Spinning at the LA County Fair

The LA County Fair has an awesome art gallery, the Millard Sheets Gallery, and this year the exhibit's theme was The Making of Art, the first 30,000 years. The exhibit was amazing! The art gallery at the fair has always been one of my favorite things to visit so you can imagine how excited I was to be a part of it. The exhibit starts out showing visitors how humans first created art with their bare hands and later invented tools and methods to aid in their expression.

The really cool part is that they invited modern day artisans to demonstrate these skills...and I was one of those artisans! They also had a weaver, ceramic artist, wood carver, glass maker, and a rock sculptor. It was so fun to be a part of this amazing gallery! I had my own little platform to spin on with a table to display my goods and they even printed my name out and framed it. :D

Most of the visitors who stopped by knew nothing about spinning. There was a lot of fascinated looks by adults and kids alike. I got the usual comments: "You're too young for that", "Why do that when you can just buy yarn in a store", "Spinster!", and of course, "Don't prick your finger. " LOL! It was wonderful to hear stories from people of spinners they knew and how it brought back memories for them. I had a nice conversation with a sweet senior man about how his mom would spin on their porch and how she made woven clothing for him. Really cool stuff. :D

This weighted loom was a replica of one they found in a cave dating back 10,000 years!

I had such a wonderful time but just wish I could have stayed longer. :)