Bring on the Week!

No coffee, no music, but lots of determination. It is the final week before the Buyer's Market of American Craft in Philadelphia, and I have the Art Institute order and another order to finish for shipping by the 25th--the day after I get back from the BMAC. Things are actually tight enough that I might have to ask Dave to slump a couple of loads for me while I am gone. And of course there is the website to finish, the postcards for the BMAC to get out (today), and deliverables for the book--more writing about writing the book (more outline and project stuff) and continuing to make the projects.

Friday I started a post at the usual time, but then I got sidetracked doing more sys admin work on the computers. Even after an entire weekend spent on the process, I have still not got the new Macs completely configured (syncing and migrating, syncing and migrating), or the printer or the scanner set up. And I am not going to be able to migrate completely from Windows to Mac as I have indispensable software which either does not exist for the Mac (Dragonfly's Glass Eye stained glass design program) or which I already bought for the Windows machine and do not wish to have to buy again for the Macs (Dreamweaver, Quickbooks). I would do without the design program but I find it very useful when I do commissions. Those wacky clients, they actually want to see what you are going to do for them before you do it, and we have not progressed technologically to the point where I can just give them a peek into my brain. The old solution to making Mac and Windows play nice together would have been get PC Anywhere software and run it, but it does not run on the new Intel-based Macs so I have to use Bootcamp and set up a dual boot machine with two full operating systems. Oh joy. Haven't done that since I had to have a a Windows NT server and a Win 98 personal computer on the same laptop. It wasn't fun then either.

Over the weekend I also got an offer of help on the book from another artist who I have asked to participate in the gallery. We have never met or corresponded outside the context of his participation in the book and recently he stumbled upon this blog and got a glimpse into the miasma of stress and anxiety surrounding the process of writing the book. I was simultaneously thrilled by his offer (I really really, really like his work and he is also a good writer--he has a series of clear, concise, detailed tutorials for esoteric kilnforming techniques on his website), and dismayed that he may have made it because of a negative impression of my capability gained from this blog. The blog is both a blessing and a sword of Damocles: Writing it centers and organizes me--and chronicles this journey in case I might feel like downplaying its difficulty later, but it *is* public and people who I might want/need to see me in a completely professional light get to see my knickers, my warts, and who knows what else! I could make it private, or just keep a regular diary in Word, but if I am honest, much of the stimulation of writing here is knowing that anyone could read it and being honest (in a very mature, adult version of the word) and letting it all hang out anyway. Next topic.

My Mom comes today from Montana. She is going to drive to Philadelphia with me and help me at the BMAC. This will be her third BMAC--she has done the past two winter shows with me--and I do not know how I would do it without her. My erstwhile apprentice, Maggy stopped by Friday and we played a bit in the kiln. Didn't do anything to further the book projects, but made some cool squigglies which I will use in a piece later. I was trying to show her how to weave and got the fiber paper strips to slump over both to thin and too close together. We ended up with clear glass almost round 1/4" strips with tight 1/4" curves. My daughter thinks they look like cool swizzle sticks. She isn't even 5 yet, how does she know about swizzle sticks?