the fringe project is installed!

There's a picture of it (and me) on my website www.donnajcarty.co.uk.

Yes, I'm reverting. I don't want to take the time to look up the code sequence I have to insert to make that a link just now. I did have to make considerable changes on-site, though. It originally defined a sort of oriental entrance shape, but it could not impinge on the doorway in any way. OK, a few of the bottom squiggles do, but I'm hoping the powers won't remove them just because of that. It turned out that I was aided in my quest to put the piece outside the entrance rather than inside by the "nanny state", as they call it here when the state makes a silly rule that causes something like putting a label saying "may contain nuts" on a package of cashews.

Anyhow,, I was very glad I had made it in separate strands connected in a reversible fashion, because there was a lot of reversing, detaching, and reattaching to do in order to get it to surround the wide (both doors will be open for the opening) square doorway instead of my more romanic shape.

The comments from the artists going in and out weren't particularly enthusiastic, but Brits rarely are in general. I don't like it myself quite as well as I did before the rearranging. I had planned the color arrangements rather carefully, and they were all undone, and there was no way to take the time to spend a lot of thought on the new arrangement with a guy there doing the ladder work to attach it to the ceiling of the porch.

That was another "nanny state" thing. Seems the panels of the ceiling of the porch might well be asbestos, and heaven forbid we should drill holes and let some of the asbestos free into the outside air. So eye hooks were wedged into where the wall and the ceiling met. I just hope they stayed there.

Today it rained. What will happen to the piece as it hangs for two weeks in whatever the British climate throws at it? I don't know. I had already spent as much in time and materials and tools as i wanted to put into the project, and I guess it's the dredges of the scientist inside me (my former career) that wants to know just what WILL happen? This way, at the end, I'll know what acrylic painted cardboard tubes look like after a week of Brit fall weather. How else would I have a clue as to just how much care to take about such a thing should an opportunity ever occur to make something similar but longer lasting?

One of my galleries called me yesterday to say they are almost out of my work and need more. It is lovely to be called rather than calling even if they are the gallery that tends to take its time paying up when things sell. The other one needs work too, and I put my two most recently made things (and am kicking myself for not taking pictures of them before doing it. I'm going to design and emoticon that beats it's own forehead and says D'oh and make my fortune.) in the auction. Hey! If they don't sell for my minimum (which would only give me a little over half what the galleries would), then I just retrieve them and off to the galleries they go. In the meanwhile, I have good reason to bead, which is a great thing.

And tomorrow is the radio interview. I made a list of the things I wanted to talk about. I've got 15 minutes and 15 things. I hope the interviewer wasn't planning to say anything. (Ha. Ha.) One thing I learned giving scientific presentations was never to give more than 4 take-away facts in a 15 minute presentation, so I'll weed tomorrow morning and we'll see how close I come to actually saying what I wanted to say when faced with a microphone and an audience.

Then on to the opening tomorrow night. I still don't have a clue what to wear! Maybe I'll go pure excentric so as to wear my long sparkly skirt. The skirt. My embroidered blue jean jacket. Do I dare try to find the Betsy Johnson bustier? My blue woven necklace? The problem is I have nothing but summer tops to go with the thing. I'll think of something, sometime between noon and 3.