shell shocked

I started fabricating the heron box on Tuesday and finished Wednesday except for one small detail and stood back and was pleasantly surprised that I liked it much better than I thought I would since I had decided that because of all the trouble and things going wrong the end result would be lackluster. Then I set up my display and packed up the goods finishing about 6:30. Thursday morning I took apart the display, we loaded everything up in our truck cleverly disguised as a car and headed in and got set up. That night I made most the cookies I volunteered for the opening Friday night and took a few quick photos of the heron box. Friday morning finished the cookies, got my price tags all made out, gathered up everything we needed to take with us, and then sat down to add the last, and to me crucial, detail on the heron box...the two little feathers extending from the crown of the heron. Using an alcohol lamp I shaped two short pieces of stringer, a long thin rod of black glass, in the flame and glued them on. An hour and a half later, with the heron box, we headed in for the Friday night preview that started at 6 PM.

A man who bought a piece from me two years ago showed up Friday night and bought a small piece and by the end of the day today we had sold 3/4 of the snowflake ornaments but about 3 PM, one of my few collectors showed up who has three of the small bowls we used to do and we did her front door years ago and when I thought she was leaving I went to give her a hug and she said she wasn't leaving yet that she was going to buy something. Great I said. From you she said. Even better I said. So we walked back over to my display and she asked if I could guess which one she wanted I pointed to the blue jay feather because she and her daughter had pointed that one out earlier. No, she said and pointed to the heron box. She had not uttered an oooh or an aaah about it previously. Really I asked stupidly, are you sure? Don't you want to sell it, she asks? Well, yes but I just finished it yesterday and don't have a good picture of it. So I cleared off a shelf off the display and my friend Kathy got a piece of poster board and held it up for a background and the daughter held the light for me while I took a few pictures and then I wrapped it up and off it went.

Ah, heron box, I barely knew ye.

So here it is. In real life the blue box has more life/luminosity. 

Some of the better shots were before I added the two little pieces of stringer, the light was better but the piece not completely finished.

And tomorrow is another day. We've had very low attendance but as my friend Gene says it's not how many people come but if the right people come.

So far, the right people have come.