Open Studios Coming Up!

So, did everyone go shopping on Friday? I'm actually pretty proud of us for *not* going out shopping, lol... We did buy some outdoor Christmas lights and put them up, though, so that was fun. It even flurried here a little bit on Sunday (didn't stick though, rats).

And I sold the sister to my cashmere scarf that I posted about earlier. Barely got it listed on Etsy, and now it's off to Chicago...

Love that cashmere... I've got two with navy stripes in the works (too dreary to take good photos, waiting for some sun), and have some on my loom with yellow in the stripe that are looking pretty cool, too. I'm pleased - and they're fast to weave, since they're twill (my shadow-weave bamboo scarves take two shuttles, so they're a little slower). I'm hoping to warp and weave a couple more sets of the variegated rayon scarves as well. All this because we've got the Holiday Open Studios coming up at Western Avenue over the next two weekends - Saturday and Sunday both weekends, from noon - 5pm.

And, finally, I'll be delivering five pieces to a new shop in Chelmsford, hopefully today - one of the WAS artists is opening a shop about five minutes away from our house! How fun! (We live near the center of our town, it's nice to be able to walk to the library, the grocery store, etc.) Even better, her shop is *right* along the new bike path that is being built through Chelmsford (as part of the Rails to Trails network, very excited to have it here). So, while I wouldn't exactly recommend biking while wearing a scarf, it will be great exposure for her shop...

(Oh - and I'm about halfway through New Moon, the second book in the Twilight series... Jacob has definitely taken a turn for the grumpier, but I still like him better than Edward, lol! I thought I was going to finish the book yesterday, but I was good and went to the studio to weave, instead...)

Busy Season?

Fall is in the air in New England... (Though, of course, as I write this, a warm front is coming through, bringing heavily humid air with it, yucko.) The leaves are already starting to change a little bit - kind of early this year, but not surprising after a very cool August.

We had Open Studios at Western Avenue Studios on Saturday September 6, and I swear if was the hottest day of the summer, it was horrible. Humid, rainy, everybody was sweating - not a great environment to sell scarves in!

But, when I got home, I discovered that a very lovely customer had purchased this scarf:

from my Etsy store. Excellent.

I shipped it off to her last Monday morning and then got a lovely note from her saying that her husband had appropriated it as soon as it arrived and could i please make another one for him? Even more excellent! so, I'll be making one in more manly colors (black, greys, blues) as soon as I can manage to finish weaving this warp:

I am seriously thinking of calling this series of scarves Not For the Faint of Heart or something like that. The colors are a lot of fun - black, purple, deep red, orange and bright pink in the warp, mostly purple and black in the weft with stripes of orange, red and pink at each end and in the middle. Yeah, it's colorful.

Apparently, I'm in the mood to work with bright colors. Does anyone else get those moods? I try to kind of balance out my color schemes for my store and studio, but sometimes i just a hankering to mix, say, orange and pink and make my eyes pop a little. And other days I prefer working with more serene color combinations...

Follow- Up On the Time Question - and a Teaching Question

First of all, a big apology to anyone who was looking for my Wednesday artist profile this past week and missing it... I was just swamped (and, let's admit it, completely lame). But, for a special treat, I'm planning to profile a weaver this coming Wednesday!

She is lucky enough to live near here!

So, folks, thanks so much to everyone who commented on the previous post. I took all of your advice to heart, as well as some wonderful advice from the EtsyFAST folks, too - and put it to good use at yesterday's Open Studios at Western Avenue Studios.

First of all, despite kind of a record low turn-out (it was kind of a yucky day here yesterday, it didn't surprise me that not a lot of people showed up) - I sold four pieces! I was tickled!


So, this scarf, among others, has a new home. (Always had a soft spot for this one - I wear it's twin sister that has a threading error in it - I took the colors from a painting that my daughter made.)

Secondly, I think I came up with a way that works for me to answer the dreaded "time" question. First, I changed my attitude and decided to attribute the question just to curiosity. Especially since during Open Studios my loom is right there, often with work in progress on it, of course people want to hear about the process. So, I spend a lot of time giving a quick run-down of the warping process and how a loom works to folks - it's really wonderful to see how interested people are!

And, when they ask the time question, I usually give a bit longer answer, based on some of the replies I got here, actually! Something like: "Well, I've been weaving pretty steadily for seven years now (funny how as a weaver that makes me a neophyte, but non-weavers think that's a long time, lol), when I first started it probably took me about 3X, though I didn't time myself then. Even a year or so ago, it took me about 2X. I've gotten really efficient in the past year and a half since I've started selling, though, and have my time down to X. Unless I make mistakes that need fixing..." (I'm a typical NorthEastern Yankee fast talker, so that goes by faster than it looks.)

OK, if you've made it this far - I have another question for you! Do you have people ask about you giving lessons? I'm amazed at how many people ask me if I teach when they come through during Open Studios.

I'm thinking that for the big Lowell-city-wide Artists Open Studios in late September that I'm going to bring my little four-shaft loom over, too, and set it up with a sample warp and let people have at it. We get a lot of kids through, too, and I think they might get a kick out of that...

I would love to teach someday, but at the moment, at least, I barely have enough time to weave! Maybe when both munchkins are old enough to be in school.

Any teachers out there? Do you give private lessons, one-on-one, or do you teach groups? I imagine it's a lot of work, but also really rewarding.

Anybody who happened to read my Endnotes column in Handwoven will probably realize that Rita Steinbach, my teacher at the Worcester Center for Crafts, was just crucial in giving me that push that I needed to move into designing my own work. (Thank you, Rita!!) Anywho, I would love to hear about your experiences!