Featured Public sharing of your stuff?

Good Lord Brad-Not to be rude,but is C-U a complete cultural 'black hole' ? Do you get a little lonely or isolated there.

 

Not a cultural black hole but cheap. People are well educated here. Spend their money on eating out, travel, electronic gagets, and their children. Most don't expect to stay in town long term. They want to raise their children here but really don't want to stay. Those with big money, and there are quite a few, spend their money out of town. There has always been a bias against local sources. One can not brag to their friends that they bought something in Chicago, New York, or Paris if they shop locally.

I used to have a higher end design/build specialty furniture store here. Many with money would buy at Room and Board or Crate and Barrel in Chicago despite our prices being significantly lower. The cheap people would complain about our prices and shop elsewhere. The nearest Ikea is 150 miles away, yet, I am constantly seeing Ikea items here in the thrift stores.

 

Pricing is such a funny thing, but what I find odder still is the cachet of a name or where you bought such and such. If you bought it in Podunk, you'll be mum about it, but if you bought it in New York, London, Paris (or if you must, Toronto), then it's all right to brag. I'm the opposite -- if I got something cool here, I'd be amazed and happy and feel free to tell anyone interested. Also, there's no hope in middle priced stuff, even if the value and quality is above the price. It seems that only low or high prices rule. I wonder how many people on the road shows take their items to an auction or try to sell their items for what the experts said it was worth. Sure, I've heard the huge success stories, but you never hear about others for whom it went worse, not better.

 

Interesting observation but oh so true!

 

'Buy Local',not so much-and then folks gripe about what happened those lovely little Mom & Pop downtowns they grew up with.
Hot tubs,Mercedes & a club chair from Paris-the poor insecure Nouveau Rich.Give me a $100 Club Chair from Podunk any day-I'll do something to impress 'em with the two grand I saved.

 

Once a professor at a university where I worked as a librarian asked me if I would talk to his class about my antique photo collection. To make it instructive, I focused on the different photographic media such as daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, cartes de visite, etc. I didn't do a slide show, and probably should have. I brought examples of all of them and passed them around, but -- visuals on screen would have helped!

Recently I joined a group of collectors of 19th-century photography. They meet via Zoom once a month. The person who runs the group really wants everybody to participate by presenting about gems or favorites of their collections -- Or, even doing a deeper dive into an in-depth presentation on a single topic. I want to start slowly, so will pick out 1-3 of my photos to show.

 

I once loaned some of my small totem poles to a museum exhibition, and they are pictured in the UW Press book related to it. The shipping process, done by professional art-shippers, was amazing - custom-made boxes and styrofoam padding, done on the spot by a crew of two - and that was just to transport the items to their facility in town, where they were re-packaged for shipment by truck to Canada. Returned the same way, direct to my door.

 

I had some artwork on display at my local library once - all my own work, such as it is. Public speaking isn't my strong suit, but I will speak up in a meeting if need be. As for being the lead person on stage... nightmarish about covers that idea.

 

I'm Dutch, we buy bargains wherever we can find them, and will tell our friends about it.

 

I was asked to do a talk at a glass club because everyone always came to me for glass identification including the chairperson of the club... I put together a presentation titled "the fear of art glass" because it came to my attention that so many glassies were comfortable with eapg - depression and elegant but didn't understand the fundamentals of art glass - I brought a large selection of art glass and explained to them that there was no difference with art glass than any other genre - that it was all about shapes color and decorations - it was so well received that I was asked to do the presentation several more times in large venues including the South Florida Depression Glass Show - it was a positive experience - I met a lot of local glassies and got a few free hotdogs out of the engagements :O)

it did bolster my personal business - I had a shop at the time and was also in 7 antique malls at that time as well and did some of the large renown antique shows... I have since retired from the mainstream of the business after the fall in 2008 when everything basically became worthless - now I sell out of a garage most weekends - do one local flea market once a month and post a few things on eBay when an item warrants it and won't fetch a reasonable price elsewhere... I still sell a bunch of stuff to the local antique shop owners - I am basically a picker these days - all my years in the business are still fruitful - all the locals visit me at the garage and flea to grab up my bargains which pays for groceries and gas and the occasional must have acquisitions I stumble across... I am very content being out of the limelight

 

Ah, the true measure of success!

 

Free food! These days if you're handling Depression glass that's a good ROI. Especially considering the inflated prices on food. Otherwise, Depression glass is aptly named. Pressed glass for me is good for getting de-pressed too.