Untangling the threads

A breakdown of my experience from two exhibitions

Hello 👋

I promised I’d write about the exhibitions: Common Threads (local) and Ramster (not so local - well, not much).

And I will…but it turns out it’s not as simple as that, because I have things to ‘say’. Things happened: lots good, some not so, and there’s a lot going on up here 🤯

It’s also Easter hols with People at home, who have little patience for me sitting here wrangling words when they’d prefer a little maternal attention or at least a trip out - and failing that, more chocolate. But let’s see if I can sneak this post out anyway:

Common Threads

1. Huge success in terms of visitors. In fact, we had exactly three more people through the door than last year 🥳 taking us well over 200, and I made some proper, lovely friends, who I’m going to meet up with for coffee and fun fabric adventures very soon (if that’s you - definitely happening!!) so that’s LOVELY.

2. I had fab chats with lots of people quizzing me about doing some workshops or local gatherings on a more regular basis - and I know I talked about it last year and nothing happened, but not for lack of want; more lack of time and venue and any clear strategy. So that’s another promise: I’ll sort it, because I’ve really missed meeting up with people irl for exuberant, animated conversations about all the crazy textiley arty things we do and try, and it was fun to be reminded of it all. I also have plans to do this online, too - a sort of Threadnoodle club. One of these days I need to be brave and press go on this one.

3. Getting things ready for the wall meant actually doing some work, and I was chuffed to finish and frame several pieces that have been years in the making. Not that they took so long to make, but rather they’ve been kicking around half-finished for years, usually because they were started as demonstration pieces for workshops.

4. The other artists we’d invited were superb - proper imposter syndrome superb, and as before, we were honoured they’d agreed to join us. Three familiar faces from last year, three newbies, then Beth and me.

   Liz Padgham-Major

   Viv Kilby

   Kim Edith

   Dawn Johnson

   Melissa Kosar

   Jennifer Grant

5. We invited local embroidery groups to get involved by submitting a concertina book with a selection of some of their members’ embroidery. Here’s a little scoot around the exhibition, starting with the display of their books:

5. Oddly, nobody sold anything from the wall. Actually, looking back, last year wasn’t miles better, with only a handful of sales. On the plus side, we all made good sales of cards and other bits, but I noticed more printed cards (cheaper) were sold at Common Threads than at Ramster (sales there were mostly hand made originals, more expensive).

6. Our workshops were all sold out and crammed again, which was fun and probably the best bit of the weekend. My lot made little fishies or leaves, and as expected, took them home to finish - although one lady, very nervous to start, ‘don’t know what I’m doing’ actually did finish hers (see below). So there you go. Don’t know until you try!

busy hands

finished fishy

7. Switching our ‘private view’ to a hands-on ‘stitch’n’sip’ session was a genius move: we had more people through the door, and the lovely buzz of activity and gentle stitching all evening was a perfect way to kick off the weekend.

Ramster

1. I visited with Mrs B and we agreed this year’s exhibition was very well curated, with each panel comprising a careful mix of complementary pieces, whether by style, subject, medium or colour. And as an exhibitor, it was also well organised with Google forms and spreadsheets making the process very straightforward.

2. We visited on the last Thursday of the fortnight it was open, and again - not that many red dots. For every panel of six to eight pieces, there was perhaps one dot. So a similar situation to Common Threads. Imminent global recession biting early? Who knows…

summer garden - and of course this is where I discover I don’t have a better photo for my portfolio 🫣

3. But it’s not over until it’s over, and in the evening of the penultimate day I received an email to let me know that one of my pieces had sold. Hooray! I thought that was a lovely touch too, to let me know. Previously, it was all a glorious mystery until we collected our things, seeing what was coming home again.

4. In my case, coming home with me this time were two out of the three framed pieces. Disappointing to not sell at least one other - particularly as it’s one I’m hugely proud of. And funnily enough, this was the one I’d had printed cards made from, that sold out at Common Threads.

5. On the plus side, only a fraction of my 100 cards came home and once again, the exact opposite of Common Threads - the ones left over were mostly the printed ones. So the effort in making individual hand made cards paid off for Ramster - as I hoped it would - more popular than printed by a long chalk, and it all adds up. Oh, and I gave away a whole box of business cards with a QR code that links to all my links.

So what can we learn from this…

1. There’s absolutely no way to predict what will sell where or when. The piece from Ramster that found a happy home has been offered for sale a few times before, but was obviously waiting for the right person. I believed in it, so I’m thrilled someone else did too (thank you 🙏 if that’s you and you’re reading this). It only takes one other person to like what we do, which leads me to…

2. Making and exhibiting your work is hard. It’s so easy to take the experience from one event (no sales) and transfer the feelings to everything else (what’s the point). It takes guts and bravery to stick with this art malarkey, putting ourselves out there with all our beliefs about ourselves and our worth open to be freely trampled upon by people we don’t know and may never meet again.

3. Different exhibitions, different audience and different priorities. For Common Threads, the most successful bit was the stuff that directly involved other people. The stuff on the wall was just background. I needn’t have pushed myself so hard. Ramster is more hands-off, as the artists are not there in person (unless they happen to be visiting, or stewarding). The things on display speak for themselves and it’s up to the visitor to make the first move if they want to find out more, by taking something home - even if just a card with website link or a name to google later.

4. Don’t do two exhibitions at the same time. This one was out of my hands, as Ramster is as Ramster does and is only every two years; Common Threads also depends on the venue’s programme of events, and March happens to work. If we’re still doing Common Threads in two years’ time, different strategy will have to be employed than whatever I (didn’t) do this time. I knew it was a clash back in the autumn, but for some reason I thought I’d manage. Which leads on to…

5. Burnout is real and it’s a shocker. To say I was strung out in the weeks leading up is an understatement, and despite my notorious ability to pull large lagomorphs out of huge hats at the last minute, I was shocked to discover I do indeed have a physical limit for how much stress I can take. Not the background anxious type of stress I've suffered for most of my life and just live with and manage poorly, but the accumulated physical stress of late nights and zero downtime. Add this on to….

6. Being in constant sympathetic nervous state (alert) vs parasympathetic (relaxed) is a Very Bad Thing. I am hugely allergic to tree pollen, so my eyes have been itching since late February. Fun fact, turns out, stress and lack of sleep exacerbates allergies - and guess what! Weeks of constantly waking yourself up at night by rubbing your eyes raw in your sleep makes you sleep-deprived and incredibly tired and crabby, making everything harder than it should be, which adds to the stress. So I’ve been caught in a vicious cycle that would be easing now the leaves are popping out everywhere, if it wasn’t for now catching a stinking cold.

7. Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD) is real and it’s a bitch. I’ll talk about this another time, because it’s central to the ADHD experience. It affects everything.

8. Plagiarism is also a thing. Different from copying, different from counterfeiting or faking, and it happens in art as well a university essays. This one also deserves a post of its own, but I couldn’t leave it completely ignored. So then I discovered…

9. The Instagram algorithm is completely nuts and can therefore be ignored. In response to the above, when I returned from Ramster I sat on the sofa and spent an hour carefully creating a little Instagram carousel of images with one image at the end showing an item at Ramster that made me think 🤨 - but I omitted to include a far worse offender, something else that was spotted by several other people. I didn’t want to shame anyone, and reasoned if the ‘someone’ in question saw the first photo, they’d guess what else I could’ve posted, and thereby understand my intended message. It was a sort of ‘I see you’ post 👀 directed at that one particular individual. A couple of friends knew what was going on and what I was referencing and reassured me it was very neatly done - but other than that, nobody else picked up on it (good). But here’s the completely bonkers bit: that post has now been seen over 31000 times more than any of my usual posts, has over 1.3K ❤️ and brought me getting on for 300 new followers - the kind of growth I’ve waiting years for, plugging away, posting diligently for negligible result. And it wasn’t because of the point I was (subtly) trying to make either - it’s just the pics of flowers that people like 🤷🏻‍♀️- I can tell from the stats. Totally random.

7. Life doesn’t pause when you’re busy and has to be dealt with along with everything else. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could pause stuff, and just deal with one thing at a time? That would be useful. So along with all the above, we’ve been wrestling with a big-commitment-big-decision-big-cost household project (the one that means pulling out half my studio) and quite frankly - I’m done in and need a holiday!

Luckily, I am booked to get one in a few weeks - excellent but coincidental timing. Meantime, I’ve opened the doors again to Fabulous Free Motion, probably my most popular course. So if getting to grips with free Motion embroidery has been on your agenda, then do please consider joining me - I’d love to help you. We’re a small group 😀 so lots of personal attention and assistance. Find out more here - lessons start on Monday 13th.

Until next time,

Threadnoodle is always free for everyone to read, but subscribing helps motivate me to keep creating, writing and sharing! Thank you 🙂

If you’d like to support me a little more, you can always buy me a coffee - that’d be more than lovely too 😊

If you have any questions about the Fab Free Motion online course, please just ask: I’m always happy to help. Doors close on Sunday 12th, so don’t miss out if you’d like to join.

Here’s some testimonials from happy people:

For anyone who wants to learn free motion embroidery, this class is perfect for giving you the confidence through increasing your speed, continued daily practise, and just a nice steady increase in the skills needed for each project - to prepare us to carry on on our own! For me, it was a perfect set up for success!

Your videos and explanations of things are THE BEST!! No-one comes close to you!

This class was truly amazing for me! I learned so much, my stitches are no longer jerky, they are mostly even, and I already have ideas of how I want to use them in my collage.

I am so much more knowledgeable and confident with my sewing machine. There are things I never would have tried and with the way you showed us it’s so much easier and faster.

And that’s another thing, I’m stitching faster than I had ever thought it would be possible for me to do! Thank you so much Izzy, You will definitely see me again!

I was so sad to reach the end. Obviously you have to have a life, but I could have carried on for a lot longer just doing these exercises. I think you can see that I really enjoyed the WHOLE bloomin' thing!