Friday, November 25, 2011

Tagging it

Every spare moment of my life right now is spent at the loom, weaving my way to Christmas Showcase in Little Rock. Not only do I feel very honored to be in this prestigious show, but Shawn and I are going to be right inside the front entrance, so our booth has to be full.

He and Lena have been tying brooms like crazy, after having a very good October, so that half of the booth will be full with colorful, creative  brooms. I'm a wee bit competitive, so I want my half of the booth to be as fully and beautifully stocked with rugs, shawls, hats, scarves, felt balls, spirit bells and maybe, if I can get to them, a few handwoven handbags.

This rug of Dapper Dan's fleece has the picture of him below
on the tag. It also has the Scrappie dog seal of approval.

This is about the time before every show that I always remember, these things not only have to be designed, created, made and finished; they have to be tagged, bagged and presented in a pleasing manner.

Shawn is working on the biggest part of that equation, building a wood framed, fabric lined 10x15 foot booth that will make a great display space. And I've located and purchased several hat displays and I'll use my rug ladder and old spirit bell display. But I still have to tag everything!

For my commercial yarn shawls, I've started recycling greeting cards that I've received. I cut the front off and fold it into a triangle. Then I hole punch the corner and write a bit about the shawl, its name, the fiber content of the shawl and care instructions inside the tag. I put the price on the back.

LHF Dapper Dan, our Jacob Sheep herdsire.
For my handspun shawls and fleece rugs, I am developing a new tag. We've had several types of tags in the past. I used to have a slick, colorful tag with a picture of our Grand Champion ram Broken O Caruso on the front with Fleecyful Wool Rugs at the top and care instructions on the back. For the last several years I've used a home-printed on parchment type paper tag that has a line drawing that Shawn did of our homebred Jacob Sheep ram LHF Dogwood. Inside I hand write information about the sheep or goat that grew the fleece in the item, care instructions and a bit about my rug making process. They are nice tags and I may use quite a few of them for this show.


But I keep having people ask for pictures of the sheep and goats that grew the fleece in the item they are buying, so I've started making tags with a picture of the animal on front, printed information about them inside and care instructions on the bottom. I really like these tags, but right now it is taking me almost an hour to create each tag, and that's for the critters I already have pics of. As time goes on, I plan to do one for each piece I make, as I finish it, but there will only be a few on some of the new rugs at Christmas Showcase.

And now, back to weaving.