Is it March which brings up images of Lions when discussing the weather? I am not sure what is happening. At first I attributed it to Daylight Savings Time and I don't understand how any idiot, especially in the scientific community, couldn't understand the simple facts. Of course an Extra Hour of Sunlight will add to Global Warming! More night time is what we need, am I the only one to realize this?
It is snowing hard outside my window right now, this very minute! There was half an inch of snow on my little bridge, covering my flower pots where just yesterday I planted fresh baby lettuce starts, now white in a winter blanket. Last night we had a windy battle. Our warm Santa Anna type winds met the cold Canadian breath from up North and it seems Canada won this battle! Could this be a military experiment? Canada is our friend, so close and without a border fence. I wonder? Keep your enemies close and your friends closer? I don't even remember how it goes!
The gusts were over eighty miles per hour and I wonder what type of defense we have against such a system? Was our military prepared? I don't see much damage; my house still stands and the trees held fast but I suspect this will be another secret war that we are never told about! Why isn't Anderson Cooper doing his job? Where is CNN? Half an inch of snow shraptnal everywhere and they will blame it on the weather. Sure.
I went to the Home Show on Sunday afternoon. 50,000 people visit this show and the over 400 vendors there. It was crowded and I am told a good show. Not One metal artist was there! No cool torchings, not a single steel flower, no plasma cut art, no ornamental iron, not a single steel fence or gated entry and no garden arbors! I missed my younger days when I did the shows and I wondered why no one took up my space when I left? I loved the Home Shows and they were good to me. I liked meeting people, talking about what they needed and their excitement at what I brought to the show. Mostly it was me and my own excitement but I always brought something to dazzle the senses, something they had never seen before. I worked hard for these shows and would begin making stuff three months before they started. I never brought something back to a show once it had been there. I developed quite a reputation and a following. People would go to the Home Show just to see what I was up to. I could get $50,000 dollars worth of work from a single show!
On Sunday I saw vendors sitting at a table with a bored disinterested look on their faces. A table between the vendor and his customer. A dividing line, an obstacle, not a good idea. One day I will write a short pamphlet on how to do a Home Show.
I did get a job though! It is a simple arbor but something to keep me occupied so I don't go out into the streets. "Occupy my shop," that's my motto! I like building arbors and they always remind me of when I began this metal art stuff. Once I could weld I needed work to be able to continue. I went to all of the nurseries and garden art shops in town and looked at their stuff and talked with them. I told them I wanted to make arbors and they all said arbors do not sell well in this town! I looked at their inventory of imported arbors, so flimsy they barely held themselves up let alone a vine and took this as a personal challenge. Their arbors were inexpensive and looked it. They were all the same, coming as kits in the brown cardboard boxes. You could buy one for less than a hundred dollars!
My first arbor sold for $550. I took it to a Spring Home Show that went from Thursday through
Sunday and sold it Twelve Times by six o'clock on Friday night! The next month that is all I did, production work, making the same arbor over and over! I never did that again. On future Home Shows I always brought three arbors in various price ranges, always making them bigger and better.
The last show I did my most expensive arbor was $3,500 and even then I had to make it twice!
Oh, to be young again and know what I know now!
In case you missed it, my Book is HERE!
It is snowing hard outside my window right now, this very minute! There was half an inch of snow on my little bridge, covering my flower pots where just yesterday I planted fresh baby lettuce starts, now white in a winter blanket. Last night we had a windy battle. Our warm Santa Anna type winds met the cold Canadian breath from up North and it seems Canada won this battle! Could this be a military experiment? Canada is our friend, so close and without a border fence. I wonder? Keep your enemies close and your friends closer? I don't even remember how it goes!
The gusts were over eighty miles per hour and I wonder what type of defense we have against such a system? Was our military prepared? I don't see much damage; my house still stands and the trees held fast but I suspect this will be another secret war that we are never told about! Why isn't Anderson Cooper doing his job? Where is CNN? Half an inch of snow shraptnal everywhere and they will blame it on the weather. Sure.
I went to the Home Show on Sunday afternoon. 50,000 people visit this show and the over 400 vendors there. It was crowded and I am told a good show. Not One metal artist was there! No cool torchings, not a single steel flower, no plasma cut art, no ornamental iron, not a single steel fence or gated entry and no garden arbors! I missed my younger days when I did the shows and I wondered why no one took up my space when I left? I loved the Home Shows and they were good to me. I liked meeting people, talking about what they needed and their excitement at what I brought to the show. Mostly it was me and my own excitement but I always brought something to dazzle the senses, something they had never seen before. I worked hard for these shows and would begin making stuff three months before they started. I never brought something back to a show once it had been there. I developed quite a reputation and a following. People would go to the Home Show just to see what I was up to. I could get $50,000 dollars worth of work from a single show!
On Sunday I saw vendors sitting at a table with a bored disinterested look on their faces. A table between the vendor and his customer. A dividing line, an obstacle, not a good idea. One day I will write a short pamphlet on how to do a Home Show.
I did get a job though! It is a simple arbor but something to keep me occupied so I don't go out into the streets. "Occupy my shop," that's my motto! I like building arbors and they always remind me of when I began this metal art stuff. Once I could weld I needed work to be able to continue. I went to all of the nurseries and garden art shops in town and looked at their stuff and talked with them. I told them I wanted to make arbors and they all said arbors do not sell well in this town! I looked at their inventory of imported arbors, so flimsy they barely held themselves up let alone a vine and took this as a personal challenge. Their arbors were inexpensive and looked it. They were all the same, coming as kits in the brown cardboard boxes. You could buy one for less than a hundred dollars!
My first arbor sold for $550. I took it to a Spring Home Show that went from Thursday through
Sunday and sold it Twelve Times by six o'clock on Friday night! The next month that is all I did, production work, making the same arbor over and over! I never did that again. On future Home Shows I always brought three arbors in various price ranges, always making them bigger and better.
The last show I did my most expensive arbor was $3,500 and even then I had to make it twice!
Oh, to be young again and know what I know now!
In case you missed it, my Book is HERE!
5 comments:
I would love seeing a vendor with work like yours at such a show, Jerry. I think your work brings a unique quality that you just do not find in a store. Still, it is always fun to look at shows like this one. Too bad some people do not realize how they present themselves when yawning to their public.
I can't imagine a garden without quality concrete, stone, and steel. Snow? Brrrrr! Over 80 degrees here, a record for this time of year. Glad to see you're working again in steel.
oh, Jerry, even though I haven't been around for a while, I want you to know that once I start reading your blog I read every word. Right to the End.!
Sorry you planted and it got snowed on, told you , you should be in Florida... It's so beautiful here right now.. don't want to make you jealous, but I'm wanting to be in my garden.. (can't as you know, problem with the joints)
but just wait , I'll be out there soon ... hugs from Barbra .
oh , damn J get rid of this captcha thingy, no one wants to comment on blogs that have it.. I've sworn off but for you,? ok ... BJ
ok, p.s.
The godfather said.,
"Keep your friends close and you enemies closer" ...
BJ
It is s hot in Bangalore, it will be like this till we have some April showers. If that too fails to arrive, ten we are stuck with heat till June when the monsoon is supposed to arrive.
Weather has been drastically changing worldwide and has become more and more unpredictable.
My son says we are going to be hit by another very bad Tsunami soon. Hope his predictions don't come true.
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