The devil is in the details

Time is getting close for my solo show " On Pens and Needles" which will be at the Shelburne Arts Co-op (SAC) in August.  The show will be hung on July 26th.  We will be going on vacation the week of July 9th.  Since, for the most part, I have everything made that will be going in the show it was time to lay things out and see how close I am to having all the little details taken care of.  

At SAC, the space allowed for shows is a wall 30 feet long.  My 3 season porch space is 24' long so this was a good place to lay things out. The  left hand photo is that layout.  Some of the long and skinny items in my show will be hung from a clothing hanger as shown in the top right photo.  The rest of the wall hangings will require a wooden hanger with a hanging sleeve on the back. First task, see which hangings still needed a hanger.  It was decided a while back that all the hangings would have matching hangers.   It was at this point that I also discovered that two of the wall hangings were missing hanging sleeves ...oops.   Another little detail needing to be taken care of this week.  A trip down to the lumber yard got me all the doweling that was needed to make the missing hangers.  The bottom photo is the batch of hangers my husband made on Sunday.  

The next item of business...naming the pieces and deciding the price.  This sounds easier than it is.  I made a list of  all the fiber items and also the calligraphy.  Since I had the list I felt I might as well  print the labels that go up on the wall next to the piece with it's name, the technic or in the case of the calligraphy it says "Giclee Archival Print", my name and the price. As long as I do not change my mind on any of this, that little detail has now been taken care of.  I was VERY pleased to get that done.

The last item that still needs to be taken care of is the quilting of an extra piece,  I hope to accomplish this before I go on vacation so I can get it's binding machine sewn to it and  take it with me on vacation and hand sew the binding to the back and attach the hanging sleeve, which also has to be hand sewn.  The thought here is that this piece would fill a space when (hopefully) something sells from the show.  Some people put a red dot on the label and leave it in the show and then deliver it or mail it to whoever purchased it after the show.  My approach is to have the customer take the item with them when purchased and put another piece on the wall to take it's place.  I have plenty of extra table runners and calligraphy so I can replace anything that sells.  The piece that needs to be quilted this week can replace any larger item that sells.  

I am getting rather excited about my show.  I now have the postcards from the printer and have started handing them out and telling people about the show.  Most of my friends, like myself, live in the North Quabbin area which is 45 minutes to an hour from SAC.  The thought here is if I start handing out cards a month in advance I can get a good turn out from my area.  This is one of the reasons I am having the reception on a Sunday, rather than a Friday or Saturday evening.   Coming out to my show's reception, which is Sunday afternoon, August 7th,  would be a nice afternoon activity and gets them home in time for dinner.  My friend Carl Kamp, who is a classical guitarist, is providing entertainment. for the reception. Just to hear him play would be well worth the trip PLUS wine and food!  Yup, there are a million things to think about.   I will have a week once we get back from vacation before the show gets hung so the most important  task is to put it all out of my mind next week when we are on a much needed vacation.