Thursday, July 16, 2009

Spinning a Yarn, Part 1

June. Summer Vacation. The annual wool and fiber show. Let's take a road trip! My wife, being an avid wool spinner/dyer/knitter/teacher, wanted to take the rest of us on her second annual adventure up to Eugene, Oregon, to a big 3-day sheep/wool/processing/selling convention, called "The Black Sheep Gathering"... probably one of the biggest of its kind on the West Coast. We would also do a number of other things on the way up and back, like visit my sister who moved up to Oregon recently, visit some of my music buddies, tour a wildlife rescue center, see a honey-processing plant... and since I'm involved, we would be taking LOTS of video along the way. Well, the trip was a huge success, we all had a grand time and met wonderful people along the way, and now I have mountains of raw video footage to assemble into segments of our trip. The main goal was to do some preliminary shoots of the Black Sheep event itself, vendors, competitions, judging, get interviews... and put together some videos that would give a flavor for what goes on there, since not many people know about this.

Well, after a month of video editing, the first movie is now available. This is a 9 minute interview, as a high-level overview of many of the events that go on here. I spent a lot of time arranging the background video during the interview to show what Peggy (the speaker) was talking about. She talks about the judging events, the sheep and goats, the competitions, and some history. I am offering these videos to the BSG volunteers, in case they may want to use them on their web site to help get more interest in their event.



The next videos I will work on will focus on more specific events and vendors. I also have really intriguing videos of the bee/honey farm, and of the wildlife rescue center... those are coming up next!

2 comments:

Julia said...

Are there fairs like this in CA? I am guessing not since it is probably too hot here for the mass sheeping. The first lady talking knows so much about sheep... I guess it's like if someone started asking me horse or plant questions. But it shows how specialized everything is!

Drakonis said...

Are there fairs like this in CA, she asks? Why yes... in fact this one in Boone County is right up the street from you and coming SOON! http://www.boonecountyfair.com/home.htm

The other big one is up near Sacramento: http://www.lambtown.com/

These are more of a regular county fair (which means your children would want cotton candy), and the vendors and crafts and classes are a lower priority than at "Black Sheep"... but these are ideas. Maybe you could enter "Mr. D." as a rare breed of tail-less rooster?