Demo Time
In September I do two demonstrations at local country fairs. They are a lot of fun and we get to meet lots of people. Wet felting is not the easiest to do as a day long demo so I take lots of sample to put in the display and explain it to interested people.
I usually take my drop spindle but one day I did Kumihimo ( Japanese braiding) on a meridi.
Jan did some weaving on a table loom and Carlene was on the peg loom.
Alison( trying to keep warm on a freezing morning) spinning and Bernadette combing some fiber to spin next to the lace maker.
As usual there were other things to see.
There was some felting in the Agriculture competition building.
I zoomed in to show you . The Santa and dog and the two dogs.
Doing Demonstrations is really fun. Anyone else do them?
17 thoughts on “Demo Time”
Lovely photos Ann! Have you got a photo of your Japanese braiding?
Thanks Lyn. I will see if i can remember to take a picture of the braid. I will be cutting it off tomorrow. The meridi belongs to the guild. I borrowed it for the demo.
How wonderful to see lots of people demonstrating different crafts! I like to think someone might try their hands at a new technique once they’ve seen someone else shows how it’s done…
As for my own demonstrations, it’s funny you should ask – I’m doing a public spinning demonstration next Friday at The Knitting and Stitching Show. Eek!
It is good when we don’t have everyone spinning. Weavers are harder to get out because the looms are harder to transport. People are fascinated by spinning. Take samples of your spinning so people can see what you can do.
That’s a great idea, Ann! Thanks 😊
Looks fun! I don’t do many shows but did do wet felting once at the Makers fair. It was painful.
If I demo felting I always do needle felting. it is much easer to deal with at a demo. I don’t really do any needle felting anymore. My tendonitis is very unhappy when I do.
You sure do have some wonderful fairs and festivals in Canada! So envious! Truly something there for everyone. I only did a demo in felting once, and that was in Colorado during “open studio time.” I found it difficult to focus on my work with swarms of people asking questions and touching my work. 😉
Don’t all the little towns down there have agricultural fairs? We go with the “Old Iron” people in the antique and steam powered section of the fair. The guild get invited to demo at lots of historical events over the summer too. Wet felting just isn’t good for demos, especially when it cold. One of our days was really cold. We wrapped up in our display blanket. Demonstrating the thermal properties of wool. 🙂
Wow, I’ve never heard of some of these pieces of equipment. What a great fair. Thanks for sharing!
Bothe the peg loom and the meridi are easy to use. you can do very complicated tings on the meridi too but I stick to simple.
Do you not feel bad that you have more than your fair share of shows and fairs, Ann? 🙂
It looks like it’d be a great day out. I still get aches in my shoulders from makefest, thought it might have been easier to demo than ‘supervise’.
I do not feel guilty at all. 🙂
Our demos are laid back. You just sit and do what ever you want and chat with people. You don’t need to work hard or let them try. I get more spinning done at demos than anywhere else and still I don’t do much. 😉
I did a needle felting demonstration at a small country fair here in Northern England. It was a lot of fun just talking to people and I love talking to kids. Everyone was interested and I guess when you love doing something it’s a surprise to find out not many other people may know anything about it! The kids did learn some basic wet felting in school.
I”m originally from New York state and we had fairs all over the state, you just have to look it up. I love the county fairs here in England and it was super fun to enter some of my things in the categories; I won two first places in craft (they didn’t have a category for felt). Next year I may rent a table to try and sell things.
Demonstrating is so much fun. Kids are always interested. What did you enter in competition?
It looks amazing, there seem to be so many great country fairs but none near me 🙁 Such a fun place to spend a day. x
They are a fun place and you don’t have to go on the rides for it. There are always lots of free things once you are in the fair.