Still here, still fibering

One thing for sure, you can take a fiber artist out of the craft fair, but you can't take the fiber out of the artist. I am still spinning, knitting and crocheting as if I never stopped. Well, I never did. 

After my one small craft fair landed on the day Helene left WNC, and everyone was too shell-shocked to attend, I found myself with lots of past inventory, and lots of new knitwear, yarns and  dyed fleece but no way to convert it to income, something I currently have very little of. 

I think this situation is true of most craft artists in WNC right now, those who still have studios and inventory intact - very few folks are coming to us to buy this holiday season. And no one in the area is going to be flush enough to buy craft. Our biggest market season has disappeared. 

So if you are hoping to help folks in WNC recover, Please look for these businesses, artists and artisans who are selling online. One source is ShopWNC.com, which has listings in each of the major WNC towns impacted by Helene. 

My shop site is also filled with items marked down for quick sales - garments,, accessories, yarns, fleece and spindles. 

Thanks for your help. 

Leslie

Nice Threads website closing and inventory on sale!

The Nice Threads website, NiceThreadsStudio.com, will be closing in a few weeks. 

Update: No, I didn't close it. All my online accounts are still up so if you want to see my work or get in touch, I am still here. Needs must. 

While it only functioned as a portfolio of my work for the years I was active, closing it marks the closing of that business enterprise and the beginning of another. I'm also closing the Facebook page though that hasn't been active for awhile. 

Red/Orange/Purple silk organza 
Nuno-felted tunic $220

I'm putting my current felt inventory - high end art-to wear garments and accessories -  onto the shop site at NiceThreadsStudio.square.site and marked them all down considerably*. Many items are under $50 and the jackets and coats under $250. I hope if you liked my work in the past, this might be an incentive to grab a few items because there won't be any more. The shop site will stay open til everything has sold. 

I will keep this blog open for awhile, and the Instagram page too, to keep some aspects of my fiber activities alive, but I won't be doing professional crafts as an artist anymore. I  have talked in earlier posts about ending my fiber arts career so I won't reiterate those reasons. But I will always do fiber arts, and I'll always be creating things. 

"Bubbles on the lavender sea"
Nuno-felted Chine silk tunic
$225

And that takes me to the willow farm. From smaller scale basketry up to landscaping features and building materials in large scale, willow weaving is fiber work as well. My main focus will be growing, and likely will stay on providing materials instead of crafting for awhile. 

All the proceeds of the sale of my fiber work will go to building farm infrastructure and support its growth for the next two years while I literally grow the inventory. A barn and foundation, and the grading to make it stable and accessible will be the main focus for any fundraising. If you buy anything from my Nice Threads shop site, you have donated towards that effort, with something unique and hand-made to show for that donation, Thank you. 

If you are interested in the farm's progress, see the blog site at GoodWillowFarm.blogsite.com. 

If you are interested in the felt art-to wear sale, see the shop site at NiceThreadsStudio.square.site

You can still follow me on my Instagram account for the foreseeable future:  @NiceThreadsFiber

* High prices for craft items are often needed so craft shops can get their 40-50% cut. You can't undersell your shop price, so you have to sell in person at double the cost too. My prices now are just my time and costs, and often less than my time and costs. Cash flow is king.