It was certainly interesting this weekend. I went to
Harrogate by train, just under two hours each way and a lovely journey because
it wasn't raining as it was supposed to do. I had been to the needlework show
there once before, several years ago when I was still young and foolish about
the world of needlework design. I was supposed to deliver a sample kit of one
of my designs to a distributor, who was going to give me a final decision on
carrying some of my designs. It was a nerve-wracking experience, our car wasn't
really up to the trip, the JE was just a year and a half old which bodes ill
for wheeling through a throng at a needlework show, we could barely afford the
trip let alone the materials for the kit, and one color wasn't available
locally so I had to buy it there at the show, crouch in a less-busy corner,
measure and cut the thread for the kit, and then find the distributor to hand
it over. It was such a draining experience that I think handing over the JE at
that moment would have been emotionally less painful. Turns out, the
relationship didn't develop in any sort of positive way, the comments passed on
about the designs they'd raved about were destructive enough to make me
consider never designing again and I still have stock I'd invested in to
provide them with the heap of kits they'd planned on selling hand over fist.
Was I foolish? Yes. Were they unfair? Who knows? I think yes
sometimes and no sometimes. I wish that things had been less clouded with some
of the emotions I was given the chance to develop. I was so proud of those
designs, I redid one against my better judgment but they said it would be more
'commercial'. To this day I hate that design, the model's now stuck behind the
sofa. I don't design at all right now, but I hope to get back into it sometime.
Would my stuff have sold better with someone else? To be honest, I don't know
but I would like to think that if I'd had the confidence in my work to promote
it and keep promoting it maybe yes. It's soul-destroying sometimes to put your
heart into something that you think is great to have the stitching public fall
asleep in excitement over your work. Designers can have so many good things
working around inside them but never let them see the light of day simply
because they feel the ideas aren't 'commercial'. Should everything appeal to
the middle ground? Should unique or quirky work be dropped by the wayside
because the majority of people really do want to stitch cute animals or
pastoral scenes or reproductions of great paintings? Or is it the same as many
other forms of entertainment or art, do the people who control the industry at
large refuse to produce or promote anything that's not sellable in thousands,
even if it's almost impossible to distinguish between variations on a theme of
thatched cottages?
I'm not ranting or angry, just puzzled. Harrogate's show is
a very odd place to go. The artists' galleries are full of unique, individual,
striking and yes ... occasionally... uninspiring work. But it's so strong and
independent. It's so unlike the market halls where there are shops and shops
and walls and walls full of the same thing.
Once in a while there were designs that I did stop and look
at and admire. I saw some great work, but most of it was not in the big stalls
full of brand-name kits, there were individual designers out there who were
perhaps not 'commercial' enough to suit the buyers of the 'big' shops, or they
preferred to sell individually. It's hard to say, but there certainly seemed to
me that the individuals showed more variety and panache than elsewhere.
Yes, I know it's an industry. Yes, I know that profit is
vital. But why is it that the unique usually gets rubbed out by the big eraser
of 'not commercial'?
I had a great chat with a few people there, had the pleasure
of seeing Linn Skinner's 'Doors of Kew' on display (and heard a lot of positive
comments about them and several about Linn herself, all of them good and very
accurate. :-D ) and surprisingly enough managed to escape the show with no
purchases other than back issues of a few magazines. I did have to resist
strongly at the booths of people such as Oliver Twists and Stef Francis. I love
all those dyed threads but there's NO way I can have one more skein of thread
in this boat until the last work is done to sort out and find all my stuff.
That will include one very humbling task, sorting out the cones of floss
purchased to kit up designs that are no longer being sold. If you ever want to
give yourself a wake-up call, try shifting three storage boxes of ambition. I
have some to get rid of.
As for Harrogate itself, it's a balm for the soul. Who can
stay morose after tea at Betty's? And who can feel pointless when they carry
home a bag with four 'Fat Rascals' for the boys? Plus, the euphoria of a result
in rugby that is still making HWP glow. And I thought _I_ was the one who liked
rugby most, but that's just for the way those guys look in shorts.
;-)
