My Etsy Shop

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Disasters Need Love Too...

Today I screwed up and didn't sign up in time for my Market in Duncan, and that is a mini-disaster, but my favourite (?) one happened one blustery Christmas season in Vancouver in the late 70's...
Like many others at the time, I was selling my crafts outside the Hudson's Bay at Granville and Georgia...they didn't like it, but they knew enough not to come down too hard on us during the holiday season (bad publicity).
I was at the tail-end of selling some 'bread dough' ornaments...tail-end because I had done this for a few years, and I was sick of having people say " Oh, I can do that myself, it's just salt and flour and water". Yeah, and clay is just , well, dirt and water, or clay, which, you could dig up yourself and make your own pottery, right?
Whatever! I was spending upwards of 2 hours apiece on them and selling them for $3, to $10 for the really elaborate door wreaths, that took about 5 hours. They were beautiful, and always sold, but I wasn't even making minimum wage..I was a student at the time (University) and between Student Loans and 3 part time jobs, I was barely making it financially, so I thought I'd try this new-to-me craft...

As I was saying, outside Hudson's Bay, in the third week of December, extremly cold, and a biting wind...I had sold out of all my small ornaments like teddy bears, Santas, etc, and had nothing left but 4 really nice (if i do say so!) angel plaques with outspread wings, painted like old Renaissance faces in a fresco...one young woman was walking by, gasped, and said "They're beautiful!" She bought one, handed me a twenty and wouldn't take any change...how nice, and a lovely gesture of appreciation..are you wondering about the disaster yet?
I had my plaques on a corkboard, leaning on a stand-up painting easel, and about a minute after I sold my first angel plaque, a big gust of wind came along and knocked over my easel, the angels catapulted to the sidewalk, and, of course, shattered into pieces.
As people walked by, unheeding, I picked up what I could and disposed of the rubble, folded up my easel and waited at the bus stop, tears in my eyes, yes, but also a smile for my 'angel' who wouldn't take any change...

1 comment:

  1. That is an awesome! I love little disasters-they seem really big at the time and then they turn out to be a blessing.

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