Duh!

It's been about a month now since Oil City had their Oil Heritage Festival.  About ten of the National
Transit Artists set up in the Grafitti Gallery for the arts and crafts show.  We could set up out in the street, but that involves having a tent, setting up at 6 in the morning (and I am sooooo not a morning person), sitting out in the heat (and maybe rain), and taking it all back down the next day.

Instead we chose to set up in the Gallery where we could leave our pieces for several weeks and not just two days.  It's still a lot of work hauling everything down to the gallery and figuring out where to put everything.  It involves hauling down the tables, the jewelry and all the displays.  True to form, the elevator always seems to give out at this time of year.  So, it's a lot of running up and down the stairs carrying heavy loads.

Swan Daashuur (another jeweler in the Transit Studios) and I had displays that took up the most room.  As we were setting our displays up we kept talking about what we did last year.  Notice...... I said talked about what we did.  And..... tried to remember.  Sometimes we remembered and sometimes we did not.

This year we wised up and took a picture of our set ups.  Duh!  How easy is that?

This isn't how it looked last year but I think it was better.  I even had a couple of people make a comment on how nice the display looked.  

Next year I won't have to strain my brain trying to remember what I did.  Duh!  An easy solution.  

That time of the year

For over 30 some years Oil City has hosted the Oil Heritage Festival on the third weekend in July.    Well, it is that time of year again.

Two years ago, I bought a tent and set up in the street.  My goal was to get my feet wet at outdoor exhibiting and to create a gallery setting within the tent.  As was mentioned in a post on that show, I succeeded at both my goals and made some money too.

Last year, I moved inside the Graffiti Gallery and exhibited with Swan Daashuur (the other jeweler in the Transit.)  We were positioned behind the tents and sales were pretty dismal.  Swan sold more than I did but still not as much as she expected.

This year I had planned on going back out on the street but Swan persuaded me to try the Gallery one more year.  This year the Festival Committee left the space in front of the Gallery open so it was more visible.  We still did not have the number of visitors the street vendors did but it was so much better than last year.  Sales were pretty good today (hoping that tomorrow is even better.)   And, we will be leaving the show up for the entire month of August.

Work by John Mander, Corinne Carbaugh, Abby Bunnell and Swan Daashuur

Part of my display.

 The outside vendors set up  today and it was a good thing it wasn't yesterday.  We had severe storms yesterday and the fire sirens kept going off to warn us of possible tornadoes.  (The Transit Building is built like a you - know- what.  So, if I have to be somewhere during a storm the Transit is my choice.)

Today the wind came up again and it rained for about an hour.  Some of the tents were toppled and people were looking pretty wet.  So..... I'm thankful I was inside.  Linda Lineman who paints porcelain decided that she was tired fighting the weather every year and will join us inside next year.

It's about time

There are several large windows in the National Transit Building.  A couple of them are filled with items from the National Transit Gallery which sells art by local artists.  

Swan Daashuur, one of the other jewelers in the studios, has had her work displayed in one of the other windows for the past year or so.  Her work looks amazing displayed on three ornate columns, especially at night with the lights on them. (Her work looks amazing no matter where it is displayed!)   For the longest time she has wanted me to display work in the other window.  

Last year I bought four small columns, intending to use them in the other window (which had been sitting empty all this time.)  I thought of several ways to raise them to an appropriate height, but never acted on it.  (Just a little lazy, I think.)  

Well this year in Florida, I found some large columns.  Thought twice about transporting them all the way home without breaking them and having plaster crumbs all over the van.  Glad I didn't take that route.  I found them back here and they were even on sale. 

The photo isn't the best.  I wanted to get a picture with the lights on them (but I was too tired to hang around until dark.  Maybe some other time.)