Painting Wonder Under and New Brooches

(Above: Sixteen new brooches.  $50 each.  Click on image to enlarge.)

For the past several weeks I've been spend my evenings beading sixteen new brooches to take to the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show.  I might start some more as I really enjoy making these tiny gems.  Also in preparation for this great opportunity, Steve and I set up the Pro Panel booth in our back parking lot.  Sure, we've set up the booth before but this time will be different.  Since I was accepted into two categories (Basketry and Decorative Fibers), we decided to go for a large booth space ... from 10' x 10' to 10' x 15'.  We want to know how to do it ... before arriving in the Philadelphia Convention Center.  It's going to look great.

(Above:  A twenty-yard bolt of Wonder Under with makeshift weights ... in our parking lot.)

Today we used the parking lot for another unusual purpose ... painting a bolt of Wonder Under.  I brush very watery washes of acrylic/watercolor/tempera (whatever is on hand) paint across the adhesive in order to use it in the workshops I teach as well as for my own work.  In the past, I've painted it outside my studio door ... when my studio was at Gallery 80808.  (Blogged about it HERE.)  Well, I don't have that space any more!  Painting it outside is easier because I can get messy and not have to worry about the floor.  Painting it outside is more difficult, however, because of the wind.  Even a slight breeze is problematic.  Today, there's wind.  Tomorrow we're expecting Hurricane Matthew ... so today was definitely better.

Steve helped me tremendously.  We gathered all the make-shift "weights" we could find ... filling wine bottles and mineral water bottles from the recycling bin with water, using old containers of house paint, a couple of sad irons, etc.  It worked.  In fact, it worked very, very well.  The wind had the Wonder Under dry within ten minutes.

Because the job went so quickly, I grabbed another bolt of Wonder Under.  After the second bolt, I grabbed a 50% off coupon for Joann Fabrics and got a third bolt.  I think I have enough painted Wonder Under for a while!  (To see how I use it, please visit my free, on-line tutorial!)

(Above:  Painted Wonder Under.)

My last blog post featured work in a local exhibit called Marked By the Water.  The reception was Tuesday night.  I was looking forward to it but ended up not being able to attend.  Why?  Well, several years ago an important client living on Kiawah Island asked me if I would rent a panel truck and evacuate his extremely valuable art collection in the event of a hurricane.  I said yes.  I never thought I'd actually have to do it ... until Tuesday.  After the governor's 3 PM televised press conference, it became obvious that an evacuation was going to happen.  My client called.  By 5:30, Steve and I were in a 16' truck headed to the coast.  We arrived by 8:30 and worked until almost 1 AM.  Early the next morning, we continued loading and finally got into the northbound traffic.  The collection is now safe ... in the vehicle ... waiting to ride out tomorrow's storm.  Hopefully, this drastic action will have been unnecessary and all goes well ... and Steve and I drive that art back to Kiawah.  The rest of the story unfolds with the weather!

I am linking this post to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Fridays", a site for sharing fiber arts.