State Fair

I went to the Indiana State Fair today with a couple of girlfriends and had a great time. Since I was raised on a hoosier dairy farm, I always like to buy my fair food from places that support local agriculture. So I started the afternoon with a milkshake from the Dairy Bar and ended the evening with a ribeye sandwich from the Cattlemen's Club. Both had crazy-long lines, but in both cases, the wait was worthwhile. There wasn't really time to see all that we wanted. We did spend some time in the animal barns, where we saw the world's largest boar (man, was he big!) and some very cute and friendly shetland sheep.

We also spent a lot of time in the Home and Family Arts building, which housed exhibits of painting, photography, glass work, and, of course, fiber arts. The spinners were well represented. There were lots of beautiful skeins on display. I entered one skein, which didn't look too awfully bad among the others, but I could see that I still need a lot of practice in that area. My biggest disappointment was in the turnout of weavers. In the non-professional-weaving-of-things-other-than-rugs category, I saw only five entries from three weavers. Yes, only three weavers! We have more than ten times that many talented weavers in our one local guild. Anyway, two of the pieces on exhibit were mine. One was a deflected double weave scarf woven of tencel and mohair, which won first place. The other was a crammed warp plainweave scarf of wool and silk, which recieved an honorable mention. Second and third place were taken by Nancy, who entered a painted warp scarf and gorgeous shadow weave scarf.

I was more gratfied than disappointed, though, as I looked at the display. While I was admiring Nancy's work, a woman came to the display, pointed at my deflected double weave scarf, and said quietly to her daughter, "This one is gorgeous. The colors are beautiful." I was tempted to tell her that I had made it, but I decided not to. That simple praise was more than enough. My friends always say nice things about my work, but I tend to think that friends are supposed to say nice things. To hear such kind words from someone who didn't know me, or even know that the work was mine, validated me in a way. I feel as if I can say that I am a weaver or an artisan with more confidence and not feel like an imposter.

After I left, I began to think about what it was, specifically, that so disappointed me about the poor showing of weavers. I think that exhibiting in the fair is a great opportunity to present weaving in a contemporary context to the community. When I was younger, I remember many times seeing weavers in old-fashioned costumes weaving plain vanilla rag rugs, and each time I thought, "It's nice that people used to do that." It wasn't until I saw weaving as a contemporary art that I realized that I wanted to weave. That's why I think it's important to show our work and let others know that weaving is still relevant.