Show's Over Folks!! :o)

Hi all!

Well I did it, and the show was really great! Even tho the weather was horrid, with gusts blowing my work off my table every 5 minutes! It drizzled with rain for most of the day but people still came out which was really impressive! It was a much bigger even than I would have guessed as I have never even come down to look at the festival before much less be part of it.

Set in our beautiful gardens it spanned across an entire feild, the pavilion area where I was and then further down amongst other gardens was a petting zoo and area full of plants for sale and kitchen produce, conserves etc.

There were artists, knitters, wood workers, beaders, wrought iron sculptors and more! And that was just in my area, I couldn't leave my table to look around unfortunately as I was on my own.

The day was from 10 - 4 and we arrived early to set up which didn't take as long as I would have thought so I started on a bear while I was waiting for folks to arrive. While I did finish the bear I also sold 4 bears, 1 large sculpt (my Mermaid), a felted egg, and bags of wool. I made the same amount in one short day as I have made on my best weekend at the bigger doll and bear shows! I was really impressed and will certainly be attending next year. The cost of the table was a fraction of what it costs me to do the bear shows. So if any of you are thinking of doing shows, I think that even if it's not a bear show it's still worth doing and probably cheaper too.

Here are some pics from the day, firstly my table. My poor sign was in tatters by the end of the day from the wind, and I've had that thing for 3 years now, laminated and all. :o) You can see my bag of wools and such at the end. The bears on the display in the middle were not for sale, the basket at the other end has my felted soaps and easter eggs in it.

This is part of the view from my table, I was under the eaves of the Pavilion and these are all the tents that were in the middle of the garden area there.

This is the view further along, there were 2 of these gorgeous gardens in front of me, what a view! Look how grey the sky was tho!

I had assumed these were Alpacas as an Alpaca lady approached me about making some bears for her store. I'm not totally sure tho, anyone know?

These fabulous stilt walkers wandered around all day in the rain and wind, I was so impressed with them! They looked great and they must have been cold getting drizzled on and then blown about by the wind!

Well that was my day! I'm so pleased I did it. Was a bit of a shame that no one came down to see me that I was expecting, but I was surprised when my Mum and Dad turned up as they have never seen me at any shows. Apparently they were dead impressed with my table so that was cool.

So now it's back to work for the Doll and Bear show in May. I don't really have a lot to do for it, but will just keep making at my usual pace and hopefully produce some really nice pieces. I already have a number of bears that I am really pleased with and hope to enter some comps! Yay, at last I may get to win something as I have nevered entered anything before.

Thanks for dropping by, hope you enjoyed my pics and waffling!

Happy crafting and huggles to all,

Liza

It's Show Time!!

Hi Everyone!! Well I have 2 days till the Arts Festival, getting a bit nervous now! I haven't been to this one before and not totally sure that my 'art' will really fit in, but it was relatively cheap to show at this one and it gets my business cards out there and people looking at my work. So it's worth doing, just a bit nerve wracking!

I don't think I will get any more bears made in the next couple of days, but here are my last pieces, this first one I am particularly proud of. He is felted from Alpaca (I seem to be taking a liking to this fibre) and I just love his big nose and old fashioned style. I used a damp paint brush and a water colour pencil to shade him. Meet Cedrick......


This little fellow is Billy Bear, he is my first 4 legged bear and such a little sweetie. I just made him from a basic brown coloured corriedale.

This little fox is felted from a gorgeous hand dyed wool called Misty Rust. I thought it was just perfect for a fox. I got the idea from a book a friend of mine (Thanks Veronika) loaned me, it was all in german tho so I had to wing it, he turned out ok in the end but was rather a hassle to make!

Another idea from the book, these little guys were very quick to make, I might do some bigger ones as these are teeny, the biggest is about an inch long.

Well, wish me luck. The show is from 10 till 4 and is just for the Saturday. I wish you all could come and visit. I think Veronika is going to be my only visitor on the day so she can tell me how the table looked, but hopefully I will get lots of public attention (not the 5 fingered discount variety of people hopefully) and make lots of contacts which would be nice.

Have a good weekend everyone and catch you later on!

Huggles

Liza

Something a bit Special

Hello Everyone! I hope you are all doing well and happily crafting or collecting to your hearts content! :o)

I've got something a little bit special for you this week. A fabulous friend of mine gave us some air dry clay so we had a play over the school holidays. One of the things I came up with was a wee paddling pool. I had this image in my head of a wee bear wearing floaties having a little splash in it.

Well for once what was in my head came out on my needle and here we have little Floaties the toddler bear playing in his pretty little pool. He even has zinc on his wee bear nose! I have to take some more pics as these ones weren't very good but you get the idea! Hope you like him.

This little sweetie is Blossom, she is felted from a gorgeous pastel blend of wools with peach and pink and lavender. She is wearing a pink star necklace too.

This fine fellow is Patrick. He is so sweet in his brick red and sea green wools, just the loveliest little face on him!

Well, I hope you like these 3. I have a few more ideas up my sleeve and I have been working on some 'sweet treats' to show you as well! Now that the holidays are over I can get my mind back into it and spend some time being more productive!

Not long until the show now, it's on 23rd Feb!! Eeekk

Huggles

Liza