www.FiberArtFest.com

The other day, I wrote the press release for our October event.  It was a nice one-page letter to whomever.  I was happy I had several people review it before it was released.  It needed a comma here, a hyphen there.  Here’s a copy of it.  The logo was scaled appropriately on the press release.

FAAF Logo (c)2009

 

 

FIBER ARTS & ANIMALS FESTIVAL IS EXPANDING

Queso Cabeza Farm and Turkeyville USA joining up to bring new festival venue!

After running a single-day event for five years, the Fiber Arts & Animals Festival is joining the Turkeyville USA Folk Art Faire on October 3^rd and 4^th, 2009, from 10 AM to 5 PM on the grounds of Turkeyville USA, just ½ mile west of Exit 42 (N Drive North) off I-69.  Admission and parking are free.

Over the last several years, there has been a renewed interest in natural fibers and working with the land to create useful products.  This second venue for the festival will allow for more demonstrations and artists.  This year there will be an Art Quilt exhibit, sheep-to-shawl event and sheep shearing demonstration.   There will also be several low-cost fiber art workshops for people to learn how to work with wool.

This is a juried event.  Each exhibitor must apply to attend and bring a unique perspective on fiber art.   Along with exhibiting fiber-producing animals such as sheep, llamas, rabbits and goats, some artists are providing short demonstrations at their booths about the fiber arts they practice.  The fiber artistry represented this year includes loom weaving, harness weaving, wet felting, needle felting, spinning wool to yarn using several different methods and rug hooking.  All artists attending are listed on http://www.FiberArtFest.com.

Queso Cabeza Farm was founded in 2001 and started producing the Fiber Arts & Animals Festival in 2004.  The Fiber Arts & Animals Festival was created to provide a low-cost, educational alternative to folks looking for opportunities to work with wool and related products.

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If you would like more information on this event or would like to schedule an interview with Rick Boesen, please call 269.749.9404 or e-mail info@fiberartfest.com.

Over the past weekend, we enjoyed our time at another Michigan festival.  We had our llamas, sheep and, of course, lots of wonderful wool for people to view and purchase.  The weekend started quite rough but ended up being rather successful.

The weather cooperated but was extremely warm.  With temps into the high 80s and low 90s, traveling in a steal trailer made for a very uncomfortable ride for the critters.  Everyone arrived in good order.  However, when we arrived we found our sheep stall to be the furthest away from the other Icelandic breeders.  It was an odd arrangement.

After dropping off the sheep in their pen, we drove over to the llama barn to get them in their stall and start getting the ranch stall setup.  The evening was progressing and at 8 PM, they started locking the doors to barn.  As they were locking the door, we asked if we could at least leave hay and water for the llamas.  It was odd that people would even consider leaving animals in a hot barn without water.  I was certainly discouraged by the whole experience.

The next day, we setup our ranch stall and our wool display.  Being right under the 8-foot barn fan made for an interesting time.  The fan certainly felt good as the day got hotter.  However, trying to setup was very difficult.  We tried to have the fan turned off for an hour or so until we could get setup.  It took nearly an hour to find anyone who knew how and then they were only off for about 10 minutes before people started complaining and turned back on.  The weekend started out very rough.

In working with all the administrative staff who were running the various areas of the festival we attended this weekend, we were quickly reminded that vendors are customers too.  As we move forward and get closer to our October event at Turkeyville, working directly with exhibitors and understanding their needs as well as those who patronize our festival is something we will definitely keep in mind more after the experience of this weekend.

We’ve started receiving some applications for the October festival.  The spacing for the booths is going to end up be quite generous.  However, everything won’t be finalized until a few days before the event.  Several people have expressed interest in volunteering for one thing or another.  It is always nice to have a few extra hands.

In other news, we are finding feeding round bales instead of small squares is saving time and our backs.  Moving the round bales does require a tractor.  Once we overcame that issue, getting the round bales from the field to the critters really isn’t that much of an issue.

If any of you have some ability to make it rain, we could use it here in Michigan.