As Ben Franklin once said, the only things that are certain in life are death and taxes. Like everyone else, I much prefer the changes I choose to those that are thrust upon me. Still, I have to deal with those, too. And since I’m not a woman who believes in letting life simply happen to me, that means I have to do something.
Do you see the pileated woodpecker?
Just one short paragraph on the election. I am very concerned about the election of Donald Trump, about what it will mean for people he has stated hatred for in one form or another. About what it will mean for us as a country. So I am hoping to set a few things in motion. I have sent out emails to encourage a few people to join together and send Reiki to Trump and Pence, with the intention of opening their hearts. The same thing could be done with Bohdichitta or probably a specific type of prayer circle or other practice. I also intend to start actually having regular communication with all of the people elected to represent me, something I’ve only done very sporadically in the past.
Moving on to the personal…being a micro-business owner is a challenge. As a weaver, selling my work is what it’s all about. Never easy, it’s getting harder. Fewer people go to and spend money at art shows than they used to. I get it. I, too, buy way more things online than I used to. And I, too, have made conscious decisions to reduce my unnecessary consumption and ownership. So what to do?
I’ve made three decisions, things that I didn’t think I’d do.
- I’ve reactivated my old Etsy page, which I started before I ever had a website and let go years ago. When I redid my website last year, for a variety of reasons I made a conscious decision to make it be more gallery oriented than sales oriented, and I now think Etsy is a better alternative for actual sales for me. With only 3 items up at the moment, I’m going to spend time taking photos and getting posts up over the next few weeks.
- I’m going to approach a few carefully chosen stores to place a few of my best pieces in them…the Copper Shop on the Roycroft campus and one or two more.
- I’m biting the bullet and joining Facebook. I’d like to have just a page for the business, but it appears that I need to have a personal page – or at least a personal profile – in order to have a business page. I know that there is at least one Facebook group that deals with my baby wraps, and I need to have a presence there in order to sell more of them.
I’m putting a link to my Etsy page up in the header of my blog today, and as soon as I get myself established on Facebook I’ll put that link up, too. Only time will tell if these decisions work well for me.
The above scarf is a weaverly long-distance collaboration. A while ago, Susan over at Iowaweaver posted a draft of a weave pattern she’d developed to weave circles. Because warp and weft threads intersect at right angles, this is not an easy task unless you have lots of shafts. Susan’s draft was for only 8 shafts. I wanted to try it and painstakingly copied her draft to my weaving software. But found out that there were REALLY long floats on the back side of the weaving. So I modified the tie up and treadling and came up with the above. There are 4-end floats, which I find to be acceptable in a scarf but might not be in a towel. Susan’s other readers have further modified it to have shorter floats, but then the circles are less round.
In any case, being someone who does not sample (I know, I know!), I set my loom up for 2 scarves with 8/2 rayon. Wove the first scarf at 21 EPI, the second at 24 EPI. If I do it again, I’ll sett even closer. And I’ll pay more attention. Do you see that the circles at the beginning of the scarf are not the same as the circles at the end? Apparently I forgot to treadle part of the sequence. And on the first scarf I apparently forgot the thread part of a sequence so my middle circle is actually an oval. I haven’t decided if I’ll put either out for sale yet; if I do they won’t be at my regular prices.
Peg, absolutely sick and scared about the election outcome. Barring we try him for treason or the electoral college revolts and actually swings to the majority vote, we’ve got two years to correct and 4 years to redeem.
Love the scarf. Pets to Jack please. Hugs all around
Theresa – So many of us feel that way. We need to use whatever power and/or influence we have, in whatever ways we can, to minimize the damage. What, exactly, does that look like? I don’t know. I’m going to do what I mentioned in the post, and see where to go from there. Voting in the mid-terms will be VERY IMPORTANT!
Please let us know how it goes with Facebook – that’s one of those places I steer clear of but I know I could sell more if I were on there. There’s too much I don’t want to see posted on there.
I feel you on the election. I’m still in shock and very scared for our country. I’m enjoying hearing about the protests although peaceful protests are best – we haven’t seen protests on a large scale since Vietnam.
Cindie – Regarding Facebook, I fully intend to use it only for the business, not for personal use. I know it will still take time in front of the computer and away from the loom, but after avoiding it forever, I feel like it’s a move I have to make now.
Regarding the protests, I appreciate the youthful enthusiasm, but think that what we need is unity, and I don’t know that the protests will help with that. We all will do what we feel called to do, I suppose.
Peg, I’ve always been a lover of circles, polka dots, and the like. I understand completely the challenge they present, and am glad you’re attacking them!
I worked as an Election Inspector on Tuesday (it was a very loooong day) and found that it was exhilarating to be a part of and exhausting by the end. By 10:00, when we were closing up machines and packing up supplies, I was losing words, and you know THAT doesn’t happen often for me!). In our little district, there was more than 70% participation, which increased to almost 80%, if you were to eliminate names of people whom I knew had moved away or died, or transferred to Memory Care situations. (Although I knew these facts, official notification needs to come from family members or the like.)
Anyway, I, too, am concerned about foment that has appeared. I refuse to call it hate, as I think that in some cases it was sheep following words used pointedly but incorrectly. How many people actually lie? We may make statements that are true, but color them to our advantage. Lots of prayer, reiki, whatever it takes for us to remember that we are part of the endless carousel that is our life on this planet. God be good to us all!
Alma – Thanks for your hard work as an election inspector. Not a job I’m interested in! Do use whatever method(s) work for you to try and improve the hearts and minds of those in power.
Love the scarf!
Thanks, Susan. I wanted to link to you but your website is down. Will try again in a few days.