Here is the story...rather long. Normally, when the local lacemakers exhibit our lace, we set it up. We are given a table (or two) and told to do whatever we want. Most of us have folding display boards with lace already mounted. We just unfold and stand them up. I carry a blue cloth or two for tables. 3-D items, pillows, books, and whatever are put on the tables. I also have a card table that I take if needed.
This Flock and Fiber Festival has a Gallery area that features 2-3 artists. There's lots of space, and fancy signs/labels for everything. One lady sets this display up each year. This was the very first time they ever had lace. It's usually knitting, weaving or spinning. Much bulkier items. I exchanged lots of emails with this lady, trying to find out how much space there was, tables, glass cases, etc. We discussed having lace in glass cases and one table. She wanted the lace in lace type groupings, and wanted special write ups of each piece. Stories on each piece work well when there are only 6 or 10 items. With my tiny lace pieces, I had dozens. I wrote them up in groups by type, explaining a bit about the type and where it originated. Some items had special stories. I had a map of Europe with the appropriate places marked. I also took a copy of the newspaper story about me lace a few years ago. I asked how big the labels would be, but got no answer. I guessed, and put some of the groupings on my display boards, ready for the labels. Other groupings were planned for inside a glass case. (This fairgrounds has a large assortment of glass cases of all sizes and styles.) The lady was two hours late meeting me there. Knowing I had a time deadline for leaving because of a special event I had to be at that evening, and also knowing the lady would have absolutely no knowledge of lace, I found a table and sorted out my laces in piles on the table, making notes on each pile. The lady had brought bolts of backing material, blue for the lace and other colors for the other artists. I knew the lace pieces could pin very nicely to the heavy fabric. I had pins with me and offered them to her. She said she had pins. Then I had to leave. My husband would never forgive me if I didn't get home in time to attend the Kiwanis Dinner. This was to be the first time ever that both the International President and International President-Elect both attended a small club installation dinner. They each traveled a long way to get here, one from Washington and one from Illinois. This club had increased their membership from 46 to 77 in one year....something never done before. When I got home, I had 5 minutes to feed the cats, 5 minutes to change clothes, and we were on our way. The display was very attractive. The area was U-shaped with one artist on each wall. I had one side wall plus a glass case in the middle of it. My demo pillow was in front of the glass case...about 2 meters ahead so there was plenty of people room. Two extra pillows with lace in process, and the 3-D objects were in the case. My vase of lace roses, clear glass boxes of corsages, and a shawl were on top of the glass case. The rest of the lace was on the wall, in groupings, with large labels. My story had been laminated and featured on tagboard backing. My name and other info was on another tagboard. It was easy to see and was spread out enough that a lot of people could look at one time. The only negative thing was the gluedots. If I didn't have to leave, I would have stayed to help her..and would have vetoed the dots from the very start. In hind sight, I should have gone back the next day to check on it, but the location was an hour's drive from my house. I made that drive three times, as it was....300 miles of driving. They paid for my lunch one day, but that was only a fourth of what I spent on gasoline. I promoted lace and may have enticed one new lacemaker. My lace guild will get a bunch of volunteer hours in their record book for this venture. I learned from this venture...and hopefully alerted everyone else to be aware of how non-lace people think. My lady wasn't trying to hurt my lace. She just had no concept of how to handle it. I had too busy a schedule that day. And I spent most of the next day writing my speech on History of Lace that I gave on Sunday. I was late arriving Saturday because I had lace meeting first, and was starting a new lacemaker so I had to attend it. Besides, I had the key to the building-----just too many irons in the fire. Alice in Oregon ----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] ... The fact that you had to turn over your things for mounting ... when you, yourself, are an excellent display maker has me wondering in what context this thing occurred. Was there some reason, such as not knowing the size of the area that you would be allotted or the requirements for a uniformity of appearance at the demo that resulted in your having to turn over your lace for mounting?... What steps could have been taken to prevent someone else from having that kind of access to your lace that would allow them to destroy it? Devon - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
