Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009 - 10:09 a.m.

They're finishing up the deck today! It's awesome. So much bigger than what we had before. I'm sure we'll clutter it up in no time. The previous deck had the spacing of the rail panels not up to code-- they fixed that, but now it's too small for the cats to jump down to the ground from the deck. The new cat managed it (it was a very tight squeeze), and we're going to have to put up some hardware cloth so there aren't any unfortunate incidents with them getting stuck. Oh, well. Front door for the cats it is, then.

I also scored quite a lot fo scrap board that I can use for...well, not sure for what, yet. The current intention is for garden art. Seal it up, calligraph it, and varnish over. Put it outside to jazz the place up.

The show I'm doing in Memphis at the end of October sent an invitation/request to submit donations to their silent auction/preview/fundraiser party. I've been pretty lackadaisical about auction donations-- usually they're very local affairs, and I just give them something that I'm kinda sick of looking at anyway. I should probably do better, that's not really making the most of the opportunity. I'm thinking of a new policy: blow them the fuck away. That is, if I have sufficient time to do so, make something really outstanding and amazing and high-end, and donate that. My materials costs are so low, I can afford to do that. Time is the only restriction. The current auction has a policy that if your piece fetches more than $500, you get automatically accepted to the next year's show. Plus you do get a portion of the price. So I just may go for it. I've never done a piece that retails for more than $450, but maybe this could be an incentive to have a go at it. And there's money in Memphis-- I figure of all the shows I've done so far, this is the most likely for selling something at that price point. And, who knows? At worst, I get a little attention at the VIP party that hopefully translates to shoopers at lower price point coming by during the show. And I get my piece back, something to show off at future shows and use in my apps next year.

Could also do a couple of lower-priced pieces-- two $300 ones, for example-- but I like the challenge of trying my hand at a higher price point. I'd like to know exactly how much a piece made of silver, resin, and paper can actually fetch in a good market.

�