After a crazy busy week of trying to get everything ready for the sale that I am at this weekend, I realize that yet again, the learning curve is steep. I know now to ask more questions before committing to a sale. I won't say that yesterday was a complete waste of time because I brought my spinning wheel and almost filled both bobbins, and I met a few new people, but sales wise..... not so good. In fact, the my only sales were to the lady in the next booth who does felting and she fell in love with a couple of skeins of yarn.
Last night was the opening at the Beaverbrook. I was in on Friday to help hang my piece and it looks great! I wish that I had a camera last night. I didn't know that so many people could fit in the Beaverbrook Gallery! The place was absolutely packed! Along with our show, there was also an opening for an artist, Miller Britain, who was big in the Canadian art scene in the 40's and 50's.
Friday morning, I attended a career fair in town for high school students. I was there with the Craft College, which is a part of the Community College network in New Brunswick. I was giving weaving demonstrations and letting people try their hand at weaving. I was really amazed at how differently males and females behaved when approaching the little table loom that I has set up. The guys had no hesitation. They listened to my 20 second tutorial on how to weave, grabbed the shuttle and got to it. The girls were much more hesitant to even try it, and when they did, it was as if they were afraid to do something wrong. There were a few exceptions with hesitant guys and enthusiastic girls, but on the whole, I found this very interesting. And rather unsettling. I wonder at the cause. Hormones? The boys taking up so much space that the girls feel that they need to take up less? Any suggestions?
I also found it interesting that most people did two passes with the shuttle and that was enough. A couple did a few more. And one fellow wove about two inches. I guess that he really liked it!
I have a bunch of homework to do. My last class is on Friday and I shudder to think of how many hours of work I have left on my head. I'll get a picture when it is finished.
3 comments:
That is interesting. I imagine the girls are more naturally hesitant when the boys are around. I bet it would be different if there were only girls there. And maybe even differnet between a group of boys only. You know, others waiting for the alpha male to show interest first & then jumping in after him. I have a grandson (age 13) that would probably have done 5 inches and would have hated to stop, LOL. He loves to do any kind of craft and excells in them all, including knitting, crochet & wants to sew. BTW, he won the State championship in wrestling & has a wall full of sports trophies & ribbons. So he's active in EVERYthing. And I won't be surprised to see him in television someday also 'coz he sings & acts in school plays.
Boys try the loom ... probably because it's a machine. Girls are socialized to believe that they're not mechanical, whereas boys are socialized strongly to believe that they ARE mechanical. It's one of those little marvelous sexisms inherent in our society, I'm sure.
what a great story. i wish that we could have been there!
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