Preparations

I spent the day working hard in the studio, but it was not so much the creative kind of work as the "need to get some stuff taken care of" kind of work. A week from now I am going to participate in a show/sale at a Presbyterian church near here called "Celebrate the Gifts Arts Festival."  One of the organizers came to my open studio last year and contacted me about applying to be juried in and I did, and I was. It sounded like a nice affair and I heard good reviews. It has turned out to be a lot of work, so I hope it is worthwhile.

First I had to come up with something to display my work on, and I showed you the screens I found.

Those are now ready to go and I have got hooks and stuff to hang the pieces with and all that. I had also indicated that I would like a 6' table provided by the church. Then I read the fine print and discovered that they would provide the table, but I had to bring something to cover it to the floor. Hmmm. I considered paper or a sheet or a drop cloth, which all sounded ugly, so I spent a good part of the afternoon wrestling about 5 yards of white fabric to make a skirt that will go around the table. I have a large, dark red tablecloth that will go on the top over the skirt. It is hard to iron something this big, but I did and rolled it around a pool noodle to keep it from creasing and wrinkling. I still need to iron the big old tablecloth.

I also started a box of all the bits and bobs and tape and scissors and such that I will need to throw this show together. I will be adding to it over the next week.

I am also pulling out the work I will hang. It's still being decided, but I am definitely taking all these small pieces.

The ones wrapped in white paper have been framed. The unframed pieces still need to be wrapped in cellophane. Everything needs to be inventoried and priced. Is this making you tired yet? It sure made me tired. Then I thought about Lisa Call displaying her work in Baltimore and reading her blog as she built panels and all the parts of a booth and packed and shipped it all from Denver to Baltimore, along with all her work and then set up her booth and then took it all down again and shipped it all back. All—by—herself. By comparison this is pretty easy, I guess. I sure I hope I sell some things.

Tonight I relaxed in front of the TV and worked on another little piece. My daughter brought me a baggie of little flat rocks from the beach awhile back and I love how they look on this.

I think I will prepare backgrounds and take my box of beads and rocks and washers and threads with me next weekend and work on some of these little guys while I am sitting with my work at the show. If you are in the Portland area I hope you will come and see me. I will post the info about the where and when later in the week.