Summer Festing

[vpenkuhn]

So it is awfully quiet here.  Hopefully we are all busy making more tie dye to restock from our fabulous sales we have had this summer  ...Seriously tho how have those of you that do fests been doing this year???  I think folks seem to have a little more money this year, I'm in the midwest, what have you guys experienced???

[Releaf]

I'm in North Florida and I only do one big festival each year.  This year's sales were a bit better than last year's sales, but the last day of the festival was impacted by a tropical storm, so we might have done a little better with better weather. We do some smaller festivals and sales have held steady at those, with a small amount of growth. 

It has been quiet here.  I can't really blame it on making tie-dye, though.  We lost our carport "studio" in the next tropical storm to hit North Florida this year, so we can only work on dry days and only during the morning hours, when we have some tree shade over our dyeing space.  There are not a lot of dry days during the summer in Florida.  Spring and Fall are our best working seasons, though Summer is our best selling season.

[tiedyejudy]

It HAS been too quiet here!  As for shows, I did one in May and did okay... had a large custom dye order that took me several weeks to complete, and I'm trying to get ready for our annual Open Studios Tour that will be August 25-26.  Have had a few on-line sales and some special orders... 2 more shows coming up later this year.  I have also been teaching some dye classes, with one more coming up in September.  The classes are designed for quilters who want to make their own fabrics... first one was mostly tie-dye, second one was tie-dye/batik, and the one in September will be using thickened dyes to stamp, stencil, etc.  Here in Flagstaff, Az, we have monsoons in the summer, so I have stopped doing outdoor shows for the most part.  And the craft show season here is mostly in the fall and indoors.  It's been an adjustment for me, since I love doing summerwear!  However, our Son and his wife are in Hawaii and may start buying from me wholesale to sell at local outdoor markets there...

[2D4]

I haven't checked in here for awhile...time flies when you're dyeing!

My market season wrapped up the end of October and I'm still working on special orders and receiving calls now for Christmas. I don't set up the booth again until the end of May. (Yea!) I did a couple 3 day festivals as well this year. (I prefer those because once I'm set up it's nice to be there for awhile. It's nice, I camp out in our modified mini bus, it's actually relaxing....) Sells for me were up a bit at the farmers market and well up at the festivals. It's great selling well but I get a little overwhelmed looking at all the empty hangers. I like to have a nice inventory for people to choose from and I dye everything from baby items to the long rayon sundresses.

I need to get back to work on my website as well.....so much to do. One of my son's is getting out of the Marines next month and he's a computer guy...hoping he'll help me out a bit with my "online presence".

Well, I'm off,  I have to prepare for a tie dye birthday party this afternoon.

Take Care All,

Jo

[tiedyejudy]

Hi, Jo!  Glad to hear you have had a good year so far!  I had a show last Saturday and did very well, and have one more 2-day show next Fri-Sat, then I can breathe a little before I start all over again!  Been busy with non-dyeing projects recently, trying to use up some of my fabric stash.  Also, I am now a 'Resident Artist' on andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com which is a group of fiber artists who experiment with various surface design techniques, and I plan to do some posts in February on dyeing techniques... should be lots of fun!
Do keep up your store... I know how time consuming it can be, but I think it's well worth it.  Last year, I think my on-line sales were about 30% of my total sales, so I post pretty much everything there, since I'm only doing about 4 shows a year now, just here in Flagstaff.
Be well, and hope to see more posts here from all in 2013!
Judy