So, Saturday dawned bright and COLD – about 35 degrees. At least the windstorm had passed.(If you’re from New Mexico, you know that spring goes by another name here: wind.) Tom and I toodled down the road a couple of miles to Albuquerque’s Open Space Visitors’ Center to participate in the Recycled Art Fair.
Got the tent up and all the rugs and such in place by 10:00’s opening. People were already showing up looking to score good stuff made from other folks’ waste. Music was playing. It was gonna be a great weekend. Certainly better than last year when it snowed and rained and winded the first day. All I had to do was wait for the customers to come to me.
And they did. To see what I was working on. I like to hook when I do shows. For one thing, it draws people in either to 1) figure out what the hell I’m doing or 2) tell me a story how they (or their mother/father/grandparent) used to hook. And, of course, there are the latch hook tales, but we’ll skip over that today. Fortunately, I love to chat up folks and to spread the hooking gospel, so no problem there.
The problem was that no one was buying.
And then, suddenly, none of that mattered. A woman approached my tent; I was in my camp chair working away muttering trash talk about people who weren’t buying my trash-to-treasures. She says, “Laura?” I respond affirmatively, pleasantly even, because I have to I’m that kind of person. And then she tells me who she is: Amy Buesing of Las Cruces!
If you don’t know Amy, and I know many of you do, she’s a member of my guild but can’t make the monthly meetings given the five-hour drive between Albuquerque and Las Cruces. I’m pretty sure that she and I became Facebook friends before I left Massachusetts and even knew there was such a thing as the Adobe Wool Arts Guild. We bonded over family matters and such. Last October she and Mary Ramsey, our guild president, roomed together at the ATHA Biennial. Neither had met the other, but hookers are game for that kind of thing. Mary told me that Amy and I would hit it off when we finally met.
Here’s the thing, I thought that would be in September when Sharon Smith of Off the Wool Rugs comes to give a workshop. But Amy surprised me. She was in town and, knowing that I had a show, she made time before driving home to come meet me. I was touched. So touched
and discombobulated that, when she bought one of my rugs, I 1) almost didn’t give her her $10 of change and 2) sent her home with a mug that didn’t match the double mug rug that she bought. Duh! I’ll get the right one out to you later this week, Amy!
Not only did I get to chat with Amy and her friend/travel buddy Michele, but she must’ve brought some good luck for me too. I managed to sell a few rugs the next day, including the sunflower table runner/wall-hanging I just finished. And then I was invited by the fair’s organizers to participate in their Cinco de Mayo Folk Art Fest on May 5 here in town. Woohoo! And all because of Amy. Cathy Kelly, also of AWAG and general hooking fame, will be doing that one with me. Come visit us!
Have you met any Facebook folks years after friending them? Heaven or a horror story?
Hmmmmmm…Looks like another stolen possibility. However,
I had to go score some free quilting fabric “folds” from my favorite East
Mountain Quilt Store–Busy Bee–today.
I, too, have lots of trash and lots of talk!
-cath
Excellent. And the Cinco de Mayo folks loved our pics. I had to send two of yours and two of mine. Used your Caswell rug and the circular Native American one (name escapes me). We will have margaritas!
Ching, Ching! Ketchikan Mask
I will have to bring that one!
Yes, that one! The mind is a terrible thing to lose…
So much of rug hooking is about the wonderful people you meet and spend time with. Amy is
a-mazing!! Life is good!
Don’t forget the food, Mary. The food!
What a great weekend! You are very professional with your banner! Is the tent yours as well? Glad to hear you sold some things.
I think any craft fair selling any craft is a PR/education event! Why be there if you don’t want to explain about rug hooking/latch hooking etc? And you have to educate people so that they understand why your prices are higher than World Market! I was demonstrating hooking years ago and a little girl ran up to the tent and started running her hands up and down a rug I had brought! Her mother was horrified, but I explained that it was a rug and we did walk on it. I wanted to grab that girl and get her hooking – she was so thrilled by it.
I talked with Peter about the state tax number and starting a business thing and it didn’t go well. I am waiting…SC is very explicit about any person selling anything at a craft fair having a state tax number.
Did I tell you that I am offering two quilting workshops this summer at the art center where I volunteer? I am SO excited and am crossing fingers that I get at least 2 people. I put the age at 14+. I’d love to get some “young people”. The cost may be a deterrent though…
AH, yes, trying to get young folks interested in “old” arts/crafts. We have that conversation here. How to compete with the electronics? My own kid’s not at all interested, but I know that there are some out there. Just have to connect somehow. Ha! Have that same thing happen all the time with kids and parents. I tell them they can walk on one of them and certainly touch them. As long as they aren’t eating ice cream or cotton candy! 🙂 My tent bit the big one last year at my last outdoor show. The one I’m using now was purchased by Catherine Kelly who commented above. We sell together at certain fairs during the year. We agreed that, when this one fails, I buy the next. It’s currently living in my garage, and we’ll both use it for the Cinco de Mayo Fest. (PS – I owe you an email and thanks for the Viking thing; just been so busy the past week or so. This weekend. After Tynan’s rattlesnake re-test.)