Showtime is both invigorating and exhausting.  We look forward to visiting with customers and art lovers and are glad when the “season” is over.

When you’re a member of the arts and crafts industry, participating in shows, festivals and galas is part of the “show”.  We’ve quit doing outdoor shows.  The extra equipment and time for them makes for a 3+ hour setup and take down.  Wind. Dirty product. Hot. Cold.  We’ve had enough.  So, you’ll only find us at Rock and Gem shows and 3 indoor art/craft shows

We both plan to have new designs in our respective genres.  Tracy has a new line of bolos and buckles he’ll debut at the Heritage Festival in October.  I’ll have an assortment of wool baskets with hand-woven bands. 

I didn’t really have a “new design” in mind until our weavers group sparked an idea.  Create woven bands on an inkle Loom and incorporate them into my miniature baskets.  Rita Miller of Beaver Creek Traders is a master weaver on her Mini Wave Loom.  She creates shoelaces using car/table weaving techniques.  She loaned me her extra inkle loom and I was hooked.  I purchased a lovely little mini-inkle loom and the “dye is cast”.

I‘ve done several bands and will have them available at the Heritage Festival in the wool baskets.  I’ll also have my hand knit wool baby sweaters and pinafores there.

When the circuit ends the middle of December, we’ll take inventory, clean up the display units, load it all back into the trailer, and after some down time, we’ll venture off to Quartzsite to see what’s new at the Pow Wow and the Tucson shows.  We’ll plan and get ready for the next “showtime”.