After Craft Culture

We had a fun but exhausting two days at the Craft Culture show last weekend.  We are constantly asked by our customers what other shows we are in so they can find us again but truthfully we do very few shows and even then, only select ones.  We find them very exhausting as there is so much preparation work beforehand in not only preparing enough product to sell but also working out a proper display so everything is well presented.  Then there are the long hours during the show and then the take down and packing up process at the end and then usually a long drive home afterwards.  We are finding doing shows more and more of a challenge to do and so instead we are currently working on a new website for selling more of our product which should be up and running soon.

One thing we like about doing shows, however, is meeting our customers in person and seeing the happy look on their faces when they leave with their purchase in hand.  We also had a more complete line of our interchangeable snap jewelry collection available and received lots of feedback with more ideas of what our customers were looking for.

One thing about this show was that there was plenty of live entertainment with everything from music performers and gardening tips to cooking demonstrations such as Chef GIULIO PICCIOLI of  One Big Table shown here.

The other thing we enjoy is talking with other vendors in the show.  This is Marzio who was our neighbor and was really great getting to know him.  He is an excellent cartoonist who does caricatures and also has a great sense of humor as you can see in the ones he did of Dave and I.

Another artist that was across from us was abstract painter, Graciela Blancarte,  Graciela is originally from Mexico but now lives here in Canada.  She is so sweet and the colors in her paintings are so intense and beautiful.  You can visit her website here to see her work. 

Marzio also did Graciela's caricature that she is holding.

Snap Decisions at Craft Culture

We are gearing up to be in a new show this spring in Kelowna called Craft Culture which runs May 2nd and 3rd at the Kelowna Curling Club.  There will be more than a 100 vendors with a wide range of handmade items and artwork as well as plenty of live entertainment and various cooking and gardening demos.  We think it will be a fun and exciting show to be a part of and really looking forward to it.

At the show we will have our popular scarf necklaces and interchangeable earrings.  We will also be featuring our latest "Snap Decisions" interchangeable jewelry collection.  Our polymer clay creations are mounted on special snaps that can be worn as a pendant, necklace, bracelet, brooch pin, ring or even a hair barrette.

Knitting for Children at Kelowna Yarn & Needlecraft

We made a quick trip to the central Okanagan last week to visit the stores that sell our buttons and accessories.  We like to visit at least twice a year so we can meet directly with the store owners and staff and show them our latest designs.  It is also our opportunity to see how things are going and find out any ideas for what special item or buttons they might be in need of or looking for.

One of the shops that sell our handcrafted buttons and shawl pins is Kelowna Yarn & Needlecraft.  The owners, Anne and Stephen, are so friendly and always there to help you out with making your yarn and pattern choices.

Anne is quite busy with her knitters group and teaching classes.  Don't you love the sweater she is wearing?

They specialize in children's items and this sweater was one of their latest class projects.  Those are our buttons that Anne used on it.

They have a nice selection of our smaller type buttons suitable for children's sweaters and such, along with some of our more popular larger size buttons.

I wanted to show you an adorable felted/knit project they did.  This is Pumpkin Peter and Daisy.

New Shops Selling our Work

We are pleased to say that Linda's Quilt Shoppe in Kelowna, B.C. is now selling a selection of our most popular buttons and accessories.  We were really impressed with her large store and the wide selection of colorful fabrics.  The many quilted pieces hanging on the walls and even from the ceilings were fabulous!

They also have a huge classroom for quilting classes and weekend retreats.  Their classes look like a lot of fun and include everything from a "Kid's Sewing Camp" to "Quilt Therapy" and "Quilt til you wilt".

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Kelowna Yarn & Needlecrafts are now selling our shawl pins as well as our buttons.  The owners, Ann and Stephen, are a warm and friendly couple and Ann is well known for her knitting classes.  If you like to knit, crochet or felt, you can check out the unique patterns they have available on their website.

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The Dragonfly Quilt Studio is rather small but is well organized with a beautiful selection of fabrics and quilting accessories.  Our new scarf jewelry is now for sale in this beautiful shop.  I made this dragonfly design special for April, the owner.

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The 4th location we added to our list of stores that are now selling our work is the Oyama Lake Alpaca Farm in Lake Country which is just east of Kelowna.

Darlene is a fabulous fibre artist who dyes, spins, weaves, knits and felts with the yarn from the alpacas that are raised by her and her husband on their farm.  She sells a large variety of her work in their beautiful Gift Gallery.

We spent some fun time coordinating our shawl pins and scarf jewelry with her beautiful fibre pieces.   Here I am modelling one of our stick shawl pins on a beautiful felted alpaca stole she created. 

I am currently working on some new special pin designs just to go with her beautiful creations.