Will Pay For Fashion Advice

Most of the easy work is done for a local event where I'll be selling later this week. Harvesting, brewing, dyeing, washing, ironing, tagging, inventorying, readying the display  -- that's the easy part. The hard part is figuring out what to wear. For that, I need your help. Can I bribe you with a chance to win one of my willow-dyed silk scarves?

I've been photographing willow-dyed scarves for Etsy on a dressmaker form gussied up with a thrifted light gray silk dress. I think it looks better than the naked muslin. I've been crossing my fingers that the garment suggests a polished background for those who equate silk with dressing up, and it's simple and neutral enough that more casual dressers can still see themselves wearing a scarf.

Now, even if I could lose 20 pounds by Thursday to fit into that dress myself, that would still leave the problem of what to put on my feet. I won't go into the whole shoe thing again -- it's too depressing. That dress is not an option.

So my choices are:

• basic-black business-casual
• casual-casual, as in dressy jeans and sweater
• working artist low-key funky

All of the choices look good with a scarf. All of the choices meet my personal requirements for comfort. Any of the choices would be appropriate for the venue, where I expect some people will be buying for themselves and others will be buying gifts.

So the question is, What style is best suited to presenting my product?

Let me know what you think at the bottom of of this post where it says "Add a comment" or "View Comments." Or post your opinion on my facebook page. I'll go one better for fashion-slash-marketing advice: If you get a friend to weigh in and say "So-and-So sent me," you might both win a scarf.

I'll draw the winner on Friday, at which time I will have sent away the pumpkin, lost my glass hiking boot, and attired myself once again in studio clothes.

How Do You Explain To The Neighbors?

This was a week for simmering, dipping, wrapping, rinsing, ironing, and catching the light to get pictures of more willow-dyed scarves to go in my Etsy shop.

This afternoon, I cleaned up a bit and got Bill to take a picture of me in the willow bed. There's a local show coming up next week, and I needed a photo to for some PR.

Shows like this give me a chance to tell the neighbors what that is growing behind my house. And why I grow it. And how cool it is. I even get to throw in "sustainable" and "renewable."

How do you explain your obsessions to the neighbors?