS) and hosted by the Olympia, WA guild (Tanino, WA).  

I am also working on more written projects.  One has been sent off to Handwoven for the Nov/Dec issue and I'm quite pleased with how the cloth looks.  I hope I have presented a familiar weave structure in a fresh way.

And I just signed a contract to do another project for Interweave, plus I have been in discussion with Interweave about on-line teaching.  No contract yet, but I'm quite excited about opening up the possibility to teach remotely.  Because I'm getting way too tired for those dark o'clock flights.  (Last year I wound up taking the red eye to Cape Breton and I fear there will be a repeat of that this year - but still preferable to those 6 am flights!!!)

Now, not all of these things I mentioned may happen.  In fact I rarely say much of anything until I have confirmation.  But sometimes you need to let people know these things are scheduled so that they can go sign up...

As always, thank you for reading and your feedback.

Currently reading Bone Box by Faye Kellerman

Black Friday

The above photos are four of the 8 tea towels/table centres currently listed on my on line shop with more to come next week.

I'd just like to remind people that prices include free shipping to the US and are listed in those tiny Canadian dollars.  Therefore a 'bargain'?

Interweave Press  is also having a huge sale.  It looks like my DVD on wet finishing is currently out of stock, but the video download is on deep discount as are both DVD and video download of The Efficient Weaver.  They even have the webinar on fibre characteristics on at half price.  Or did as of this morning when I last checked.

Since this year's craft fair season wasn't as...brilliant...as I would have liked, I am exploring other options for income.  Some independent authors/teachers are pursuing the Patreon option, but I'm not sure I can effectively manage that, especially in the run up to the conference in 2019.

So I am exploring the possibility of monetizing this blog.  

I have been offering free advice via this blog since August of 2008.  Adding pertinent advertisers will, I hope, be acceptable to my readers.  If not, I hope people will be able to ignore them.  

So - don't be surprised if you suddenly see ads appearing.  

I will do a trial of three (?) months and see if it is worthwhile.  Google says you can opt out again anytime.  Of course it probably means more robo calls from Google - the most annoying part of being a small business.  But I have finally decided to give it a try and see if it is acceptable to me and my readers. 

Plans vs Reality

Stephanie Pollack has brilliantly summed up Life.

I am a plan maker, a deadline meet-er.  I purposely set up my life with goals I want to obtain, in a time frame that I need to work towards, pretty much daily.  Having goals and deadlines gives me the adrenaline I need to get out of bed every morning and hie myself to the studio.

With the craft fair season not quite as lucrative as I'd hoped, and debts higher, I have been kind of scrambling around trying to come up with a plan.  Or three.  Or more.

First - sort through the left over inventory, get beauty shots, list on my on-line web shop (via Circle Craft)  Today I will select the first items and try to get good photos although the light is pretty dull today so it may have to wait until tomorrow.

Weave the order of a dozen place mats I got in Vancouver.  Again - won't finish today, will aim for tomorrow.

Accept commission from another weaver who is similarly running into Life and Deadlines.  I don't mind 'ghost' weaving for another weaver, especially when it is something that I feel I will ultimately benefit from doing.  Not to mention she is willing to pay.  (See comment above about lack of income and debt load.)

Simmering in the background is a commitment to write up my part in a joint project, do the 'final' edits for The Intentional Weaver (so far), submit a proposal to Handwoven.

People have no idea how much work it takes to be a professional artisan/teacher/author.  I need my daily deadlines/goals to keep me heading in the direction of my ultimate objective.  Peaks, valleys, obstacles will undoubtedly lie on my path - not that nice straight line that I think Life should be like - might mean I don't meet my initial goal.  But if I never set a goal, a deadline, I will never get anything done.

So...I owe, I owe, it's off to work I go...

Currently reading Take Out by Margaret Maron 

Here We Go...Again

Yesterday was set up day for the other local show we do - Studio Fair.

I have been doing this show, first as a volunteer, then as an independent crafts person for a very long time.  I've watched it grow into the higher end show it now is, attracting artisans from across the country.  I've been here almost every year it has been in business, watched others - and myself - evolve through the decades.

We have refined my booth structure and display as what I make has changed.  Most of it fits on a cart other than a few 'odd' items - like the tall stool and some metal display stands.  Usually while Doug loads the cart I start hand carrying the odd ball items to the booth.

And then we start setting up the booth apparatus, including the lights.

Studio Fair is a 'low light' show but even before it was I always had my own lights.  Because the quality of light in such large halls is pretty terrible, which would shift my colours into something...not very attractive.  I needed my own lighting to wash out the overhead lights so that people could see how my textiles actually looked instead of how they looked under the hall lights.

So this photo shows Doug just after he has arrived with the loaded cart.  A couple of boxes are already on the floor - the cart is usually piled high with display stuff as well as the many boxes of product.

It all fits into the back of our 'mini' van with the seats out in the back.

Now it's down to whether or not enough people are interested in my designs, willing to pay my prices.

Sunday we tear down and pack everything up into the back of the van.  Monday morning, as soon as we can possibly hit the road, we head for Vancouver to do the Circle Craft Christmas Market.

Where we will do this all over again...

Seasons/Cycles

People sometimes forget that for me, weaving is a year round, full time job.  And so when I appear at a craft fair, the contents of my booth do not reflect just a few weeks or even months of work, but at times, years.

Since I have never yet actually sold out of anything in one year, whatever is left gets brought out the next year.  And the next.  Until I get sick of dragging it around and donate it to a worthy cause, or sell the last few pieces of a line at discount prices, usually at the annual guild sale in December.  It's a great way to support the guild (who gets a % of sales) and get rid of things that have been hanging around for far too long.

Some of the things in my booth might have been woven five years ago; some were woven this year.  

But bottom line?  If I didn't work at this all year round, I would not have enough inventory to do the (now) three major shows that I do in October and November (plus the guild show in Dec.)

Weaving by hand is still a labour intensive activity.  People constantly want to know how long is has taken me to weave something.  Which is very difficult to say without doing some serious number crunching.

So - place mats.

It takes about 30-40 minutes to wind a warp which will yield 12 mats and one table runner.

It takes about 30-40 minutes to beam that warp.  (What can I say, I'm fast)

It takes about 30-40 minutes to thread that warp.  (See bracket above)

It takes about 10-15 minutes to sley and tie on.

It take about 30-40 minutes to weave 4 mats, so a total of about 140 minutes plus breaks to weave that warp.  If I push hard I can weave the entire 10.5 meter long warp off in a day.

Cut and serge?  About 30 minutes.

Then into the washer and dryer.

Then a couple of hours to press.

Hemming takes about 40 minutes each.  Yes, finishing an item can take as long if not longer than weaving (as in shuttle throwing).

Then a final press.

Then tagging/pricing.

And I'm fast.  Most weavers can't come close to my efficiency.

Yes, people can buy place mats for cheaper at Target.  But they won't get my designs.  Because in the 21st C what hand craftspeople are selling - in addition to their skill - is their unique design aesthetic.  Something that cannot be found anywhere but from them.

For all the people who have believed in me and my skills/designs over the decades - my heart felt thanks for supporting me in my dream of creating unique textiles.

We set up for Studio Fair tomorrow, set up for Circle Craft Christmas Market (Vancouver) next Tuesday, and once I get home I will be re-opening my shop on the Circle Craft website.  

Stay tuned...

Currently reading Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal

One Down, Two...

The first show of my craft fair season is done and dusted.  I have a few days 'off' to try and tame this cold - because man, I feel miserable!  Thank goodness Doug doesn't mind selling.  I pretty much sat in the background and let him deal with it.

The photo is of a traditional design called Snails' Trails and Cat's Paws.  All of these are gone now, but I'm revisiting the design in some soft muted blue/greens.  I intend to get them done as soon as I get home from Vancouver, mid-November.  If I can get them down quickly enough they will go into my 'shop'  on the Circle Craft website.

My shop is 'closed' for business right now, but as soon as I can get unpacked from the Circcle Craft Christmas Market, it will be open.  There will mostly be tea towels, mainly because that is what I have the most of, in terms of inventory.  I may list rayon chenille scarves, too.  Mostly it will depend if I can get photos that are remotely close to the colours in the scarves.

Tomorrow I am going to stay home.  I may (or may not) wind place mat warps.  I doubt I will feel up to weaving on the AVL, although I had hoped to finish the blue weft tea towels, maybe even start on the green cottolin weft. 

But all of that will have to wait and see how tired and miserable this cold is making me.

Satisfied

Yesterday Doug loaded the van with most of the stuff for the coming craft fairs.  There are still a few things left to go in, including the cart we use to transfer all the boxes from van to booth location.

This weekend will be the Artisans of the North at the University.  We once again have a spot in the Doug Little room which is just off the Winter Garden (and Tim Horton's - but I digress).

I'm low on shawls, although I think this one is still available.  It's been a while since I sorted through the stacks and stacks of textiles.  But I know I have very few shawls left.  Never did make it to putting a shawl warp on.

Because it isn't just the weaving of them.  There there's the fringe twisting.  Then the wet finishing.  Then trimming the fuzzy bits off the ends of the fringe to make them look tidy.  Then tagging.

And I just didn't have the time or energy it would take to even think about getting more finished in time.  So, I didn't even try.

Instead I put another tea towel warp onto the AVL while getting a couple more white place mat warps woven.  Yesterday I finished hemming the mats and now I'm working on the table runners I got woven over the summer.  

So even though I'm disappointed I couldn't manage more shawls I am satisfied I did the best I could given how this year started - with mom dying and all that that entailed to get her life wrapped up, then teaching, then all the dental work I needed.  But the dental work is now finished (until next time) and once my mouth settles down I should be able to chew on both sides of my mouth.  Which should help my TMJ - chewing only on one side of my mouth was causing issues with stressing my jaw.

And on and on it goes. 

As Bette Davis supposedly said - getting old is not for sissies!

If I have the time and energy once we return from Vancouver I will update my on line shop via the Circle Craft website and have a 'sale' before Christmas.  Stay tuned.

Currently reading Glass Houses by Louise Penny

Culmination

I'm at the fun bit of weaving - sitting at the loom, contentedly weaving away, piling up the yards/meters.  Thinking.  Because when everything is going well and you only need surface attention for the task at hand, the mind can go wandering.

This morning I was thinking about how cyclic in nature being a professional weaver is.  My year end is not Dec. 31 but oh, around now.  The craft fair season begins very shortly and if I haven't got it ready for sale by now?  It probably isn't going to be ready for this year.  So what I am actually doing is working on inventory for next year.  

I am also stash busting - to a certain extent.  While the weft I'm currently using is 'new' - as in purchased in Sweden at Va:v last month, the warp yarns have been in my stash for considerably longer.  

This summer I did not have my usual 'birthday' sale so I am thinking of getting new items loaded to my Circle Craft shop as soon as I get home from the Circle Craft Christmas Market, mid-November.  Maybe by then these towels will be finished.  Or very soon after I get home.  My 'shop' is currently closed due to my travel schedule, but I haven't forgotten about it.

There are a whole bunch of things that have had to be put on the back burner, but I have not forgotten about them.  Number one is, of course, The Book.  I got the last set of edits in June but have just not had the time - or energy - to deal with them.  Again, hopefully after the craft fair season.  Doing the new edits can actually be - not relaxing, exactly - but a different kind of activity, one particularly suited to winter.

Plus the perennial conversation about all things weaving, generally process related, goes around again.  So finishing The Book seems particularly important, if only to give people more information than is generally available.  If you don't know what you don't know, you don't know that you need to know it.  My hope is to fill in some of those cracks in people's fundamental knowledge so that they can make appropriate choices.

As for the web on the loom, yes there are reed marks.  No they may not come out 'in the wash' (wet finishing) but they are consistent and therefore part of the character of the cloth.  I'm good with it either way.

And yes, that's a three thread float on the selvedge.  And no, it doesn't bother me.  It's fine.  And no, I don't use a floating selvedge.  See my other blog posts on Selvedges.  Whole lot more to good selvedges than using a floating selvedge.  Or an end feed shuttle.  Etc.

Bumps

Life is full of bumps, lumps, twists and turns.  

The last couple of warps that I put onto the AVL I had some errors that required fixing and this time I decided I needed something that would be simpler to set up.  It's also something that many people find attractive - a twill block version of the traditional Snail's Trails and Cat's Paws design.

I have some of this design on hand but they are 'neutral' colours.  The linen I brought home from Sweden is a lovely rich somewhat 'off' blue, not dark dark, but deeper than what I would consider a medium value.  As such I thought it would go nicely on this warp made up of greyed blues and greens in a medium value with a few darker blues, almost identical to the linen, to make up 32 spools for sectional beaming.

I have just now finished threading and rather than continue I need to do some administrivia - both sales taxes are due.  I don't owe anything on either of them but the paperwork has to be filed and I'd rather do it now before I leave on my next trip.  Because when I get home I will have to hit the ground running, as they say.  My schedule is gearing up towards the craft fair season and I have three back to back, each one longer than the next (2 days, then 3 days, then 5 days) with a 450 mile trip each way for the last.  Circle Craft is the last show of the season and is pretty exhausting, coming at the end of my shows.  Well, the guild does a small show but that is in December and only two days, in the guild room.  Usually a time when I can spin or knit or putter.  I am also hoping I can update my shop at the Circle Craft website for a 'sale' - just in time for Christmas?

With this warp I wound up with no 'extra' threads which gives me hope that I actually managed to follow my threading draft and not make any mistakes.  We'll see!

Stash

I routinely moan about the size of my stash.  Admittedly it's much too large - I have way too much yarn.  My goal in life is to weave it down.

That said, having a large stash with lots and lots of colours allows me to play/experiments with combining colours.

This warp isn't particularly innovative but that's because I was running low on options.  In the end I opted for an almost monochromatic 'background' to set off the brighter variegated cotton - which is the yarn I'm trying hard to use up!

The weft for this warp will be a dark value blue which should set the centre variegated stripe off nicely.  Here is the first half of the warp wound:

As a production weaver I have settled on a 'standard' set of yarns that I use repeatedly, in many different ways.

Cotton and rayons comprise my most commonly used yarns.  At this time.

I also have a large set of teaching yarns that I use for my workshops.  But since I have decided to 'retire' from most teaching (other than the Olds master weaving program and the occasional foray into conferences) I now also need to use those yarns up.

Yesterday all my inventory was taken out of its packing boxes so I can see what I have.  Once I get home from my teaching marathon in June I will assess what I have - and what I need for the fall sales.

Since I seem to have rather a lot of tea towels/kitchen utility towels - especially once this series has been finished, finished, I will probably have a 'sale' on my Circle Craft website store beginning in July some time.

So far I have nine warps either wound, pulled or planned, with a tenth likely.  With 10 towels per warp, that means another 100 or so towels will be coming off the loom very soon.

I also have about 27 yards left on the AVL which needs to be woven before I can contemplate making a warp of table runners.  These will be cotton warp and linen weft - in order to use up some of that teaching stash I was talking about above.

At some point I need to make shawls, too, but I will be away for three weeks in September, probably a couple of weeks in October, and then the craft fair begins, so I am going to have to really get a move on if I'm to meet my goals for the fall sales.

But it all begins with a stash ready to hand that I can go to and work from.  So even though I may have SABLE (Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy), it's not always a bad thing!

Something Different

I have tried on-line sales previously, but haven't been entirely satisfied with the effort it takes and the amount of revenue for the time invested.  However, all that said, sometimes it is the operator at fault, not the actual system.  So, not being one to say 'been there, done that', I am trying once more to offer my textiles on-line, this time via Circle Craft

I spent some time during the show letting the people in my booth know that I was opening a shop on the Circle Craft website, and now I'm letting you, dear readers, know as well.

While I have run sales on my blog previously, it can get a bit overwhelming doing it on a web site that isn't set up to take payment, sort out shipping issues, etc., so I am giving this a go for the coming year.  For those of you who are interested in buying something I have woven, you will now have a year of access to an on-line shop.  Once I get used to the web site things should get a little easier in terms of the administrivia,

Please note all prices are in Canadian dollars and I'm offering free shipping in North America.  I'm not sure how the tax collecting - or not, if you are in the US will work - so if someone from the US purchases, could you let me know if the shopping cart recognizes an out-of-country address and doesn't charge tax?  If it doesn't I will have to make an allowance for any tax billed.  And let Circle Craft know that perhaps their web site could have a 'no tax' option for out-of-country purchases.

Currently reading The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett.  I delayed reading it for the longest time because it is the last Pratchett had published and I think I've read all of the others.  So I was kind of savoring the notion that there *was* one more...