But all is well and the world of moi is happy again!
I don't want to go into all the gory details, because they're boring to anyone and no one needs to hear more complaints about things that can go wrong with technology. Let's just say it had a happy ending!
But the real topic of this blog is so much more fun. It's about one of those coincidences and serendipitous occurrences that just makes one wonder ... Is there some MASTER PLAN???
It all began when I made buttons for a button swap years ago, in 2002. As a swap mistress, I hosted this particular swap for a group of polymer clay people in Canada, and .... well, I made buttons. (lots and lots because I was new at making them!) As it would turn out, I also documented the progress of the goings on of the swap (we had participants from all across this great nation!) and as things developed, those 'notes' became the basis of the first article I wrote for Polymer Café Magazine for their very first edition. It was also the first article in the mag, so lots of 'firsts' there!
The article got printed, the button pictures were published and all was okay. Some time later, (I don't recall when), I was doing a purge of some of my polymer clay things, (something I don't do often enough) and buttons were one of the things that were in the 'donate to charity' category. I can't remember where they went, but I recollect that my criteria was that if they were 'strays' with no partners or things that they matched in my other bins, they got donated. And duly dismissed from my memory.
And the years passed. Many of those buttons I made were spread across the country. I kept a few, particularly the ones that appeared in the photographs in the mag, just as 'keepers' to prove (to myself???) that I'd actually been published, and some were kept for sentimental reasons...for want of a better term.
I have since taken many polymer clay classes all over North America, and met lots of polymer artists, and have had loads of fun playing with clay. And my buttons have gone places too! Tracy K., ne of my friends in Colorado, makes felted purses and she uses my buttons a lot, and her felted purses are incroyable! I know, because I have one. I love felted articles and naturally, I have an affinity with polymer clay.
See the picture here? Gorgeous felted bag with ... hmmm...polymer button. Soooooooooooooo the story unfolds.
Last week, I was displaying my polymer clay work (buttons included) at the University Women's Club Sale, in the prestigious Gates neighborhood of our city. Whilst I was setting up, I noticed that next to me, the booth being set up had marvelous felted handbags. Jane Frances Wood, of (ya gotta love this handle...) "Get a Grip" handbags that never felt so good ( I still love that!) was setting up in the space next to me. Her felted work is gorgeous. I was like... who's that singer...Lady GAGA?
So we get to talking about stuff... she mentioned she had taken a polymer clay class from Jane someone in Florida...I said...It must be Jane Zhao (I remembered her stuff was also featured in that same first issue of Polymer Café) and Jane Frances (the Felted purse lady) also said she had used a few polymer buttons on her bags. She also mentioned that her neighbor and friend had found an "unusual" button at a thrift store, and thought it was painted. Jane Frances, having had some background in polymer said, au contraire, that it was a polymer clay button. Well, it turns out that she used it. ON the bag pictured above. That was in the booth next to mine at the UWC sale last weekend. I had one look at the back of it, and knew instantly it was one of the ones I had created way back then, as it had a metal shank! And there it hung next to my booth, and within five feet of pictures in the magazine of its fellow buttons that had been made for that buttons swap in 2002! I hope to meet up with the eventual owner of that particular bag, and perhaps relate this story...
Post Script...both Jane and I had a wonderful sale and the venue was lovely, and the weather was gorgeous, and well...it just doesn't get much better than that!
NOW! You tell me...is it fate. OR WHAT?!?
1 comment:
Wow that is a terrific story! Thanks for sharing it!
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