Wednesday, March 28, 2007

As Good a Day as Any

I've been meaning to start a blog for some time now, and today's events seemed to scream at me to publish them... perhaps to gain some sympathy and/or cheers?

First of all, I am an artist. I work in metal, glass, ceramic and metal clay mainly, but other media find their way into my wares from time to time. I do mostly jewelry, and my interest is mostly Celtic, but again, other things pop up, because I just had to do them!

A couple of weeks ago, I was demonstrating how to make glass beads at the local gem and mineral club's annual show. I think I've done this for the past 4 years, and the school kids love me, at least! I made a couple of contacts at the show, one being an antique/emporium store owner who was interested in carrying some of my goods. We've had to reschedule a couple of times, and I was supposed to show up today. I was trying to stay out of the house most of the day because the city turned off all the water in the neighborhood due to some major road construction in the area. I got up, read some email, and just as I was about to go start getting ready for the day, the water got turned back on, and broke the pressure valve on the toilet upstairs! Water was spraying everywhere! I tried to turn off the water valve to the toilet and it wouldn't budge. I tried calling my husband to find out where the main water turn off valve was. He is in a training class and has his phone turned off! So I call the landlord and he gets the handy man on the way, but with the construction, I know that isn't going to be quick. I go out to a shed to look for my wrench. (Yep, it's mine... I need it for my oxygen tank for my glass torch!) I open the door to the wash room to go outside, and it's like it's raining inside; water is leaking through the floor! Grab the wrench and back upstairs. I finally get the valve turned off, but I am soaking wet, from my hair to my pajama bottoms! Hubby calls, gets released from class early, starts to head home (40 min away). Handy guy comes and fixes toilet. Hubby gets home and then the carpet guy comes to clean, disinfect and dry the carpets. I take this opportunity and leave as fast as I can, LOL!

I make my meeting with the emporium owner. Of course, HE'S not there... he had to leave to take his son to the dentist. So I walk through a couple of other shops, treat myself to lunch, then go back to his store and try again. He finally shows. The good news is, he bought about 5 glass cabs out right to use in jewelry to be made there, and he is carrying about 45 other pieces in the store on consignment. He did give me the opportunity to just sell them to him, but this way will get me more money in the long run, so I decided to be patient. Ha! Maybe I'm learning that elusive skill after all!

So, I'm posting a couple of pictures here for a bit, and I'll showcase new stuff here first. Thanks for reading the first post, and I hope you visit often... Thanks!

Design by Duane Miles, beaded by Kerry