Blade Show and the Engrave-In

For reference, the things I talk about in this post happen in the following places:


It really didn't seem like a year had passed since I was last at Blade Show. Time flies! The trip had a whole different flavor this year, since I flew instead of drove, since the Engrave-In was beforehand instead of afterwards, since I was on my own this time, and since I wasn't a first-timer this year. Could it be that I've gotten so used to travel and shows that they barely make me nervous anymore? Wow. :-)

The day I left, I awoke to a foggy morning. I went out to feed in jeans and a sweatshirt that morning. That will be the last cool weather I'll see for a while, I'm sure.



I flew out last Tuesday afternoon. Miraculously, I fit everything into one carry-on suitcase and a backpack. Of course I'd shipped a suitcase-sized box ahead with my display stuff, but all the original scrimshaw and all my clothing and multitude of shoes went with me. I'm still not sure how I managed that. I friend of mine told me that I packed lighter than any woman he's ever known. I'm flattered. Packing light is not my strong point....

I have mixed feelings about flying. I love to look the out the window. I do that in a car or a bus too, but flying gives a pretty cool view of how the terrain changes, and no matter how many times I see the tops of the clouds, it amazes me every time. But I hate the crowds and the hassle and the uncomfortable seats. I took Southwest on the way there and Delta on the way back and I have to say Southwest is way more comfortable. If it wasn't for the pain-in-the-butt factor of flying, I'd enjoy it more. A private jet would be nice. Especially if it includes some handsome feller on board to rub my feet after I wear stupid high heels all day. Mmm yes.

Leaving the Sacramento valley:


Somewhere between Sacramento and Phoenix:


Somewhere between Phoenix and Nashville::


I got into Nashville at the absurdly late hour of midnight. Why did I do that? Simple answer, the flight was WAY cheaper, and my sweet and wonderful friend Emily said she didn't mind picking me up. What would life be without wonderful friends?? I guess mine was the only flight getting in that late, the plane was half empty (a whole row of seats to myself! I tried to stretch out and sleep but that's impossible for a leggy person to do on an airplane no matter how many seats one has!) and the airport was utterly deserted. We took a bit of a, um, scenic detour on the way back to where Emily lives (her family hosts the Engrave-In) so we rolled into the driveway around 3am. Getting up a few hours later was a challenge.

But there's nothing like some cannon-shooting to liven up one's morning! Yup, a real cannon. You see (and eat) things in Tennessee that you don't find in California.


Here's Emily shooting the cannon:


What else happens at the Engrave-In? There are a few educational seminars, people show off their work, there's a lot of sitting around talking, I took a nap, people play music (these engraver people are very musical), and we eat a lot of extremely delicious food. On Wednesday night for dinner we were served shrimp, fried catfish, alligator (yeah I ate alligator!), hushpuppies, coleslaw, watermelon, and lots of dessert. OMG yum! And then I sat and watched fireflies over the pond. Fireflies! What a novelty! (We don't have those here). It's really an excuse for a social thing, that to me is what it's about. Last year it was after the Blade Show, but this year due to their family schedule it ended up beforehand. I much prefer it to be afterwards, I'd rather do my work first and then go party, but nevertheless I had a great time and am glad I was able to attend.

Emily brought her horse Rebel under the shade tarps to meet people (and eat watermelon!)


Sam, the orange cat, on the jeep. That cat gets into everything! He was just a kitten last year.


Emily and Forrest picking blue raspberries and mulberries. I gotta give props to Tennessee, it grows good berries. I've never had blueberries like the wild ones I ate last year, and our mulberry trees here and bland and boring compared to those!



After lunch on Thursday I hitched a ride with another engraver to Atlanta, which is about three hours away. I checked in at the show and checked in at the hotel and hit the hay as early as I could!

This was the view from my hotel room, the Cobb Galleria is where I would be set up for Blade Show for the next three days:


This is my table. You may recognize the arrangement from the way I had it set up at the Western Visions show in Wyoming last fall. I liked how that looked so I sewed a new tablecloth this year and set it up the same way. It was just me this year, I did not share a table. Now let me just say, because people often ask, yes it is hard doing all this alone. More than once I heard "I can't believe you're here by yourself!" Well... thanks? It's not like I have a choice. If the day ever comes when I get to share all this fun stuff with some else, that would be swell! Anyway... in the mean time I say again thank goodness I have the best friends on the planet. :-)



I said something on Facebook recently about how the world would be a better place if all the drivers who are too rude or stupid to move the #$%& over and not nearly run me over when I'm out walking Angus would vanish off the earth. I was told I need to carry some sort of sharp object. I found the perfect thing at Blade Show. It was a tad out of budget and therefore I did not buy it, but hello is that badass or what??? I really would need to wear the Xena outfit to get away with that though. I think I know a few guys who could make me one of these.


And the weekend flew past. I made some sales. I got some orders. I made some important connections with some very important people. I liked my table location better this year, I felt like I was more a part of the action, and having been there before it seemed like my work got more attention this year, more noticed. Heck I even got interviewed, which means I made an absolute nerd of myself and someone recorded it, oh dread! It was a good show! I nearly finished a drawing that I'd brought to work on (note to self, do this again! Drawing there is a very good thing to do!). I had a great time catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. I could hardly believe how quickly it went by.

Before I knew it I was back on an airplane. Flying west in the evening is like watching the longest sunset you can imagine. It wasn't too colorful but every time I'd close my eyes for a bit and then look out the window, it was the same state of "almost darkness"... for hours. Seeing the sun glint pinkish gold off the TOPS of the clouds is something everyone should experience in life. That said, I preferred the cross-country drive last year. I couldn't have done it this year, it wasn't practical, but I'll do it again some year for sure. Even if I have to do it alone. ;-)




I came home to hot weather, eggs hatching, things to do, and life as usual...

And I may never catch up on blogging!

my trip to Wyoming, and pictures!

Alrighty, I've finally got this all ready to go! The photos took ages to get through, and are carefully arranged in chronological order. No small feat, working from two cameras... I kept a written journal while I was gone but did not post blogs for a couple of reasons, mostly because I wanted to get all the photos on line at the same time and knew I would not have time to do that while I was up there.

Here ya go, this is super long!

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9/12/10:
Current location: Wells, Nevada.

Well, I don’t plan on actually blogging while I’m gone but I guess I could at least write stuff down anyway. :-) It’s been a crazy and frazzled last few days getting ready to go and getting all packed up, but I was ready to go by yesterday evening and actually had time to chill out and watch a movie.

I hit the road around 9am today. Somehow Nevada seems more scenic than it did when Jan and I were heading back from our cross-country adventure in June (though that’s not really saying much). I’m sure it will be more boring on the way home. Somehow things seem prettier when you’re heading out on an adventure versus when you’re going back home.

The drive is going fine, cruise control mostly set at 75 except when there’s construction or lots of trucks. The Avalon is running great, though to my dismay the CD player is… tempermental to put it mildly. There was a moment of panic thinking I would not be able to listen to any of the books on CD that I brought (because I ran out of time to transfer them to my ipod). Generally if I beg and plead and insert the CD about five times though it’ll finally condescend to play it. I am listening to “Water for Elephants” and totally engrossed, but let me say that you should not listen to it while riding with anyone you’d tend to be embarrassed around. There are some fairly colorful parts. ;-)

I am in Wells, NV tonight. This hotel is pretty skanky but it was slim pickins, so oh well. I am looking forward to getting on the road tomorrow morning so that I can get out of here and get back to the book!

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9/13/10:
Current location: Jackson, Wyoming.

Okay, I am still in love with this part of the country. I really am. This was such a gorgeous drive today. I headed north from Wells (so glad to get the heck out there!) and through Idaho on my way to Wyoming. You know, this doesn’t seem like it’s all that far away. Two days of driving doesn’t seem like that big of a deal.

Oh, let me just say that it is kind of weird traveling alone. Nice, the solitude in the car has been nice (and I loved the book!) but staying alone in a hotel where there was nobody else I knew… it was odd. I slept surprisingly well though, all things considered.

Anyway, I took a zillion photos today because I kept being in total awe of the splendor and beauty of everything. I took a different route than I anticipated, which is okay because I saw an area I didn’t plan on seeing, but it did add an hour to the trip. Not that it mattered. Must have been some force of nature guiding me. Actually, I just followed the signs, and instead of going over Teton Pass I went through the Swan Valley and then came up to Jackson from the south through Hoback Junction. I had to pull over and consult GPS though, my directions only told me how to get to the house via Teton Pass!

The weather is amazing. I can see the Tetons from the window of the guest room where I sit writing this. I am staying with my friend Bryan (thank you!!!), who I haven’t seen for two years, and it’s sooo good to be here and be able to catch up. It seemed like a million years since I had been here, and yet the moment I got into this valley and saw the Tetons in the distance I just had this weird feeling as though I’d barely been gone a week. I can’t really explain it. Suffice to say I am still wildly in love with this part of the world.

[Edit: if you want to read about two years ago, go to "The Adventure" in the archives. I'd like to get all those pics into an album too, eventually).

Tomorrow is a free day, thank goodness. I need to unwind. So I’ll head into town and poke around the galleries and do some shopping, and admire all the amazing art.

I’m so excited.

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September 14, 2010:
Current location: Jackson, Wyoming.

It’s easy to overlook that I have this big work thing going on the next three days. I’m having so much fun it feels like vacation! Oh yeah, I’ve got work to do! Actually, it feels like I’ve been here longer than just a little over 24 hours. Weird, it’s a time warp or something.

Today was eventful. I spent most of my day in downtown Jackson by myself, doing the tourist thing, looking at all the galleries and doing some shopping. There seem to be some changes from when I was last here two years ago. Some of the galleries seem different, I think a few have changed names, or maybe moved? The art is so inspiring. There is so much amazing work here, and yes, some that makes me scratch my head and wonder how it got here. Unlike last time I was here, I’ve found no scrimshaw. There was a store last time that had quite a lot of pretty poor scrim. That store is different now. There’s a place that’s completely selling out, fixtures and everything. I could have gotten a life size hairy Bigfoot replica for a couple thousand dollars but I wasn’t sure how I’d get it back home. ;-)

I had lunch at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. I was told I needed to go there, so I did. It’s pretty cool. The barstools are old saddles. I had a buffalo quesadilla for lunch. That was good, but heavy on the onions and peppers.

Oh, and I did not find a cowboy there. Dang it.

Anyway, by about 3pm I was done wandering and ogling art, so I went back to the parking lot, put the key in the ignition, and… nothing happened. Oh are you kidding me! Hmm, dumbbell here had left the lights on… because there’s no “bing bing bing” to let me know that I’ve done so. Going to have to have my mechanic look at that. Plus the car is rattling more than it was. What the heck! Anyway, I flagged down a kindly fellow (alas not a cowboy) who had jumper cables, and was on my merry way. And in the mean time, I’ve affixed a hot pink sticky note to the steering wheel that says “check headlights!!!”

I was almost back to the house, just turning in the driveway, when a moose stepped onto the road in front of me. I pulled off the side and frantically fumbled for my camera, which of course I’d put away in my purse, and by the time I found it the moose was long gone. Dang it! Foiled again by a moose! I saw three of them last time (geez that does not feel like two years ago, it feels like maybe a month ago, this is WEIRD) and never did get a photo. Sigh.

I worked on some paperwork for a while and then it was off to the Bar J Ranch Chuckwagon dinner with Bryan. This was a new experience. You eat at long picnic tables with lots of other people (I thought people would be real chatty but we sat with people who kept to themselves, not that I’m any different…), and after dinner there is western music entertainment. The food was quite good, and lots of it! BBQ meat, potato, beans, biscuit, cake, and lemonade. But the singers, oh my, these guys blew me away. They were some of the same guys who were serving food and selling dinner tickets. They sounded soooo good, and they’re so funny, I think I had a big grin plastered across my face the whole time and I practically hurt from laughing so much! And I’m completely smitten with one of the fellows, a deep-voiced hunkamuffin named Danny. They are going to be playing a Christmas show at a church near Sacramento in December, I might just have to go! (Church? Me? Hmm… well…okay.) Anyway, all around awesome evening and I will totally put that on the list of things to do again next time I’m up there!

So, I’m all packed up for the show tomorrow. Not nervous now but I’m sure I will be. This is a big deal!

I’d better hit the hay so that I won’t be a zombie tomorrow. The day starts pretty early. “Vacation” is over until Saturday. ;-) And then we’re off to Yellowstone.

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September 15, 2010:
Current location: Jackson, Wyoming.

I wasn’t nervous til about a half hour before I had to leave the house this morning to go to the show. Then I was very nervous. Today was the Ladies Luncheon held at a resort near Teton Village. It was a crowd of 170ish women in attendance. All the other “artisans” there were jewelers except one (and me) so I did feel a bit like a fish out of water. I was surprised how many people actually knew something about scrim. The next two days I will be set up at the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

I came back to the house and promptly feel asleep for about a half hour but woke up when one of the roommates arrived home. I decided I really couldn’t waste the gorgeous weather so I went for a drive up into Teton National Park.

When I was here two years ago I saw three mooses. I didn’t manage to photograph any of them. Well, they redeemed themselves today! I photographed seven of them today, including three that were walking up the driveway when I got back to the house! The drive was beautiful, with the evening light sinking down over the Tetons. The weather has been amazing. It rained some yesterday afternoon when I was in town (lots of thunder) but today was fantastic. No matter how things turn out, I’m having a great time here.

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September 16, 2010:
Current location: Jackson, Wyoming.

Today the show was set up at the NMWA, and will be there tomorrow too. I’m in a great location, lots of people have seen my work, lots of people are super impressed. It’s been a long day talking to a lot of people. There was a great dinner and a band at the Museum tonight. Sleepy time!

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September 17, 2010:
Current location: Jackson, Wyoming.

It’s all I can do to keep my eyeballs open tonight! What a great day though! The day started with a breakfast out at a resort for the artists and their guests. We sat with a fun group of artists. Good food and good conversation! And I’m pleased that I’ve officially made some new friends. :-)

Then it was off to the museum for the last day of the show. It was regular museum traffic during the early part of the day and then the miniature show/sale attracted a big crowd this evening.

I’ve seen some amazing work, made some great contacts, sold some of my work, made some new friends, and learned some things that I think will be helpful on down the road…

It’s after midnight now, past time for bed. We leave for Yellowstone early tomorrow morning.

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September 19, 2010:
Current location: Jackson, Wyoming.

I’m pretty much emotional jell-o tonight, getting ready to leave tomorrow. For some reason leaving here seems to do that to me. *sniff*

Bryan and I spent yesterday and today up in Yellowstone and had a great time. We photographed all sorts of critters, saw some amazing scenery (it’s soooo pretty right now, the trees are starting to turn colors) and even got to see some wolves albeit at a distance and nothing like the amazingness that happened two years ago! I saw a bear too, outside the park, but it was behind trees and I didn’t get a photo. Pretty sure it was a grizzly but it was hard to tell. We stayed in a cute little place up in Cooke City, Montana last night. It was particularly fun getting to see some areas of the park that we didn’t see last time. I’d love to have more than two days to blaze through there some time!

I just realized that the last three sweatshirts I bought are as follows: a brown one that says “Wyoming” (got on the way back from GA in June), a gray one that says “Jackson Hole, Wyoming” and a blue one that says “Yellowstone.” Um, I think I’m obsessed with Wyoming.

Yeah, I really hate to leave. But I’d better get some sleep. Got to get up early to say goodbye (man I hate saying goodbye) and hit the road for Nevada.

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September 20, 2010:
Current location: Elko, Nevada.

Well, I left Jackson early this morning after loading up the cooler with elk meat from Bryan’s freezer (woo hoo!). I have a hard time leaving that part of the country. It makes me think that’s where I need to be. It makes me think I need to do whatever it takes to make that possible. I don’t know how I’d handle the winter though! I’ve had such a great time in the last week. Admittedly not everything with the show was quite as I had dreamily hoped, but I know what to do for next year and made some pretty important contacts up there, and I know my work was seen by some pretty important folks in the Jackson art scene. Of course it’s great getting to add some fun vacation time and good friendship into the mix too! :-)

I took a different route today, went over Teton Pass and then out through Arco, Idaho and the Craters of the Moon National Monument. That’s a pretty weird place, and in fact that whole part of desert has all these “restricted area” signs (was and perhaps still is much nuclear activity there) and makes you think that everywhere you there’s probably some government agency aware of your every move. At one point at one of these restricted area access points there was a fire truck, an ambulance, a police car, and several mysterious looking SUV’s all with their lights flashing… and I didn’t see anything. Weird. Anyway, it was interesting to see although I didn’t feel like forking over $8 to drive quickly through it, so I just kept going on down the road.

I am in Elko, NV tonight. This is much better than Wells or Battle Mountain, and amazingly this is perhaps the most comfortable bed on the planet. It’s like a cloud, I’m sure I will sleep well (edited afterwards, indeed I did!). I can walk around in here without feeling like I need to bleach my feet afterwards. I’ll be home tomorrow, and I know there’s going to be that weird depressing adjustment period. I have a lot of cleaning and housework to do before I get back to real work.

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September 30, 2010:
Current location: Wilton, California.

Okay, I’m finally writing the last entry over a week after getting home, because I finally finished with all the photographs! As expected it’s been strange being back in CA, it’s never easy to re-adjust to normal life. But I come away from this trip feeling the pull of Jackson even stronger than I did two years ago, like some day, some way, that’s where I need to be even if just part time. My art sure as heck needs to be there. I had such a good time, lots of fond memories to look back on. I’ve reapplied for the show for next year, though I’m trying to get into a different category of the show (the miniature art, versus jewelry, it’s what I wanted this time anyway but was reassigned and I really think it’s a way more logical fit in miniatures!). Cross your fingers that I get in. It’s tough working in an art medium that many people don’t understand, but that’s the road I’m taking and by golly I’ll make it work! As they say, “I’ll be back.”

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Now, I know you want photos! They are all in a Picasa album, it's much easier that way. You don't need to log in to view them, but you do need a google account to comment (or you can comment here, whatever). I've captioned them all, and done so in a way that the album is free-standing from this blog entry, but of course you ought to read it all. ;-)

Wyoming 2010

driving all over the place

Sunday was an exciting day. It started out around 4:30am with me wondering why the little white object next to my bed with the numbers on it was hollering at me. That was my alarm clock of course, but I'm so out of it in the morning that I often don't recognize it as a clock. It's a thing with numbers, and it yells and screams (actually it just beeps, but my scrambled brain doesn't hear it that way so early in the morning). So after a few minutes I finally figured out what was going on and commenced the getting up process. By 5:45 I'd caught all 52 birds and loaded them into the minivan, and off I went. I arrived at the auction yard at 6:37, and was 7 cars back in a line to drop off birds. By the time I left, there were at least 10 more cars behind me. That's a LOT of birds! I hope the prices aren't too awful.

So I got back home at 8, fed all the critters, and then my friend J picked me up at 9. (As a privacy thing, I'm not going to write people's names in here). I wasn't sure where all we'd be going. We started out in the town of Jackson for breakfast, and then went to Sutter Creek to look at gallery where someone J knows had some work showing. I ended up asking about getting my own stuff into the gallery, and may try that after Draft Horse Classic (late Sept). If I submit work before then I'd just have to get more things framed, and that's so expensive I really try to avoid it.

We left Sutter Creek and took some back roads out to the highway (J knows the area quite well. I, lacking a sense of direction, was utterly lost for most of this trip). After one stop to look at riding trails along the way, we ended up at Silver Lake and learned that they do indeed have horse camping and trails there. Perhaps when Shylah is a little older that will be something fun to do! It was really pretty there, such a change to get out of this stiflingly hot valley. Pine trees, rocks, mountains, lakes! And the smell, wow! I know, it's just pine trees, but I haven't been in the mountains for ages and it just totally brought back memories of camping as a little kid (not that those are all good memories...but anyway). Here is a pic from Silver Lake:


Now I had thought that was the extent of our trip, since it was all I had known we were going to do. But...J is very spontaneous (unlike me) so we kept going. We stopped at Kirkwood, which is a ski resort, though obviously there isn't any snow at this time of year so it was pretty much empty other than some people around who I guess were maybe hiking or something. And then we kept going--drove past Caples Lake, and then stopped at Woods Lake to see where a particular hiking trail was located. Woods Lake was beautiful. It was much smaller than Silver Lake. Here are pics from Woods Lake:




And then we kept going. We stopped at some cute little resort area to poke around, and then J said that if we were going home we'd go back thataway, but as long as we were there, Nevada was just over the mountains, and she said that's "real cowboy country" and therefore I needed to see it. I will have to remember that for future reference. ;-)

As we dropped down out the pine trees, everything changed. It turned into sage brush and open space. The transition was so sudden!


Driving into Nevada.

We drove around that part of Nevada a little (mind you I had NO idea I was going to end up in Nevada...) and I must say I am bit disappointed in the lack of cowboys that were visible at that particular time. I did see lots of cows and horses, and pickup trucks, so I guess all the cowboys must have been in their trucks. Oh well. I actually liked it there though...


Nevada...would have looked even better with a bunch of cowboys and horses out in that field...


So long Nevada!

We left Nevada and headed back up the mountains, and when we got to the other side, there was Lake Tahoe! Wow! (did I mention I'm geographically challenged...and totally lost most of this trip?) I didn't get any lake pics because we didn't stop there, just headed back toward home, stopped for dinner, and got back here around 9. I was sooooooo tired, but it was really a fun trip! A nice break from sitting around here drawing chickens every day... ;-)