Greetings, For those of you who couldn't be there, I wanted to share last weekend's adventure with you. It was a very mellow and nice experience to sit and make books in Flax' Oakland store. I came prepared to make 8 books, but only made three. All three were this lovely fabric that I painted. One of them sold at the store last Sunday so I don't have a picture, but here's a picture of the other two. Both are smaller format books with a nice 70# drawing paper. Each book is 160 pages.
The main reason I did this was to see how strangers reacted to the work. Overall, I think folks really like what I am doing and I feel inspired to keep going. I sold ten books over the weekend which was gravy to an already positive experience.
The other reason to do this is for connection and community. On Saturday, a few people sat with me and watched me make books. One retired gentleman sat with me for about 2 hours. He's craft dating and wanted to see if bookbinding would be a good way to spend his retirement. Hopefully, he walked away with enough info. On Sunday, I was delighted to have a few friends show up. Flax' staff was also enthusiastic and a few of them bought books as well.
Inspired to keep going...yes. I applied and was accepted to the Ecology Center Craft fair for three Saturdays in December. Yes, I will have one of those pop-up booths with my wares on some hackneyed table covered with pretty fabric so the general holiday gift buying public can see what I have to offer. Wish me luck and hope to see you there.