Oops!

Well, I started a new blog for me & my printmaking (Burnishings) but unfortunately, the profile seems to have overwritten this one. Sigh. Well, anyway, if you're here, you already know about Dave & I, but since I seem to have lost his info too, I'm adding his picture so you all remember him, too!

Still mired deeply in bathroom renovations, but they're progressing. Dave is wrestling drywall this week, and already, it looks more like a room! Will post photos when able.

Out Dated

It has been a ridiculously long time since I posted anything. No excuse; just not remembering to! A few things have happened that I can recall.

I succeeded in receiving my AFCA signature status with the Federation of Canadian Artists. This was a 5-year plan that resolved in about two years. Before you can even apply, you have to have been juried into 8 shows a the Federation gallery within the past four years; I managed to get into my eighth show after just two years, so I thought I'd go for it, and was successful. Since that time, I have been in a few more shows - Landscapes, Works on Paper, the Open Print Show (which was open to non-Federation artists as well), and currently the Summer Gallery (on until August 19, 2007). I have been in a couple of non-Federation shows as well: Lessedra Gallery in Bulgaria hosts an international print exhibition every year, which I was accepted into, and the Fort Gallery in Fort Langley hosted a juried show (777) which I was also accepted to participate in.

We've been making our monthly pilgrimages to Vancouver Island. Mom has a brilliant veggie garden this year that has been keeping her on her toes.

Dad & Judy now have two ducks, two geese, three pigs, five horses (one rented just for the summer) and I don't know how many sheep, probably three or so. Judy and Dad each came down on separate occasions to the Coast for a visit. Dad even made it over to the Island with us last month, and got to see Mom's garden.

Gutted!

Dave has ripped out our bathroom upstairs and is in the slow progress of putting it back together. We've been traipsing up and down the stairs outside to get to our basement which has a full bath, luckily, but just slightly inconveniently. As you can see, it's got a long way to go still. Dave is currently working on getting some drywall up between the bathroom and the hallway, so at the very least, we'll have a little privacy option!

Risks & Rewards

I was very excited to receive an email from a lady in Scotland, who was interested in purchasing one of my pieces. She said she'd found my website on the internet, and told me the piece ("Satori Blue" pictured at left) that she wanted to purchase. We exchanged a few emails, and she asked me how much the piece she was interested in would cost. When I informed her of the price, she asked if I would accept either US postal order or a bank draft drawn on an American bank account. I figured that I should set up a PayPal account and offer her the option of paying that way, as there is somewhat more security available for both the seller and the buyer that way, plus the options for payment are increased for the buyer.

She wasn't interested in PayPal, and had said that she's arranged shipment, and had the company yet been in contact with me? I told her that it had not yet, but that I would let her know when it had. Then she said that her husband was interested in a few pieces, would I mind sending her photos. I thought this was rather odd, because if she'd been to my website, surely she'd seen all of my artwork there. I recommended that she visit my site again, and just copy the link to whatever image she or her husband was interested in, then paste it into an email for me. She inquired about two further pieces, and I provided her with a quote. One of the pieces ("Red Running" pictured at above, at right) had already been sold, but I offered to repaint it for her, and she accepted.

Meanwhile, her shipping company (Arriva Transportation in the UK) contacted me to discuss shipping. They wanted a quote on weight & dimensions. No problem, but I said they'd have to wait until the commissioned piece was completed, then I'd provide them with appropriate details. Out of curiosity, as I'd never heard of this shipping company before, I checked out their website, and they're a bus company located in the UK. Fine, Greyhound does shipping here, but there was no indication that they provided freight, and certainly not outside of the EU. Still, no big deal, maybe they subcontract here.

Finally, the lady suggested that she overpay me for my work, and then I would arrange to pay the shipping company. While I didn't think it was the world's best idea, I didn't really care, but Dave was totally opposed. I had planned all along to not proceed until all money had cleared, even if that meant waiting a month or longer, but Dave really didn't think it was a good idea that I agree to that; he smelled something off. So I informed the lady that I was not comfortable with that plan, and I'd await payment from her for only what I'd invoiced her for, and that she could arrange to pay the shipping company directly. OK, she agreed. Now I'm waiting to see if there is a cheque that arrives.

So why did this sound odd? At first, not very, and while I was skeptical to a point, and certainly wouldn't trust any payment really other than PayPal, I was willing to wait whatever time it took for all monies to clear my account appropriately if necessary. I noticed that some of her English wasn't consistent, and certainly not brilliant sometimes. Again, no big deal. I use email all the time, and it's a preferred method of communication for me; maybe English wasn't her first language, maybe she wasn't good at composing emails. The transport company made me a little curious, then I noticed that the email from the transport company was a Yahoo! address. This seemed really odd to me - what significant corporation (and Arriva is a big company, I did check them up on the UK Company House website - handy tool!) would use a Yahoo! account for their customer service? Then I looked at the signature block for the Arriva "representative", and his name was followed by "B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D." Again, not really unreasonable, but a bit of overkill, right?

Dave said that it's a classic scam; start off small, then progress to a larger (but still not unreasonable) amount, and finally suggesting that the target pay for shipping costs etc. This is where the money is made - you pay the difference to the "shipping company" and then the scammers pocket the cash, and you're out at least a few hundred bucks.

For those of you who are interested, the RCMP has a site on frauds & scams and reporting economic fraud. You should check out the Better Business Bureau if you feel there's a false company, or search government websites to see if they've got something similar if the company you're interested isn't Canadian or American.

I am not the first artist to be drawn in by this, nor by a long shot will I be the last. There are lots of posts on various art forums, and on one of my favourite artists' resources, the Painters Keys. The names and places change, but the overall structure of the scam does not. So while the internet provides artists with a fantastic platform to display their work to the world, there are risks in having yourself out there. On the other hand, the internet also provided me with an amazing array of tools to inform myself about possible scams and fraud, so I can be more vigilant in the future.

So we'll see. I'm still a partial optimist; it's possible that it's real. But I'm not holding my breath.

The Bedside Tables

Dave has completed and delivered the gorgeous bedside tables to Paul & Dawn. These are made from cherry wood, with walnut accents, and were made to match and compliment their king-sized bed, built & delivered last year.

Magnificent king-sized bed (2005)

Cherry table, front 3/4 view

Drawer & drawer pull detail (profile)

Drawer pull detail (face)

Shelf detail

Top view

Their room is small, and there was little space for the tables on either side of the bed, so the dimensions of the tables are somewhat unconventional - tall and slender, with an almost square top. Dave carefully book-matched highly figured cherry pieces to make each top, utilized walnut for the pegs to accent the cherry, and hand-carved the drawer pulls. As always, he hand cut his dovetails, but for these tables, Dave utilized even more hand tools in the construction than usual, and was delighted with the result. He has always done a lot of manual work on all of his pieces, and he has discovered that this provides him with a lot more control and finesse than power tools can provide.

While the finished product looks fantastic, there are construction elements which are never seen in the final piece, yet which ultimately combine to make Dave's work built to last. Here is an example of a hidden joint in the tables:


Dave is now back to working on our house. He is redoing the window trim on almost all of the upstairs windows, building wider sills, and creating finishing surround trim. Please see The Decorating Challenge on our other site for pictures of the built-in window bench that he finished this summer.

Merry Christmas!!

We're trying a new blog format. I found the other one really tough to add pictures to, and that's really important to me. I'm not going to erase the other one, but I'll probably just add to this one. I'll also keep the photo albums on the other one.

So here are a few Christmas photos:

Murri on his "cat nap mat"

Our Christmas tree

We'll see how it goes. I might go back to the old one!

Have a very Merry Christmas, and all the best for 2007.