Show Time!

My show season is now officially done for the year! Getting that last show over with is always kind of bitter sweet. I don't do alot of shows each year but enough to keep me busy. As in the last show I did, I took some pictures of my view from the booth. Taking the pictures early in the morning shows some of the booths since during the day there were alot of people walking around.

Notice the lady at the spinning wheel? Her booth was about the same distance from mine at the last show I was at in Asheville.

 Having a corner booth allows me to have 2 directions to look while I have some down time!!

 I took my camera along on Satuday so  took a couple of pictures of weavers at our group booth! Ila and LaDonna wove alot! Because they gave us that extra 5 feet free if we'd demonstrate, I wanted to be sure that someone would be weaving all the time. They did, too!!

 Carl came for part of the day to see the show. His friend that brought him likes to look at everything slowly so Carl had extra time on his hand. I think he got tired of standing and Ila needed a break, so Carl wove for awhile. That little wolf pup got a real workout all weekend!!

LouAnn printed out the picture of the group that we have at the top of the blog. This was a great idea!! As people bought things she could point to the weaver who made the item. We just need to update the picture since we have so many more weavers now.
Having the looms there sparked alot of interest too in weaving lessons. It'll be interesting to see how many people come in January to learn. We can always teach another person. In talking to some of them, they would eventually mention that their great grandmother wove or someone in their family had and it had sparked the initial interest. This area has a rich tradition of weaving and we're doing our part to keep it going!
Our booth was a success. Just about everyone that had something for sale in the booth sold something. Ideas are already being expressed on how to tweak the booth for next year. In a way, it's amazing how good it looked for us having kind of thrown this one together. My booth took years to tweak but now I have it down to a science how it's going to look and set up. Our group booth can become that way as well. Of course if we figure out something new to weave that can change it but having a core set up plan will help.
I am looking forward to Tina's report tomorrow on really what sold. There was a real variety of things that sold from what I could see. 
I did spend most of my time in my booth but when I'd look around the corner they would usually be selling something to someone.
I think when any of the weavers goes to another show now, they will look at more than just what's being sold. Seeing how others display their items will help us figure out our display for next year!

I've been thinking about Hillary from Crazy as a Loom. Her show was a bit iffy this weekend. You know, you can be in the right show and still have an off show. I've done ok in my shows this year, one of the three was great and the other two were about average. However, I do know that at each of the shows there have been some people that did great and others that probably didn't even make their booth fee. Being an artist like this is really tricky. You are subject to the whims of your shoppers. You can have the greatest product in the world but if that day they didn't feel like buying it, you're going to have a bad show. You'll get tons of compliments but that doesn't pay the bills.
Laura from Prince George worries about having sold her items to everyone that wants them already and since they're well made they don't need more.
I worry about that too with my things. At this show especially, I see alot of my pieces walking around. It's neat to have a customer(wearing my vest) that bought the vest 3 years ago come by and tell me that as they were walking around the show people were saying to her, isn't that a Carol Pritcher? It is very humbling to know so many people have appreciated my work enough to buy it.
But, then it spurs me on. What new color combinations can I weave to tempt people again this year? How can I tweak it to change it enough so that maybe someone who already has a piece wants to add another to their collection?
My show season is over. I'm heading to the studio to finish packing away booth display and then working on the pieces I have left. Some will go to one of two shops and the rest will be inventoried in their rubbermaids so I can quickly access them to send to shops in early spring.
Then, I'm going to weave rugs and placemats til January, just for fun. I do have a top to weave for LaDonna and that'll go on soon as well but the rest of the time, it's going to be fun, not thinking about production for a bit. In the meantime, I'll be looking at my stash to see what I can pull out for production next year, what yarns do I need to order to complete the warps and how can I change what I've done, what did I weave several years ago that looked awesome and could be revisited.
It's going to be a relaxing month of weaving but exciting prospects for weaving production again in January.
I do hope that each of you has a good Thanksgiving and glad my Canadian friends had one in October before the snow hit!
Keep weaving!
Carol