So… I’ve been clearing some old stuff out…outa my bedroom…outa my basement…outa my brain. I’ve been giving stuff away. It’s some how related to my New Year’s resolution about regaining peace in my life. I think it’s about letting go of things that pester me…unfinished projects…unpleasant memories. I mailed my wedding ring back to the jeweler who made it. It’s been sitting there on my dresser for the 2 or 3 years since my divorce, just waitin’ for me to figure out what to do with it. Today I took a couple boxes of miscellaneous folk art and thrift store treasures to an antique store. I think I left the owner a little confused. I guess it’s pretty weird to have someone give you crates of cool stuff outa the blue. She told me she’d call me if she made a lot of money on anything. I told her it wasn’t the idea…she should think of it as lottery money. Someday I’ll need to move outa this house… to someplace better suited to bootmaking, and I want to blast outa here like it was a launching pad.
Friday– “boot day”… in kinda a round about way. I built a mountain of stuff for Goodwill. I have space for a work table now. I have rolls of leather in a box under my bed. And I’m starting a wish list for Saderma, the shoe-repair-supply-place. I need to get a big sheet of that hard black rubber they make shoe heels from…so I can lay that on my table when I cut the leather.
Dick Anderson’s finished my inseaming stand. It’s a stand up one…not a sit down one. I have no idea where I’m going to put it. I have a feeling it will end up in my bedroom for now. I can’t fit anything else in my office/shop…it’s only big enough for my desk and my sewing machine…and I still don’t have a work table. I think my bedroom is going to need some re-arranging. It’s a difficult logistical problem…I have a boa constrictor I need to re-locate. I’m finding that very few roommates and general household visitors like snakes…so the snake lives in my bedroom. Actually, the critter has been a logistical problem for about 15 years now…it’s that old. I used to work in pet store.
No arts group will give you money to make your first pair of boots, but I’m going to ask the Fund for Folk Culture for some help in making my third. The grant is due at the beginning of March. I applied for the same grant last year…and didn’t get it.My proposal was all about my web page and “documenting folk art”, and covering some of my expenses. I managed to accomplish most of what I hoped for this last year even without the grant…almost solely because Lilli donated so much of her time and graphic expertise. I had hoped to pay her. This year I’m going to write an apprentice-type grant. One that’ll pay for Michael’s time and my gasoline…probably not much else. Today I think I should re-read what I wrote last year, and maybe come up with a new outline.
