My second craft show

I haven't been blogging because I've been making inventory for shows.  On the 13th of October, I participated in the Woodstock Fleece Festival in Woodstock, Ontario.  This time I got to use my own tables and table coverings and my cell phone credit card reader worked just fine.  I sold about as much as the last show, so I'm happy.  Now I need to find more shows to do.

One problem with being a vendor is that you don't get to see all the other booths.  This show had lots of lovely natural wools, both roving and yarns, from people who raise alpacas, llamas and sheep and rabbits.  

My first craft show

I did it!  This weekend I participated in my very first craft show, the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitters Festival in Kitchener, Ontario.  I wasn't sure how I would like doing shows, but I'm pretty gregarious and really enjoyed the process of talking to people and trying to convince them that "you don't really need a shawl to wear a shawl pin.  It can be a brooch, or a scarf pin or".....you get the idea.  I sold about $900 worth of pins, a bit jewelry and a handful of buttons, so after a booth fee of $200 and $75 for liability insurance (required by the show), I ended up with over $600.  I think that's pretty good given the low cost of the items I'm selling.

There were a few glitches.  After all that work to build my own tables and make custom coverings for them, I wasn't allowed to use them.  The venue made me use their tables and their fire-resistant table drapes.  Apparently the fire marshal is quite strict.  And then my credit card reader that fits on my iPhone wouldn't read cards.  It had worked fine when I tested it at home.  Fortunately people were very nice about paying with cash and I don't think I lost any sales.

Next I will do the Woodstock Fleece Festival in October.

Retro Pixelated Cane Shawl Pins

I decided to jump on the bandwagon and make something using the Retro Pixelated Cane.  Thanks to Bettina Welker for her tutorial.

A showcase of shawl pins

I've been making shawl pins using every technique I can think of.  Here are some examples:

This is a "Bend it Yourself" safety pin with silver zinc beads, silver-plated wire swirls and red glass beads.

This pin was made from black, white and gray layers of clay, imprinted with different texture sheets, and then the high spots shaved off.  Sanded and buffed so it is completely smooth.

Imprint mokume gane using Dan Cormier's wide peeler,

Mica shift with gold clay.  Imprinted with Helen Breil's texture sheet and then high spots shaved off.  Sanded and buffed so it is completely smooth.  It really looks 3-dimensional in real life.

From the cane I made in Carol Simmon's Kaleidoscope Cane class.

Design made in raw clay using various implements.  Antiqued after baking.

Imprinted with Helen Breil's texture sheet and then highlighted with Perfect Pearls while raw.  Wondering if I need to seal it.

Made using Wendy Orlowski's Feather Boa texture sheet.

Button, button, who's got the button?

I've got the buttons.  Lots of them.  I've been working flat out for the past couple of months building inventory for my very first show, a Knitters Festival.  After that, I'm doing a Fleece Festival.  In both shows I will be selling my shawl pins, buttons and knitting-themed jewelry.  I've also been creating a booth for the shows, making tables and table coverings, making pegboards, and buying grid walls, lamps and other accessories for the booth.  So these are my excuses for not blogging for over a month!

Here are some photos of my booth.  It is set up in my basement so the backgrounds are a bit messy.

Tall revolving Pegboard with bags of buttons.

Big buttons in containers and square buttons on the pegboard.  An Ott Lite for color matching.

The big buttons

Table with shawl pins

Examples of using the shawl pins hanging on the grid wall.

An attempt to get around the "But I don't have a shawl" problem.

My homemade fitted table covering.  I made three of these.

Faux Knitting

I love knitting in addition to making things with polymer clay, so why not combine them?  The convertible brooch/pendant and earrings are not really knit - they just look like it.  Thank you to Claire Wallis of England for her tutorial on this technique.

Faux denim and leather

I'm teaching a class on faux denim and leather at my polymer clay guild this month.  Here are some items I've made for examples:

Wooden picture frame covered in faux denim with a faux leather belt.

Faux leather with studs of polymer clay

Altoid tin covered in faux leather