Close Meditations of a Visual Kind

We are now the owners of a John Deere 2210 Estate Tractor. The last two words are Herself's description. I like them, however, as it is accurate in my mind. Much heftier than the El Toro Yard Tractor Mower, not so hefty at all as Harrison Ford 8N Tractor, who still abides in a tractor coma, basic life support continuing until we can resuscitate him. Resuscitate him we will, for we need the services of his heft as well.

Indeed, the individual we purchased the Deere from (along with attachments, more later) makes a living working on yard tractors up through the heavier ones. Just now, in the Merry Month of May, he's quite busy with the yard maintenance crew, getting their beasts tuned up for the Summer Season. He looked over Harrison while here, made a couple suggestions for the coma maintenance, and said he'll be happy to take on the rest of the mechanical resuscitation later, when the Summer Season is winding down. Say, September.

Meanwhile, we now own a functioning tractor, with useful implements. A front end loader, which is specific to the new beast. Two hole augers (15cm & 20cm) and a plow attachment. The hole augers will also mount and work on Harrison Ford 8N.

It is diesel powered, which means another fuel storage. Not a big deal, though, and already obtained one fuel carboy in Yellow. On this side of the Ponds, petrol (gasoline) stores in red, diesel in yellow, kerosene (paraffin for the UK folk) in blue. We've some kerosene about for lamps when the power fails, and petrol for both tractors plus others as needed. Now we've some diesel as well.

State of the Studio

Not a lot of much, at this point, as we've been catching up somewhat with things needed about the House or the Ranch. Did fit in a short session with a model new to me, outdoors here on the Ranch so around and about places photographed before. I still enjoy photographing those places; one copse possesses such a fairy ring feel, others filter the light delightfully. On the other hand, I'm proving to myself I'm definitely getting to the point in my shooting career I need to think very hard on camera support. Lot of motion blur in this session, and likely the majority of that is my moving the camera.

Now, I did choose a lower ISO in part because I've always shot for maximum sharpness. No, not that exactly, as I did (and do still on occasion) push things for the grainy (in film) noisy (in digital) feel to the image. However, since I like making Big Prints, sharpness becomes an issue unless things are planned to use that blur.

Tripods are the first answer coming to mind, and I opted not to bring one with me on the walkabout. There are a number of tripods in my inventory, older, newer. I use two in particular fairly regularly, a moderately lightweight one for the walkabout, and a heavier one which I acquired from Clyde, Herself's father, when I purchased a then-old video camera after he upgraded his equipment. (Note: from that purchase, the tripod is still in service. I've not tried the video camera for a long time; it is designed to work with a separate VCR recorder, eh. There is also a steel hardshell case for the camera and a couple accessories. I should pull that out and look to refurbishing for other uses.)

I did bring my monopod on the walk, didn't use it as anything other than a walking stick. Why not, eh? Well, the monopod with the camera mounted is a one-position only shooting support. I've put one of the older tripod pan heads onto it before, moved that head back to that tripod. Might re-think that position, as the older tripod it comes off is not being used much as is. On the other hand, I'd like a somewhat different head than that one for the monopod. Do want a head on the monopod, because then I'd be more likely to use it... and it appears I really do need to use it.

That's the summary of things up to today. Oh, new roof work on the Big House is nearly complete. Yea! It's already complete enough that recent rainfall demonstrated the new roof will be a big improvement in life. The metal roofing extends past the eaves approximately 7 cm, and water run-off is far less likely to spatter back onto the side of the house, which means also less likely to spatter back into open windows. Which means in the times of year we leave windows open because temperatures & humidity are generally nice, we're less likely to get splash if a rain comes along and we aren't home, say.

Along with the metal roof itself (and the total re-decking we did underneath that) the roof vents are different from original manufacturer. Any and all houses need venting for the under-roof (attic) space. Moisture builds up simply from humidity, and without venting will start to rot ones house from inside. The original vents, five each half of the house, were 10 cm holes covered by mushroom caps, off ridge because hey, House did start off as Manufactured Housing so transported to site by halves. The new vents are rectangles, and the venting hole itself is 15 cm by 75 cm so they move a whole lot more air. Our roofer (happens to be a friend of ours long standing, I will happily provide name and contact to anyone Baja Jorja local who needs such work done) also installed flexible duct from the bathroom ceiling fans (three total) up to the off-ridge vents. This accomplishes the ventilation of the bathrooms without adding another hole through the roof! Fewer holes in refurbished new roof! Woohoo!

Up bright (no, not actually) dark and early yesterday, loaded truck and on the road by 06:30, and about an hour to get to Windsor. Wee bit of grumpiness early, it passed. Probably shouldn't even have grumped then, oh well. Long day, and as far as Studio 318 is concerned no sales. However, the Ranch half of the booth did exceeding well with sales of goat milk fudge and goat milk soaps.

A light steady rain for a short period came along around 15:00, and whump vendors started packing up to go home despite another two hours to the festival. We stayed put; I dropped the outer walls on the two sides with art, and moved the jewelry display under the roof. Ditto for the soaps, and we weathered things fine. I saw several other vendors who obviously do weekend festivals a lot, and come with that underlying philosophy (often stated outright on the application forms) that it's rain or shine the show goes on. You paid your booth fee, you stay.
And while the crowd thinned down some from the rain, sales continued, particularly of the fudge, up to and after the end of the show. Now, by the 17:00 time slot, probably half the vendors had left already.

So we packed up, and covered the back of the pickup with a tarp and put the corrugated board boxes with framed artwork into the Subaru. Herself arrived shortly after the rain, so between 15:30 and 16:00.Good thing, too, because on the drive home we drove into the serious rain, which the forecast said would get to us around 19:00 and it arrived maybe an hour early.

We all went to Las Aviñas in Archer for dinner, not a big decision really since we all live to one side or the other of Archer and so we all were going there anyway. Good dinner, then home, left the truck covered for the more rain through the night and did a hot tub soak and crashed. Hard. Didn't wake until nearly 07:00 this morning.

Luxury.

Now, the Windsor Zucchini Festival is several things. Primarily it is a fundraiser for the community of Windsor to fund their volunteer fire department; besides the vendor booth space sales, they also sell chicken dinners and lunches, all involving a zucchini dish of some sort, and zucchini bread, and there are the Cook-a-Zucch contests, and of course Miss Zucchini. For these reasons alone, being a vendor (very specifically, the fact that it helps this community fund their fire department) is on the list of Things To Do again next year. Even if, again, Studio 318 doesn't make any sales. We did last year, so there.

It is also the last even we've been doing before the Summer Hiatus. Last year we did a brief stint at Bronson's first ever Fourth of July Festival; we may set up the Ranch booth this year if there is a repeat, I won't be setting up the Studio however. There is a reason for the Summer Hiatus here, and that is the combination of heat and humidity. Given time and research and experience, there may be some summer festivals we'll try our Studio booth at. Those are very likely going to be on the coast, where sea breezes help with the heat and humidity.

Here in North Central Baja Jorja, though, it's time to settle in to a more relaxed pace. There are still things to do, and get done, and outdoors, just... slower.

It's time to get moving on a couple bigger projects here on the Ranch. The back deck of Studio 318 needs to be re-planked, and the roof enlarged. That's one of them.

It's also time to review all the lessons learned in nearly two years of setting up the Studio Pavilion at weekend (and some week-day) festivals, and tune things up. During today's drying time, I made measurements of the pavilion for revamping the support system on the Art Display Walls. The walls themselves are made from shade netting fabric, purchased at Lowe's. They're holding up well enough, showing some signs of their use, and we've thought of a couple things to improve them for the next go-around. (That is, if we don't decide we are bringing in enough funds to justify purchasing the commercially available net style display walls... though I'm leaning towards the Do It Yourself variation again.)

The two side walls get the most art anyway, as that is what is most visible when people walk by. The current method of a single schedule 40 PVC tube as the weight distribution member across the top, with the primary anchors being loop and ball bungee cords, will continue to serve. However, the nearly two years of service on the current PVC tubes show a couple small problems.

The tubes are two parts, half the length of the side, so they will break down for transport inside the Subaru. Been using the slip fit which came with the tubing; this works, but it's stiff (supposed to be when using the tubing for plumbing, its primary purpose) and as the tubes aged, one broke. So I'm going to re-do these, still half the length, only with a male/female threaded coupling at the half-way point so they will thread together. Should be easier to both put together and break down for both of us, primarily Herself.

The back wall needs a revision. We knew other artists used a partial wall on the back side of their pavilions, and now from the three bigger art festivals we did we agree. Need that 'back door' to get out that side, as the place where most the extra stock and our lounging area is. So that wall will get a frame to tension the wall onto, rather than going to the poles of the pavilion itself as it has been. The tension is necessary because that's an important part of the weight distribution in our hanging display system.

I may also look at that experiment as a means to provide our own free-standing walls if we need them. So the frame will be something heavier than the 19mm (3/4”) PVC we're using for the top bar. This piece may not break down, or not the same way, so it's going to take a bit of thought. To convert it to a free-standing wall, I plan on using the same male/female threaded coupling to attach the feet.

Along with the redesign of the back wall art display, we're also figuring a means to support the back weather wall as a shade fly when we're set up at festivals. Get some rain and overnight, things move inside the main cover and the back wall comes down as the weather wall again; most of the time, however, it can provide shade for us sitting out back as needed.

Most festivals stipulate that the booth space is it, and the artists displays need to fit within the space. A lot of them, though, provide enough space behind booths for a bit of stretch. When we need to live within the space, we'll have a full wall. When we can stretch a bit, we shall.

If I call my Festival Year starting in September after the Summer Hiatus, and counting the con art shows, we've done seven shows, and sales at five of them. Counting just from New Years, we've done five shows, and sales at three. Two of those shows we made expenses, one we also made some profit, and one we didn't make expenses even with the sale. If we figure how well the Ranch Booth half of the show did at Windsor, than we made expenses and some profit at two, expenses at three, and et cetera. Not too bad, overall.

There is still a stack of prints which need mounting and matting, however tomorrow I should be clearing the decks in Studio for a session. After that session I will re-set for matting until I get that stack done. Meanwhile, in between all this I'll continue working up the greeting card ideas. May be able to offer those as a test via the blog, if anyone is interested.

Now, it's getting on evening here. Evening Rounds are done. The Bros got a flea bath today, which they tolerated because hey, it also involved several rounds of Hose! Chase the Wet! Amazing how inexpensively one may entertain themselves with a couple of Border Collies. Also useful to use their pleasure at playing a game where they chase the water coming out of a hose to tire them out.

At least until late afternoon, when the sky began to clear and sunlight came through.

Memories

My new printed cheques (the corrected versions) for the Studio account arrived on Friday. This morning I started going through an old wallet, examining it to determine the remaining serviceability in the old leather and cloth. I knew I'd used it some time ago. This one holds a photo sleeve, with an old portrait of Herself (by a professional studio, not me), a godson, a niece (now estranged) as a baby, and other information.

It also holds memories from the 2001 New Zealand trip. Sixty-five dollars in NZ cash, a receipt for my opal bolo tie & slide, notes made at various points including the work and home phone number for the sister of my nursing acquaintance here in the States, receipts from the National Bank when we cashed travelers checks, business cards for a few local business in Chch. Oh, and my old USN Fleet Reserve ID card.

I will likely leave it to continue serving as the time capsule it is, rather than start using it as the checkbook wallet for Studio. However, this decision may change. And, there are things in there to be used, somehow, in the creation of art.

Meanwhile, the cheques are in the same leather wallet I use for the cash pool when actually running the booth. This may or not be a good plan, and mostly means I may need a means to keep the cash separate from this wallet while running the booth.

Work Progress

Bit of research into scanners for the Studio. I need to walk through Studio current and note the make/model of the one I've got, which is a Hewlett Packard scanner.

Cheque written, checklist completed, all inserted into envelop for the Micanopy Fall Festival application. To be put into the mail tomorrow. Thus I can check off something on Studio paperwork to do.

Sunday Progress, Not Studio

Other than walking through did nothing in Studio. No mat cutting, no backing board cutting. All the chores for the day involved Ranch. Now, that is a good thing too, because now we've got one more chicken tiller unit. It's not complete, still needs at least two hatches cut in and mounted, one in a side wall, one in the top. It is a 1.2 wide and high by slightly less than 2 metre long unit, so a good size for a rooster or two, or a rooster and a couple hens.

The top is the new, heavier gauge wire fabric and that wire does not cope well with being bent to wrap around things. So from here out, perhaps some wrapping but mostly the tops will be put on with cage clips. And, after I use up the last of the lighter gauge wire bottoms (already cut) it will be the bottoms as well. I think I might be able to get away with a single bend-over to help, but no twist cinching. Even with a single bend, it will require clips.

Art Work, Art Show Related

Hospital is hosting a Nurses Week exhibit of artwork by nurses who work at Hospital. It is a few hours long exhibit, one day only, and only an exhibit. No sales to take place. I brought in Last Transport to Clarkesville for display.

More Progress, Some Studio

More matting done, and as much as I'm going to get done, probably, before the weekend show. I'm off Hospital on Friday, but that's for Ranch chores and then setup at the site. Saturday morning off early to finish setup, and do the festival. I've brought the matted pieces to the House, with labels for the backs and sleeves for the pieces. It is another 10 pieces to add to inventory. Not a lot, and still good.

After the festival, time to break down the Mat Station for a bit, and clean up for a couple shoots.

I'm working on two applications for Autumn weekend festivals. The lead time for most of these is such that yes, in the Autumn I'm working on the Spring, and in at least late Spring I'm working on the Autumn. At any rate, after going through the process for one of these in the Spring entirely on-line, I'm perhaps a bit jaded. Or some other word. Anyway.

Both Autumn festivals are juried, as in they want to see samples of my work and of the Booth before inviting me in. For one of the two Autumn festivals, those samples may be submitted on a CD, the other however needs hard copy prints. And I'm... Hard copy? Really? And, I sell hard copy, folks, so you're getting potentially sell-able examples of my work (not that on a CD, or e-mailed, or via the web isn't as well).

Still, they're printed from the JPEG versions I use to put on-line for this purpose, so in one sense quality is limited. And, it is practice figuring out how to print using the new Mr. Printy which is important for other Studio 318 Booth related projects, so hey, all good, yes?
Still, there's that interesting, curious feeling. Hard copy? Really?

The other project is printing and packaging for sale Art Greeting Cards, which Herself and I started discussing about this time last year. With a year under the belt of Thinking About It, seems about time to actually be putting together some product and part of the concept is we can put together product pretty much all from here in Studio. No need to hire out printing, we can print our own.

The size prints that the one Autumn Weekend Festival want is on a par with the larger size greeting card we plan to offer. Basically, take a 21.6 by 27.9 cm sheet, fold in half on the shorter axis, and one now holds a 21 by 14 card. Print appropriately and the artwork is on one face of the fold, and information/credits on the opposite face, outside surfaces. Package this with an appropriately sized envelope and price accordingly and c'est voila, an Art Greeting Card.

I doubt we'll put much into Inventory by the next weekend festival (not this coming weekend, next after that), since I also want to replace matted inventory and we've more material on hand for that than we do for the cards. Still, it's good to see that A) we selected and purchased a good printer for the project and B) it is going to pan out, at least the production end.
Prices per card will be on the order of $2-$5 US, with the higher end price being a limited edition run as well as larger cards. Some of the pieces we've photographed will work quite well for smaller cards. Figuring out the printing logistics is not difficult. However, it does open a window on another problem, do I need to re-invest in an application or am I going to be able to do this with current applications.

Current applications does not include software that is so old it no longer runs in the current operating system. That's a different rant, however, about planned obsolescence and all, and I'm not going there today. So far, what I'm working on uses one of the sub-portions of Open Office which is free software, and I do recommend it after using it for a couple years now. At least the word processing and spreadsheet portions, and I use them a good deal. There is a drawing program as well (haven't opened it at all), a presentations program (vis-a-vis Powerpoint® from the Evil Empire) and a data base. I've studied the latter a bit, and the presentation program as well. It's been a while since I've done any public speaking or other teaching using a presentation. However, I think this one does a good job as well.

On the other hand, while it contributes a bit to the ability to print images, it isn't, per se, the best manner to go about document creation and printing. Based on past experience, neither is a word processor, believe it or not. Even though most word processor applications do provide a means to organise and print a document in a manner reflecting a published work, I've found that moving to applications that specialise in document layout is a better route for that.

Which is why I am considering should I upgrade one of the few applications from Microshaft I've ever felt they did a good bit in providing. Powerpoint®, Excel® and Word® dominate the market, though current news indicates that lead is slipping. I've little use for Word, in fact I use it so little and mostly work (as in Hospital) related that it is easy to dismiss on my part. The word processing in Open Office much more meets my needs and expectations, which are based on another major word processing package, WordPerfect®. And it's free (Open Office). Ditto for Excel®.

I got much better with Powerpoint®, and still see that as being one of the standards to reach for. Doesn't mean I like it. Nor did I ever purchase it; again, a big portion of my using this application related to Hospital.

I've very little use for Access® and I've also used that fairly extensively (guess where? Clues above!) and again, not on the planned purchase list. The data base app in Open Office is more akin to dBase® for those who've worked with such applications. I cut my data base teeth on Paradox® which originally Borland published, then sold over to Corel to include in Perfect Office (their response to Microshaft Office).

Publisher® from the Evil Empire, now, that one they did some good. Much more affordable than the Big Name in Publishing Software and with pretty much all the features of that BNiPS and even a few more that it didn't include. However, I'm not sure this Spendthrift Offspring of Unmarried Parents is in the mood to provide any more funding to the Evil Empire.

Not when there are (still unexplored) alternatives currently here on my PC.

Meanwhile, the metal is going up onto the roof of Big House. We are closer to the new roof being done, and it is good.

Roof Metal and More

Roof metal delivered for the roof replacement on the Big house. Driver got stuck in our North Central Baja Jorja sugar sand, but not permanently. Offloaded about half the metal on his trailer, which lightened it enough to get unstuck, then reload our delivery to place it where we want it. Then I helped him reload the other portions (deliveries to two other locations), and he left. Got to play with heavy equipment, at least sort of in that I didn't operate the crane, did help guide the loads.

Light feeding after that, because we need our feed delivery. Actually, a light feeding for myself as well, because I needed it. Hogs fed fully, goats got light. Waiting for delivery now. That's more Ranch related, of course, however as this artist lives on the Ranch, it does touch on the State of the Artist.

Burned to disk backup the bundled software I received as the Wacom Bundle after purchasing my Intuos tablet, and also the PS Elements 11 on a separate DVD. I am still thinking seriously about installing that on Herself's PC and installing the full version upgrade on mine. Note: on the other hand, I've been working on learning Gimp with the thought that I might not purchase an upgrade to Photoshop. We'll see.

Feed delivery came in while Herself off on some errands. All available cow feed now stored (short four bags). Horse covered, along with bird, and four barrels of goat stored. Fifth is stacked on pallet in trailer. Two barrels of hog are stored. This constitutes moving around something like 900 kg of feed. Chicken Eggs collected. Dogs fed. Now to feed me, I guess.

Rain Saturday

So, a quiet morning. We notified our regular customers that we wouldn't be setting up the Booth, and Herself would be there for milk deliveries. Did manage to get the Horses and Hogs fed. Goats complained as they always do when it rains. Paused inside Studio 318 after starting out when the rain started just as the Bros and I got to Studio 318. Inventoried frames available and on hand, noted with and without glass, noted hangers if any, brief notes to type of frame with a very short description.

This is another interesting aspect about running a business to me. I am not counting these frames yet as inventory in terms of value on hand for income tax purposes, yet I suppose I should be since they do comprise Cost of Goods Sold for framed pieces. Some of these frames were purchased at various retail outlets over time, and may or may not still carry price tags. Some were gifted to us, by Mother Mary. Most I acquired from yard sale vendors, in a lump purchase so the price per frame is really vague. Some of the latter I could apply a price tag to based on my appreciation for the materials and workmanship in the frame. A few may be 'withdrawn for personal use', though I am more interested possibly in selling them to myself (actual transaction at this point, like really taking money out of my pocket to give to myself and record as a sale).

It's also interesting in that I felt a certain anxiety going through the recent push to increase framed pieces for show, asking myself do I have enough frames.? Asking how many frames do I have, what sizes? Turns out I do, yes, and probably don't need to go purchase more for a while. Except, of course, for those odd size pieces...

Still, now there is a quantifiable handle on the available frames. It can be sorted by size, by does it have glass already, does it have hanging hardware installed. Hardware can always be moved, but sometimes it is handy to know there is a frame ready to go (glass and hardware) in a good size and orientation for the piece I'm looking to frame.

Hospital
Worked a weekend shift yesterday evening, mostly a steady busy nearly all night though it started off slow shift. Being part-time these days, I don't normally ask for a day off during the week when I've a weekend shift scheduled. Used to do that, in part because Hospital wants to control how much overtime they are paying out, in part because I need the time off from Hospital to work these two other jobs (Ranch and Studio). With more days off on a regular basis by being part time, the overtime problem is non-existent. There is still some available time during the week, simply less on the weekends. Still, I'm finding myself to be feeling more ... jealous isn't really the word, probably protective is of all the time I usually no longer sell to Hospital for one or the other (mostly Studio) of those two other jobs.

As is often the case, I am somewhat tired even after sleeping a fairly consistent nearly eight full hours. First mug of coffee is into me, along with morning vitamins and a snack bar breakfast. It is Sunday, and I need to consider the weekly State of the Artist posting I committed to doing as part of developing myself as an artist and promoting my own work.
Self-promotion is one of my harder things to work on. Hardly that I feel shy, nor even particularly humble. It's more how my parents raised me, I think. We are supposed to simply focus on what we do, doing it well. Someone else will notice and sound off about it.

Ah well. About time to go deal with those goats this morning, the ones that didn't get their supplemental feed yesterday because of the rain (they won't come out of the barn anyway, because it's wet, and goats hate being wet). Mind you, I did see them out in the periods between active rainfall, munching on the hay we've provided...

Edited to Add @ 18:08 local time:
Really not much to add except some time in the past two hours the pressure switch on the well head failed, which we discovered in the past 15 minutes. And (oops or of course, take your pick) the box I thought to be my replacement backup? Actually holds the previously It's Dead Jim pressure switch. Apparently I never did go get the backup. And, of course, this is after all local to the Ranch hardware stores are closed. Home bottled water it is, for tonight, and no hot soak in the tub for the Artist.

Up early tomorrow, off to the Ace Hardware for replacement(s).

The 44th Annual Santa Fe Spring Arts Festival started for me on Friday past, when I went over to the site to set up the Booth Pavilion. I transported only the 'physical plant' as it were consisting of Pavilion and Weather Walls, Art Sidewalls, the folding matted work stands, a folding chair and a bar stool I usually use in Studio as a posing stool. All of this fit into the back of Sydney Subaru Outback easily. Check-in and Setup took a total of two hours, no worries.

Saturday the show started at 09:00 so the day started early. I needed to be there at least two hours before opening to hang selected framed pieces and set out the matted stock. Plus, given how late I got back to the Ranch on Friday and evening chores, Saturday morning involved loading Sydney up with the stock and with the lunch cooler and Office. No worries, though, as it all timed out well. Even with more and larger framed stock, moving the items into the booth and getting set up accomplished with a quarter hour to spare before Opening.

Sunday the show starts at noon, so that several churches located on the street which becomes the Festival may conduct their services without the crowd there. I still went over fairly early to gain close in parking, then walked over to my friends A & K's place for morning coffee and a visit. Once again, I still got all our stock moved back in and set up in plenty of time to sit and eat my lunch before opening. This even given that rather a good number of people either didn't read the publicity about the Festival opening at noon, or didn't care and came early (by maybe a half hour or so).

I made notes on two old and retired Framed Piece Cards via pen, so as to conserve battery on the iPhone. Saturday this truly proved a good idea, as at least two sales on Saturday used the card reader. Sunday all sales transactions involved cash. I could well have used the phone for other things a bit more such as making notes. I'm not disappointed in what I did, however, and do now have two days data of such usage with the new phone, plus the various incidentals I did conduct for how much charge I'm likely to use.

The notes covered things about the Booth itself and the variations put into effect this show, for continued quality improvement shall we say. I also kept quick notes as it were of the people I know that stopped by the booth, at least to say hello. Based on those notes, 19 people I know (plus associates) on Saturday and 23 plus associates on Sunday. I don't know the overall attendance figures for the show yet. The press release estimated a potential 100,000 and based on previous years, that's a safe call. People come from the entire North Central Florida region for this festival. The crowd proved pretty steady and full both days, with some slower periods, and based on prior experience with other Festivals and Ren Faires, a good turnout.

We use some medium size PVC tubing to help support the Art Walls across the top, and we've been thinking this needs some modification. The 'back' wall will be the first we try this on, since this time around I didn't secure that wall to both sides of the pavilion. This provided our back door, and extra stock plus the folding chair sat out there. However, the lack of tension on both edges affected how well that wall could support hanging artwork, so we'll try a couple things here. Using the larger framed pieces as display we could easily add 2 more folding mat bins or the racks for the Greeting Cards, Magnets, Calendars that we're contemplating. Or even on those shows where we can bring Herselfs jewelry, that rack. Depending on which, the back wall even as we set it could do.

I do need to add a Pole Rig to lift the back wall as the sun fly. Do not need to add any more materials, other than the rigging.

We changed up how we do our framed piece title cards. The biggest problem we've had with the other style, post-card sized cards taped to the pieces, is that even light breezes can flap those around enough to fatigue and tear the tape. This time we used business card stock, and put those cards into pin-on holders we purchased at our local business supplies store. Worked very nicely, looked professional and consistent. During the show, though, I thought to print on the back side of the Art Piece Title Cards our Studio Info - Both our names, web site URL, e-mail, though maybe not phone number. PO Box address yes. Then when a framed piece sells, the card goes with the piece. (Possibly print two cards for each piece, the second with Sold/Date on it and that card stays with us.)

On the business side, this weekend we made enough sales to cover Jury Fee, Booth Fee, Petrol to and from (2 vehicles, since Herself also helped our friends and partners with the dairy goat herd while B was off showing most of the dairy goats in a major show – she did really well too!), and while I've not figured out the total sales tax due the Tax Man, that too... and some on top of that. Not a lot, and yet it is profit! Woohoo! Perhaps this means the economy really is turning around (not holding my breath) since (at least this past weekend) people felt like they could dispense some Fun Money on Fun Things (Art). At the very least, we covered expenses.
Granted, with the Festival being a local one our overall expenses are a tad lower (no Lodging, no Food since we are close enough to spend the night in our own home). It is still nice to contemplate a show where for the second time we made expenses, and for the first time a wee bit more.

Herself got to wander through the Festival more than I did, which friends who work any sort of weekend festival or con show will understand. I may have been able to do more wandering if we didn't also provide the support to our friends and partners, and I am happy with how things turned out. After all, I pretty much ran the place solo on Sunday and at least half the day on Saturday. I did make use of a 'booth-sitter' on Saturday. Booth-sitters are a nice concept I've now seen twice in weekend art festivals, where volunteers working with the agency putting on the show are available at reserved times to sit in ones booth while one then gets a biological break, or lunch, or just walk about the Festival. I figured I'd use the second booth-sitter pass on Sunday, but didn't get a chance to turn it in and no one came by to pick up.

Summarising then, the Business side qualifies as a Very Successful Weekend, we enjoyed meeting some more artists & artisans who were our neighbors in the Festival, a good turn-out for the attendance. Enough slow time during the Festival to look at the Booth setup (now a full year in working mode) and evaluate what is working well, what is working and could be done better, and note some ideas how.

And a goal accomplished. I remember well, arriving here early in 1977 and being taken to the Santa Fe Spring Arts Festival by new friends, looking at the show then thinking the quality of the show and art to be really good. Also thinking, one year I will be one of these Exhibiting Artists. Now I am.

It is ysabetwordsmith Day!
May Hippie Birdbaths
Come your way.

( Because This Got Long - Framing and Packing )

( On the Subject of iPhones )

And we'll see how that goes.

Good progress indeed. Only two more large prints to frame, I've made my shopping list for what I need for those two pieces, and then I start sorting through the last six or so in the 8x10 range, all Herself pieces. I could simply mat and sleeve those, though there are a couple I feel rather strongly about framing anyway. We shall see; at this point I can cut backing to fit frames on hand without any qualms, and then cut my own mats for them. And cut my own it shall be, as all of the prints in this lot are in the 8x10 range... range being the operative word.

Big prints/frames ready:

• Naiad
• Dryad in the Forest of Good and Evil
• Last Transport to Clarkesville
• Kitsune Out of the Storm
• Peek-a-Boo
• Postcard from Arizona (Dam Traffic)
• All the Modern Conveniences (colour version)
• In the Parlour (sepia)
• View of Washington from Arlington (colour version)
• Basket, Bench, Buckets (colour version)

Those 10 pieces, if that's all we hung, would completely fill our display for now. I may want to use some of the 'smaller' ones, simply for balancing the display and setting things up as the 'mini portable gallery' we conceive of the Studio 318 booth as being. We'll see. For sure one of the things I need to work on now are the name cards.

For now, though, it's time to gather the Border Collie Bros and make Evening Rounds. Herself is off to Tioga Farmers Market, so it's all up to us as it usually is on Monday evenings. Our plan for dinner this evening is Sub Sandwiches. I've been tasked with a reminder call.

I've been thinking, in the back of my mind, based on previous experience with my earlier Epson ink-jet printer that printing our photographs would take some learning time on the new Mr. Printy (name stolen shamelessly from Ursula Vernon, known as ursulav over on LJ. Stolen because hey, I like that name.)

Three copies printed, didn't take long, spent time after starting to print getting the Border Collies dinner ready... probably done printing long before I fed them. The last one I sat here while it printed. This is from the Open Office Presentation program, since I put text onto the page as a flyer. I still want and need to try printing from, say Gimp. To see what the difference may be. However, as I said, that was easy.

So yes. I am going to need to acquire more paper. Only down side, this won't print big prints. However, on the other hand, some of the Epson paper (the paper I'm working with now) might work for the greeting cards, sized and oriented appropriately for the page to allow folding.

In other news, we felt the Big House shake briefly yesterday evening, the sort of thing a large explosion or a sonic boom (such as when the Space Shuttle would land, eh) might do. Or, yanno, big thunder, but we didn't hear much, certainly no thunder. Multiple possible explanations on the local news today:
- A sonic boom produced by a meteorological phenomenon involving the fronts moving thorugh
- A sonic boom possibly generated by military aircraft conducting maneuvers over the Gulf. The local TV channel contacted the military about this, and the answer is yes, no details, classified.
- An astronomer associated with Local University says it may be a meteor breaking up catastrophically, as same astronomer was looking out over the Gulf last night with telescope and did see a flash.

Take your pick. However, today Houdini wants very much to be under my feet as much as possible, and didn't eat all his dinner. Both behaviours are consistent with him feeling an incoming storm. And our weather forecast for the next couple days includes storminess.