Teaching in South Carlolina- The Carolina Fiber Frolic!

Where have I been the last month?

Well.. Getting ready to vend my first spinning retreat and teach a couple workshops!! It was really overwhelming getting it all together. I learned a lot about what to do for my NEXT vending!! (maybe at the Carolina Fiber Fest at the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh at the end of May.. but more about that later!) I had to build inventory for vending (Whew.. carding over 40 new batts!!)



Bryan and I loaded up the car with fiber, yarn and my wheel..



He was amazed I fit it all in.. but I learned how to pack from my Mother.. she's the best there is.

Off we went to the Middleton Place Inn and Plantation, just outside Charleston SC. I was really excited because I've never been there.
We arrived in time to unload and then had the evening to play. Wow.. what a place!! The plantation is from the mid 1700's and has the oldest landscaped gardens in America. We stayed in the inn.. that had beautiful rooms! The wall facing the river was all windows..
And it had a wood burning fireplace!!

And even MORE fun.. it had a 150 GALLON garden tub!! It was like a mini pool!!

It was really beautiful!! We were on the second floor so our view was like we were in a treehouse..


In the evenings the Lodge hosted some appetizers, wine and beer.. so we stopped by there before going into Charleston for dinner-
The walk from our room to the lodge was breathtaking!!




We ate both free nights at Hyman's Seafood House in Charleston. (they are open until 11pm.. and we didn't get out of the Inn until past 10 each night.. and the food was STILL amazing!!) OMG.. the shecrab soup.. and the crispy fresh flounder.. and the mussels.. oh the mussels!!

The next morning we set up my booth.. It looked great.. except I forgot my sign! Can you believe it! LOL!!
I loved having the laptop there!! There was wifi so people could pay with paypal, and I had a looping slideshow running of photos of previous batts and yarns!
The garmet rack was SO useful for hanging shawls, cloudspun yarn and specialty art yarn sets!
BATTS galore! These cubbies are a PITA to put together and take apart.. but they were really useful and made the booth look great!! I'd like to have one more set for more batts for future shows.

Ta Da!! Everything looked great!!

I taught my workshops on Friday!! My first was a 3 hour workshop called "Creative Corespinning" where I taught the basic corespinning technique, with focus on spinning a balanced yarn. I taught how to add in objects while spinning.. flowers, sequins, cocoons, beehives.. all sorts of goodies!! The second was an hour and a half workshop "Unwinding with Coils" teaching supercoiling and other art yarn plying tricks!! It was SUPER fun and everyone picked up the skills really quickly!! I felt like a proud parent!




Bryan and I also took some time to walk around the gardens. It really is an amazing place..The Middleton house after the main house was destroyed in the Civil War, and the original springhouse.
Spanish Moss swaying from all the trees so peacefully. I'm totally inspired to spin a yarn!
Amazing Camila blooms in the landscaped gardens.
H U G E trees.. from the 1700's!! So different than the Huge redwoods of Cali.

These were MONSTERS! The trunk was over twice Bryan's arm span.


We FOUND the hidden Dharma Initiative Gardens!! LOL!! You know how into LOST! we are.. so when we saw there was an octagonal garden.. we knew it was a sign!! LOL!!

All in all it was amazing weekend!! I made new friends, got a couple invitations to teach more workshops, scheduled some private lessons sold some fiber and MOST importantly made some alpaca and mohair locks connections with some local farms!! HURRAH!! AND even more importantly my hubby and I got to get away for the weekend and have some relaxing fun!!

SO if anyone wants some private lessons, or for me to teach my corespinning or superpcoiling workshops at their LYS or a guild meeting just drop me a line and we'll set something up. I have a couple workshops in the plan, so as they are finalized I'll post info about them here!!

AND watch for an announcement about JazzTurtle Creations vending at a local fiber fest near you!!

Welcome the New Year.. In Feb?!

Wow.. not only is it the new year.. but it's FEB already!! I'm not sure how that month slipped thru my fingers!! What a year 2009 was!!
As some of you know my husband was laid off in Dec of 2008, just a few months after we were married.. so it was a hard year. I am, however, very positive, and we make the best with what we have. Our situation could be SO much worse.. so I have a lot to be thankful for!!

SO much happened for my fiber art in 2009-
-I got my lendrum spinning wheel and my art yarns EXPLODED in size and texture
-I took Lexi Boeger's art yarn workshop (and got to hang out with her for the weekend) and my art yarns EXPLODED even MORE with mastered techniques
-I got not one, but TWO drum carders (for smoothie and textured batts) to expand my fiber art into carding as well as spinning
-I reached 800 sales in my etsy shop!
-I started weaving

I expect LOTS of exciting fibery stuff to come in 2010-
-I plan to put up more technique demo's to help spread the love of art yarn spinning
-I'm now teaching lessons and leading workshops!! Come to my first group workshops at the Carolina Fiber Frolic Feb 25-27 Info Here
-I plan to continue to create NEW spinning and carding techniques to share
-I'm going to be selling Wearable Fiber Art- Mostly woven (some knit) pieces that One of a Kind
-I'm working on "collections" for the fiber and yarn.. to make my shop flow
-I hope to branch out.. to work more craft shows and maybe you'll see JazzTurtle Creations at your LYS.

As I approach 900 sales in the shop (2 to go!!) I can't thank everyone enough to helped me get here!! Your support and encouragement has made a tough year much easier!!

And because every post needs some fiber pR0n- here's a new shawl that just came off the loom and is going up into the shop tonight. It's corespun and INCREDIBLY sparkly! I just love it!