Whew!

Spent this past weekend demonstrating needle felting and silk dyeing at the Bellevue Art Fair. If you've never been to the Bellevue Art Fair, it's a treat for anyone who appreciates beautiful things - of any kind. Besides various representations of textile arts (clothes, hats, rugs, wallhangings, etc.) there were furniture makers, metal artists, glass artists, painters, pottery makers - you name it - it is a huge event with very high quality work represented.

I had a really good time demonstrating. On Friday night I demonstrated needle felting by hand and machine and was surprised at the number of people who were interested. Lots of great questions and audience reaction makes for a great teaching experience. I was a little intimidated at first as the stage was quite large and here I was, a one woman show! But it didn't seem to matter - the stage crew was great and they had cameras trained on my work area. With all the crowd noise I was grateful for the microphone as well.

Saturday afternoon it was silk dyeing - and that really gathered a lot of attention. Nothing like lots of brightly colored silk waving in the breeze to capture attention. As demonstrators we are not allowed to sell, which is just as well. But I could have sold everything I dyed, I think! There was a lot of interest, and more importantly, a lot of interest in taking classes. So hopefully there will be some familiar faces in classes in the future. It really is easy to do and so rewarding.