end of my display showing relief carvings and Christmas ornaments
Center of the display showing fairies in back, face vases and small items.
another view of the center section, showing ear rings, crochet hooks, leaf bowl inside bowl, and fairies.
right side of display with cannons in the back right.
the artist in T-shirt he got with the show.
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-08-14 Saturday
51 early morning, 80s in afternoon, light breeze, blue skies. This weather report was brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
When I was getting ready to leave for Saturday, every time I turned around, I remembered something I needed. I got some extra boxes at work. I had a good load when I left, which included folding chairs and hand cart.
I ended up having to work on Saturday. While I left at noon, it really killed the day.
While at work, I remembered a number of things I left at home, but there was no way I would have time to go back and get them.
Several years ago. I had made a bowl in Camphor, and then carved it into a swirl of leaves. While getting ready for one yard sale, I dropped and broke it. I one tried to use a piece of it for a spirit catcher I was trying to make. I broke the ring to hold the lines and gave up on the idea. Last year, I finally glued the bowl together, surprised that all the pieces were still there. It sat on a shelf ever since. I took the bowl with me.
At a yard sale, I picked up one of those woven looking bowls, just the right size to hold the leaf bowl, and a insulated six pack bag of a high quality. I considered the insulated bag for holding my yarn in the truck, but it had velcro on the inside of the lid. Velcro and yarn love each other too much.
At Mom’s, I found that a leaf broke off on the leaf bowl. Camphor is just not strong enough for this kind of bowl. I glued it. Somewhere in the process, I broke another leaf. I glued that back on, set up upside down on the work bench with my new protective bowl over it. In the morning, I will see if I can hide the repairs.
Beyond that, I napped (daylight’s savings time was tomorrow and I was starting early), and petted Momma kitty, before it was time to go to a meeting at night. I remembered more stuff I should have brought.
Tomorrow is the art show. I will have to see what happens.
Year 15, Week 08, Day two (week 705)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-09-14 Sunday
After a 54 degree morning, temps were warm, likely the 80s, blue sky, light breeze, a normal day that this art show always has. Only once did the people set up outside the venue got wet, and that was before the show started. Not bad for the 14 years I’ve been doing this show.
I had an early start. I got up when I was supposed to, but the room I was in is not well insulated. I laid back down, pulled a blanket over me and napped for about half an hour in order to warm up.
The first thing I did once I was up, was to go out and get the leaf bowl. I looked it over carefully, and then took furniture touch-up pens to hide the repairs. I then gave it a spray coat of varnish. Later, I showed it to mom and she had to look to find two repairs. The others blended nicely.
I checked on line, then loaded up the truck. It is a lot of work. While the boxes and bins are light, they are bulky. I carried them out side the house through a narrow corridor, set them on the hand cart and carried them to the truck and loaded them. I loaded first the bins, then the fragile fairy carvings, and then the equipment, and finally the hand cart.
My hand cart is taller than many I have used and I figured out that if I lay it down, and load it, I can pull it by holding the handle low.
At the venue, I waited until they opened the doors, then loaded the fragile carvings on the hand cart first and took that in. The bulky and heavy stuff was brought in by my mom and my new dad. One fairy carving had a break. It was a fairy pouring nectar into a flower for a waiting butterfly. The butterfly wing broke. I can glue that but decided to just set it to the side.
I normally get a three foot by eight foot table for my stuff. They were talking about being short on tables, so I asked to take one of the round tables. It might be seven foot in diameter.
I usually have stuff to put the big carvings on, to give them a separate height, and to give something for other pieces to lean against. I forgot them at Mom’s house. Well, since I was using a round table, my normally designed display would not have worked anyway. I set up the folding tables, and then decided to use the empty bins as display tables also. I had some tissue on them, which really did not look great. I was told by several people that my display was impressive. I basically had nearly everything available on the table on display.
I remembered other things I meant to take with me. I had a pair of drum sticks that I have been using. As I was setting them out, I found a crack in one of them. While I could have sold them three different times, I told them about the break. I had a pair of magic wands (you have to add your own magic) beside them so I was going to see if they would sell as magic wands.
After I had everything inside, I had to go move my truck. When I got back, I remembered something that I left in the truck, went back to it, gathered some other stuff, walked a distance away, then remembered I forgot what I had gone to get and walked back again. Have you ever noticed that having to turn around and go back, it is farther than you remember traveling to that point?
There were two other wood workers there. One guy is in my wood turning club and had some good wood turned pieces such as light houses and pepper mills. The other is a friend of my fathers, she is a carver and makes my carvings look as bad as I really think they are. We have a different style, and different target audience.
Some of the art work was mind blowing. One woman works with sea shells and had bouquets of flowers made from clam shells. Next to me was a woman who did abstract art. I shrugged when I first saw her stuff, but it grew on me. I ended up being quite impressed by two pieces. I jokingly refer to her art as the type of art you want in your house when you need a specific color in a room.
There was a lot of other wonderful art. Photographers better than I ever thought I would be when I was near professional quality in the 80s. Nice jewelry, cloth art, everything was better than previous years.
I was quite dissatisfied with my display, It looked haphazard and cluttered. I was quite dissatisfied with the fact I had almost nothing new.
The show was light during most of the day, though around two, we got a big rush of people. From most people I talked to, sales was lighter than last year. I made my entry costs, plus I got a good T-shirt with original art, and a wonderful brunch. From that, I made out all right.
When my dad and I was showing, one of us would make $100, while the other made $50. It alternated each year. Since my dad’s death, this has been my second worse year.
This is not a sales art show anyway. A good majority of the artists are getting contacts for later work. One year we had a sand sculpture artist who would work a pile of sand within a box into a quality sand sculpture. Many artists work on commission. Some have stores or are on line.
I am there for the fun of it. I hope to get my entry fee back. I also hope to get enough money to buy more tools or more wood.
During the show, I would talk to the people. I have some pies or pastries where the crust was a lid. I would lift the top and tell them that they were empty calories. I would point to the fruit and say they were high fiber fruit. I would also point to the turtle I have, and tell them that in wood turning, anything that has a lid is referred to as a box, so this is a box turtle, as I would lift the lid. I got a lot of laughs at that kind of stuff.
I ended up selling a light house ornament, a magic wand, 4 goblets, and a sea grape platter. The little carvings, which sold well last year, almost got no look at all.
After the show was over, I had to pack everything back up in the boxes and bins. They never fit the way they did before. I then moved the truck back and we loaded it back up again. At home, we had to unload the truck and put things away. I was able to empty some boxes by putting some of my big carvings away. I found that one of my fairies had a break on the way home. It was the one that is writing in a book with a feather that says WHAT IF PEOPLE REALLY EXISTED? I will have to make another wooden feather for her.
I was in pain, wore out, weary when I was done Everything I even half expected to hurt, hurt bad. I then had to drive home. I ignored some of the mess I created when grabbing some stuff I needed out of the house, things on them being set anywhere.
I can see I am totally out of shape, well not really, pear shape is a shape..... I keep telling myself that I really need to do more walking more working, being more activity. I then lay down until the urge goes away......
I have to work next Saturday again. My Sunday project is most likely sorting stuff at Mom’s and getting the work ready to take to the antique shop when I first get a chance. Other than repairs, I doubt I will get any real woodworking done.
For the next year, I have several projects in process (some for a couple years) that I want to get finished. I have lots of wood that is demanding to be made use of. One of the specific projects is to make more drum sticks. I see that Mahogany is not a great wood for drum sticks. Looking at the sticks of real drummers, I see that symbols eat them up like mad. I am using them on bongos, for the most part and I cracked one. Drum sticks really don’t last with real use.
I will have to see what actually happens next weekend.
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