Craft Show Adventure

Went to a craft show today with my sister-in-law, in Spokane, WA. It was held in the fairgrounds there. Wow, there were a lot of booths! It was HUGE. Very interesting. It's been a few years since I've gone. There was, of course, the usual quilting (too much, in fact), candles, soap, painted signs with cute sayings (An outfit is not complete without a few cat hairs was my favorite), dried floral stuff (achoo...!), metal work, photos, paintings, and cutesy tole painting.

There was some new and interesting things I'd never seen before-like the jewelry made from cut Moose antler and wood. Unique and beautiful. Wonderful artwork made from dichroic glass. Usually you see it in jewelry, but these folks had done framed wall hangings, some quite large. Very three dimensional and colorful. I wish I could have taken a picture or two, but cameras were not allowed, nor was taking notes or making sketches. Wouldn't want anyone taking home ideas now.

Some things I noticed. No Knitting booths! Usually there's at least 2 booths selling knit felted hats and a booth with shawls and/or sweaters. Nothing like that this time. There were, instead, crochet booths. 2 featured hats and scarves. a third had stuffed animal toys and baby clothes too. They were quite cute. Lots of people in these booths, so crochet must be getting popular now. Could the knitting craze be over? I sure hope not. It would be sad to see all those new knit shops in the country go out of business already. I got out of the business at the right time, I think. (For those who don't know, I had my own needlecraft shop, featuring knitting, crochet and counted cross stitch, until I had to close it January of last year.)

Second observation--all the hand thrown pottery booths had blue, purple, and green. A sad lack of yellow, gold, browns, oranges, pinks, and reds. It was disappointing to my sister-in-law because she likes peach, apricot, and orange in her dishes. So much for finding a cool turkey platter.

Saw some gorgeous hand carved agate cabochons and pendants. I was drooling. One pendant was white with what looked like red and green ferns in it. I should have asked what kind of agate that was. It sure was pretty. I did buy a few slices of agate from them. Cracked leftovers, but pretty none the less. I'm sure I can make something out of them.

I looked at a lot of beaded jewelry. Some of it was so beautiful. One booth had bead embroidered hair clips. My sister-in-law was quite fascinated with them. I'll have to make her one.

I noticed the most popular clasps are lobster claw and spring rings. I've made note of that. I'm thinking about maybe getting into craft shows with my beading in a year or two. I know there's a market for what I like to do, cos I didn't see anything like it at this show. Gives me food for thought anyway.