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ok, nance.  next question.   but first, this is the only photograph any one had of my maternal grandmother,  Katrin Marie Ludvinka.   In her mother country,  Moravia,  she was a trained midwife.  She also was the record keeper, as in birth/deaths  property ownership etc in her village there.  i can speak the name of that village but don't know how to spell it.   the spelling looks nothing like the spoken.   anyway,  upon immigrating to America via Canada,  she was no longer able to practice midwifery, did not speak english.  and so, she worked first in the sugar beet fields of Nebraska,  and then the potatoe fields in Owosso, Michigan and supplemented her income by occasionally assisting at a birth,  taking in ironing  and selling eggs.  i never knew her.  she died just months  before i was born.  But  the story of her that my mother told upon my request was that some unforseen expense would arise and every time, like Every Time,  Katrin would somehow miraculously sell just enough eggs,  iron just enough shirts or sheets and the expense would be met "to the penny".   

so.  the next question is:  is this minimal cloth and any other's like it that may come along, is this cloth worth $48.00,  or,  the cost of 6 bales of alfalfa?  which  is what i need, weekly, for the Goats.  if now and then,  a cloth would sell,  it would be good.

you look at a lot of  fabric art.  what do you think?  AND,  does this, factored in change your mind about leaving it exactly as it is now?

005f

 

 

 

 

 

 

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47 responses to “6 bales of alfalfa”

  1. Valerianna Avatar

    My paternal great grandparents were from Bohemia, close to Moravia, I believe. Beautiful old photo, and love her skills of manifestation – and just exactly ENOUGH!
    I have no idea, really about the cloth… but that seems VERY reasonable to me, really. I just think others here will have better advice. Blessings to you!!

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  2. nance Avatar

    if it were me… and i am not you… but i would “finish ” up the sides a bit… just a bit as in having the background cloth not as visible. and the bottom either noit as long or stick from the composition downward to make fringe? does that make sense? but yes… $48 is a good price… how will you sell it? you may have to pay a commission? then more. fold over or add a strip at the top to fold over for hanging on a stick dowell or…? but a space that would accommodate something.

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  3. grace Avatar

    i wish i’d known her. maybe. the “skills of manifestation” according to my mother, was prayer. Jesus.
    In Owasso, Michigan she was Pentacostal Catholic. But
    she also loved her chickens. another story…they would
    line up every evening along the porch railing and she
    would carry them, one by one, to the hen house for the night.

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  4. grace Avatar

    ok. it is the third that will go to Michigan and i’m
    pretty sure it will come up. Do i sell them? ….
    People there really like to buy art of all kinds. I
    remember.
    What brought this to the forefront today is that Lucky
    Star seems to be experiencing a HOT heat and is calling
    non stop from her side of the fence making the bucks
    all responsive. When i went out to check their water
    tub, TenZen had blood flowing from what at first appeared
    to be his eye but then, just Near his eye. That would be
    from Buckwheat’s horn.
    so…under ordinary circumstances, stuff goes along ok. but if i had needed to call the Vet for a housecall…
    not so much. it’s either this or take on another home
    care situation and i don’t want to, oh, how i don’t want
    to.
    so it brought up the question. Goat feed = small cloth
    = eggs = ironing? Maybe i should find a husband. or
    exchange favors with an alfalfa farmer?

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  5. nance Avatar

    no… you should sell your cloths. yes sell them in michigan. you can make more. i hope you have really good photographs of them and keep notes on who has bought them…. its nice to look back later and know this. also you once sold angels… you could find a small sellable item to sell at the market? or other place?

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  6. Valerianna Avatar

    oh, I LOVE that story…. !!!

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  7. grace Avatar

    here’s another one for you, because i love you.
    She used to need to walk a long distance from where
    they lived to the fields. she would walk along the
    railroad track part of the way and after a time, the
    train guy ended up stopping, at a place called
    Wolf’s Crossing to give her a lift to closer to her
    fields.
    i used to love these stories. would ask my mother to
    tell me. Again and Again. and Again. they were no
    more words than i have written them to you…just
    small, plain tellings. But i FELT something in them
    and do to this day. which maybe feeds my sense today
    of people who come to this country with some kind of
    dream, hope. that’s how they came.
    My grandmother was pregnant with my mother when they
    came through the border of Canada to the US. my mother
    was born in Nebraska to a woman who spoke no english and
    she named her daughter, my mother, Vlasta. Which meant
    MotherCountry.

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  8. grace Avatar

    smile. am thinking it would be easier to exchange favors.

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  9. Mo Crow Avatar

    if you are happy with this work selling for $48 then that is a good price… just make sure that you are happy with your price!

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  10. Mo Crow Avatar

    Oh and to be practical you have a herd with too many bucks, selling the very beautiful young Sunny Ray for a good price to be the head buck of his own herd would help to sustain everyone.

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  11. grace Avatar

    sustain
    sustain everyone.

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  12. judy martin Avatar

    The photo of your grandmother is very strong and your words about her, both in the post and also in the comments, very moving. She was a powerful person. I loved hearing about her, looking at her and thinking about the challenges she faced in this raw land.
    I would not sell the cloth.
    Well maybe if you have more than you need, and the cloth has served its purpose for you, then sell it. Myself, I would find an alternative to selling.
    I just think that working with this cloth in the evenings is a nourishment that goes deep inside you and you need that nourishment in order to care for those goats. Surely there are other things that you could trade or do or sell.

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  13. Jacky Avatar

    I love this story Grace ….. it is amazing how oft times some unforeseen expenses crops up and you wonder how you will manage. and then! lo and behold, something happens, divine intervention, and you manage to get the money together. Like someone is watching over you.
    The stories of your Grandmother are wonderful. I love hearing stories from our families history, and yours are very special.
    Thank you for sharing about yourself and your goats and your land. It always makes me happy.
    I think $48, 6 bales of alfalfa is a very fair price Grace …. sometimes it’s nice to be able to sell some of your work to supplement your lifestyle. Nicer to make some pin money doing something you love…especially if you dont want to take on more ‘caring’ jobs. As for the ‘finish’, it is up to the maker I think. Those lovely unfinished edges give it an organic look, rather than the traditional finish. I tend to love the organic look…but each to their own.
    What are you doing for Christmas Grace? Do you go to family, or will you be having a Christmas at home with the goats?
    Wherever you are and whatever you do, enjoy your day.
    Sending love and a warm hug

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  14. Nance Avatar
    Nance

    Maybe not as satisfying? Depends on what the favors are?

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  15. nemo-ignorat Avatar

    I think the piece should be good enough to sell in your eyes. I love it as it is (the colours are so beautiful and the wings/butterfly are just right) but how do you feel about it. I know it is difficult to let the opinion of others not weigh you down but to sell your art (and art it is what you sew and say) it is important that you feel right about it. Try to be yourself as much as possible. You are true to yourself in your cloth, now you have to learn to be it in business things as well. Which is so much more difficult, I know. I’m still struggling with the fact that I have to sell things and tell people the price for it. And I don’t sell my art, “only” craft things like dyes fabric or yarns. But I’m learning and so will you s
    I wish you all the best

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  16. jude Avatar

    When I began to sell, after many years, I was hit hard by others who felt my works was too cheap. Or too personal to let go of. But I could only get into the selling thing as part of my gift giving philosophy. Even though I only eek out a living, which I really need to do, I think there is satisfaction in selling at a base price and offering to others what little I have to give, story cloth, and in return I eat and stay warm. I think there is a fairness in that. And if I have to make a living, I would rather do what I love. There is “just enough” of all i care about here. Dos this make sense?

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  17. saskia Avatar

    selling is a good thing, sharing your work with others, the pleasure the new owners get from an original piece of art/artefact, and the pleasure you then get, very rewarding….. and yes people thought I was too cheap and too personal, but I cannot make an impersonal piece, and I can live with the prices I asked; yes 48 $ seems reaonable, I love how you compare it to food! and I love the story about your grandmother, and what a name for your mother, mother country …..the sharing of your story is so important, meaningful
    the cloth is beautiful

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  18. nance Avatar

    it certainly makes sense to me jude. first you need to love what you do.. the process of it…. and then to look at all the other aspects… the trade for doing what you love equalling the end result of letting you live to do it…. or bringing up a base amount (s.s. for ex.) to a level that is what you need for you to be comfortable…. this would include the goats!

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  19. judy martin Avatar

    I’ve been thinking some more and this selling question is so huge. $48 is a fair price and if you want to sell it as it is – and you have someone who wants to buy it – then it’s win win, isn’t it?
    The only thing I worry about in this debate is when the artist tries to think about what the ‘customer’ would like, and somehow gets shifted from creating art to creating product.
    It’s why I taught piano for years – so that I didn’t need to sell the art.
    That being said – I now have closets full of un-sold art and am starting to throw it out. Maybe it’s better to sell it.
    You’ll know what’s best yourself.

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  20. handstories Avatar

    how much do I love hearing one of your women’s stories! selling for enough- for what you need and feel. good advice. yes, $48. if only you could hand it to the alfalfa supplier in trade. wishing you enough.x

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  21. Martine Avatar

    beautiful foto of a strong woman.
    Yes thats the way they where and the way we are………you and i, if we have to.
    Seems like you have to be strong now.
    Be strong and make art and sell it for bales of alfalfa.
    I would leave it as is, because its raw and beautiful……….
    XXXm

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  22. grace Avatar

    well…i’m still thinking. i thought all day and now
    it’s night and i am still thinking. yes..those angels
    that took hours and hours and hours.

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  23. grace Avatar

    i was being Crude.

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  24. grace Avatar

    more about this later.

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  25. grace Avatar

    yes it would. but we need to see how he comes out…
    another couple months. he is Gideon’s and Gideon is
    old.

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  26. grace Avatar

    yes…there are other things but the truth just is
    all i want to do is make cloths. they each are a
    Surprise and an adventure. i am still that new to it all.
    Some i could never sell, don’t want to. but i’d like
    to continue learning by making and well….
    still thinking.
    THANK you so much for offering these thoughts. They are
    important to me.

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  27. grace Avatar

    Jacky…i tried to email you but the Edress i had was a
    no go. can you email me with it?
    i will clean a house tomorrow…the person is out of
    town, so it being Christmas it won’t matter and then
    i’ll go up to the Old Folks Home and see how Alz. B is
    doing. her son and daughter in law are in Maine and i
    am her “person” in his absence.
    My son and his woman are in Colorado. he’s a Chef
    and holidays are days Chef’s cook for the people. Plus
    roads down from Colorado are treacherous this time of
    year. i like to see them in warm weather.
    Daughter is still floating somewhere in the ether.
    as is her son
    Granddaughter and the greatgrandson are in California
    and since 2/3rds of us here are floating, she decided
    to stay there.
    When my kids were little and really, the grandkids too,
    we did the Christmas thing. Now i think we would only
    if little Julian was around. to be totally honest, i
    don’t miss it at all.

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  28. grace Avatar

    Ulrika…i think your yarns, threads and dyes are also
    art. and we can differentiate between craft and art
    and it’s a mute point to me.
    i’ve sold things in the past…the fabric figures, art
    dolls, so i have that experience. the thing i went by
    then as much as possible was what i felt like [I] would
    be able to give for the figure, if i really really
    wanted it. and then there was the experience sometimes
    of “selling out”, to have my work in certain galleries
    of good name…like in Santa Fe…but them feeling they
    needed to do a 50/50 consignment. i’ll never do that
    again. so, i DO have some experience with all this. i just do not with Cloth and am less sure of how what
    i make in Cloth is perceived by anyone but me. My
    most favorite way to sell what i make is at Artists
    Markets, where you are standing there and having an
    exchange with people looking. I really love that. But
    i am too many miles from that option now. i’ll write
    about that more because it’s interesting…those days.
    i loved them, both in New Mexico and in Oregon.
    THANK YOU THANK YOU for weighing in here….a LOT!…..

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  29. grace Avatar

    more to this comment tomorrow….

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  30. grace Avatar

    again, more tomorrow

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  31. grace Avatar

    i am really really really glad you comment here because
    i think of you often about how you Make and then Offer
    and do it with such grace and what that has personally
    meant to me…so
    again…tomorrow….

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  32. grace Avatar

    thing is, he has no need for a story cloth. none
    whatsoever. and that’s got to be factored in.

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  33. grace Avatar

    Martine!!!! oh, wooHoo…it’s you…
    i just always love it when you show up…come out of that
    window of yours where you watch through your camera viewer
    SMILE!!!!!!!!
    yes. women have done a lot of things. how they would
    work in mills, as seamstresses. and though i don’t spend
    any time with this thought, i am almost a billion percent
    sure that in a past life i was an apprentice in a
    millinery shop in Krakow, Poland during the pogrom.
    xoxoxoxo to YOU

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  34. grace Avatar

    Judy….thank you so much for having an additional
    thought and more on this tomorrow…
    but THANK YOU

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  35. Deb G Avatar

    Absolute perfect sense. It’s how my parents sell/price things too. There is always a “gift” in everything we sell that is handmade when we price things this way… Or food, Mom prices the fruits and vegetables she sells this way too. With need in mind… This is a wonderful comment Jude, it helped me pin down a thought that I haven’t been able to find the right words for.

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  36. Deb G Avatar

    I love how you thought of price in terms of need. Various things have been making me think about what we need to earn to live and how we live, about occupations and salary. It ties into purpose for me.

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  37. Mo Crow Avatar

    Merry Christmas Grace with little dancing mice and twinkling stars and reindeers prancing about and that red suited white bearded guy still laughing those HOHOHOs, hahaha!! it’s still xmas over there & almost dawn on Boxing Day here, a day of even more silliness, yesterday I ate chocolate panettone with ice cream for breakfast, steamed pudding with custard for lunch and a feast of heirloom tomatoes with lettuce for dinner then watched a favourite old film on the computer Harold & Maude, enjoy the stitching and the goats and much wonderment in 2013!

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  38. Jacky Avatar

    Thanks Grace…just sent you an email. We have two email addresses (skymesh which is on the email I sent) and my yahoo address is jacky_wllms@yahoo.com.au a few people told me their emails to this address were bouncing back though. Maybe it is overloaded and I need to clean out a lot of old emails (a job I will tackle over the next few days). Would love to hear from you.
    I hope your day was unexpectedly happy!
    Jacky xox

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  39. linda Avatar

    as you know, i was in this dilemma with selling. i have now sold two pieces to the same person. i sold my first for $60 and the second (much bigger) for $75. i think you could get at least $50 for this without knowing the size.
    i think to sell stitching you could some small book marks or mats that are small and easy to stitch.. a woven piece with something on it that means something.
    these are just my ideas, but i think you do such great work and little things go faster. plus, favors to farmers sound a little ugly..
    i thought of you yesterday. we made posole and tamales for our christmas eve dinner. it was a fun project with all involved.. probably not as spicy as your neighbors, but pretty hot.
    thinking of you a lot and wishing you light in these dark days..

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  40. grace Avatar

    well..you really do it up!

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  41. grace Avatar

    yes..i remember the original dilemma for you.
    and no…no bookmarks. how i think of these i realized
    yesterday is kindof little Love Letters.
    Making tamales is a wonderful group project. So fun and
    so gratifying. my neighbors food makes my gums burn.
    and yes..the Light, it’s happening.
    xoxo

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  42. Mo Crow Avatar

    Our gardening customers spoil us rotten every xmas with chocolates, cakes, puddings and bottles of wine. I haven’t been able to eat sweets or drink alcohol for 8 years due to health issues but thought I would give them all a go this year, my hair was standing on end with the sugar buzz haha! won’t be trying that again for quite awhile, it was fun though!

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  43. Suzanna Avatar

    Selling things is so full of different kinds of expectations and results, and pricing is mostly up to what feels right, it seems to me. It’s good practice for breathing deeply, ‘letting go’, and watching the mental summersaults one goes through. Or are they emotional? The blessing is for your work to go out beyond…into unpredictable circles of appreciation. Anyway, your cloth is beautiful and RICH.

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  44. Vj Avatar
    Vj

    Loved the story of your grandmother, hard worker, survivor. I would do more stitching to make it complete, or shorten the background cloth. Put your sole into it rather than a price. If you come from a place of abundance, rather than shortage, if you see the alfalfa already in your shed it will come. Let go of the hand to mouth image, it keeps you there….much love. Your work is exceptional because your heart is there.

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  45. grace Avatar

    HEY Vj! i love how you show up…strong and clear…..
    and yes..nance thought too that the ground should be
    shortened but for some reason as yet known, i’m not
    sure about that….maybe
    and the phrase Hand to Mouth…is one i love. and do
    not perceive as uhhhh, negative in any way, but expressing
    something more Real than living hand to paycheck with
    a bank inbetween. or at least at this point in my life.
    something like that.
    anyway….THANK YOU for coming here and i’ll look forward
    to that again…

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  46. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    Hey Grace…although I had limited access I read this while I was away for the holidays and thought to ask if you might accept a $45 commission for something small from your hand and heart that I would treasure–but I couldn’t comment…my friends set up is slow, unreliable and very frustrating–hence I only posted on my own blog a few times and thought I’d write you on my return……so, would you consider fashioning a white goat for me? That’s what I want. Rsvp by email if you like. Happy New year day two…three since it’s past midnight.

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  47. grace Forrest Avatar

    oh, HEY back, Michelle…
    No. the surest way for me to totally become imobile in both mind and hand is to TRY to make something. anything.
    so…no, but i will let the thought lie like a seed.
    for whatever reason, i’m not ready to stitch Goats yet.
    close, but not yet.
    But i love your thinking to do it. Get your scissors
    instead. in time there might be a cloth.
    LOVE,

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