Recycled craft

I attended a lecture on environmentally friendly and sustainable craft on Thursday ( Earth Day). While the speaker was a knitter, she covered many aspects of environmental sustainability in craft work in general, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed her talk. It was also nice that many of the suggestions and considerations she spoke of were a validation of some of the approaches I've already explored.

The second part of the event was a small sale of crafts produced using aspects of recycling. Knowing the sponsoring agency and the location, I did not expect ot sell anything, but had gone in hopes of getting feedback on the pieces I displayed and the direction I seem to be moving. There was a great deal of interest in my work, and the comments were all favorable. I made three sales, out of a total of four sales for all vendors combined. All the sales were my small purses using remnants of the African fabrics I've been working with, but there was just as much interest in the small hangings--enough that I now plan to take them with me to the next couple of more mainstream sales. I won't make any more of them until I see if any of them actually sell, but I have fabric ready should that happen. The next sale is May 1st and 2nd.

Exciting times embarking on a new style of work and new direction.

The quilt show was last weekend. Although I did a stint as a volunteer Friday morning, on Saturday and Sunday I took a workshop with Pippa Moore from Vancouver Island. Pippa has a blog www.kitambaa.blogspot.com where she talks about her work trying to establish quilting as a cottage industry in Uganda.

This gives her access to African fabrics, and the finished projects her ladies make, both of which she markets in North America to support the work done in Africa. So the workshop was making an African inspired wall hanging, using mainly African fabrics. I bought a second kit and made a second hanging over the past couple of days. I had hoped that the workshop would "jump start" my creativity, and while I'm pleased with what I produced, I'm not sure where I might go from here. I have lots of scraps of African fabric that I can use in making small items that can be legitimately called "re-cycled", and I plan to pursue that. But little of my stuff sold at the show, and I'm somewhat discouraged right now.

Where did the time go?

I turned around and it was craft sale season again! My first sale--a small one that I send goods to on consignment--is next weekend. I started going through my inventory yesterday and realized how very little there is! Panic! There is another small sale on April 22. Anything offered for sale then must be made from re-cycled materials, and I have about 8 small pieces, made especially for that sale. Those little guys are such fun to make that I've used up most of my re-cycl-able stuff. It's hard to stop. But I think they have very limited appeal and I shouldn't make any more until the first batch sell--a very limited market. Then the first "big sale" of the season--May 1st-2nd. I have reserved space for my full booth--and will have to fill it! I hadn't really looked at the calendar when I sent some of my newer work out to a gallery in another town. I can't get it back until May 2nd. I think I may just enquire about picking it up April 30th. Bad form, I know.
Anyway, I think I've figured out what I would be doing for the next few weeks. Not what I had planned at all.