I was thrilled to go to the opening of this exhibition and sale on Wednesday evening.
The North Shore Craft Group have such a good reputation and their work is always of the highest quality and variety. I try to attend this event every year but usually forego the opening evening because of the travel time and distance.
This year there were 37 exhibiting members and 6 guest exhibitors. I was honoured to be asked to participate as one of these six so I steeled myself against the 52km, one and three-quarter hour drive mostly in the dark through heavy early evening traffic. I really wanted to be there for the opening.
It was worth it. The venue is a lovely church building – just check out those gorgeous hanging lanterns – with plenty of space for everything to be displayed at its best. On arrival my friend Rita and I were surprised to see the place already abuzz, as we were right on time, but it seems that word had spread and many people arrived well in advance of the allotted opening time. The members had put on a feast of finger food, and champagne, wine and orange juice were flowing.
They had even arranged some musical and comedic entertainment, all of which was excellent.
Rita and I wandered the displays picking out items we especially liked and we entered the competition to choose our favourite member piece submitted for their Rhythm and Blues challenge. The invitation, pictured above, shows part of the front of a bag made by Helen MacRitchie (see my post here) for this challenge.
A very enjoyable evening and I’ve got my fingers crossed that one of my pieces sells. If they don’t, so be it. I’ll hang them all over my own house. I put 10 pieces up for sale and 3 for exhibition only. Of course, the first person who spoke to me about my work was interested in one of those 3. But some things are a little dear to my heart to part with.
TactualTextiles 