It's always faster

coming down. When you put a quilt show or exhibit up, its an all day event. You have to take time to evalate each piece and decide where to hang it. You think ahead considering what will flank it on both sides. How much space it will need so that it's not overshadowed by what surrounds it. But coming down is a breeze. It's like the trip home from a place you've never been before.

I remember how tenative I am as I enter a blind curve not knowing what's around the bend. On the way there I'm hesitant. I glance frequently at the road map just to make sure I really am on the right road. I've been know to make a U-turn or two. A show going up is like that. You step back a lot. You evaluate. Reconsider.

Today four of the six members of River City Fiber Artist ( Kathy, Marti, Valarie and I) took down Form Not Function at the Carnegie and got all the quilts packed for return shipping to their makers. It is amazing how many different shipping containers and ways of packing our work to ship to a show or exibit.

We Love those artist who put instruction in the package telling us how they want the piece folded, rolled, etc for return. In our case we are not the ones who unpack the work when it arrives. So we don't know if the makers used the bubble wrap as crease preventor or padding to keep the quilt from moving in the shipping container. We really love the ones who send their own hanging devises too. This year we had to cut sticks for a lot of the work. Prepared for hanging in our case means , having a sleeve and a stick with screw eyes on each end or holes drilled in the ends.

We saw and took note of some clever ways of sending sticks that are too long for the shipping container. Several artist had devised ways using either flat head screw or metal braces for the sections of wood slats. Once assembled by their directions the sticks were the required lengths needed for display. The sticks were easily disassembled for the return too.

We were also amazed at some works that were poorly protected. In one case there was no fabric or plastic. In another the box was just down right shoddy to the point where we wondered how the quilt arrived without being damaged. First there was no way we could get the quilt back in the box. We did try although had we succeeded there was no way the carton would make the return trip in one piece. So a new box was supplied.

We worked steady, went to lunch and talked as only friends can do. I carry my camera with me all the time now, just in case I see something worth documenting. I left home this morning thinking I would take pictures of how hard we were working and what a gallery looks like be deconstructed, but gosh gee I was working too hard to stop and do it.