Monday, December 14, 2020

Right answers

There were so many good questions, and interesting remarks in the last post, here is an attempt to come up with some answers. The very first is the one that sets my teeth on edge. Buy/sell. What is it at an art show?

Have you ever been at a local show and seen someone come by with just the cutest thing they'd purchased. And then you saw more and more people with the same object, then you saw the booth where you could buy them. Probably an earnest young couple, one in the back making more and one at the street side, selling, with stock piled half way up the outside of the booth, if "it" happened to be big.

Do you remember garden sculptures made of old garden tools? Or watering fountains and sprinklers made of copper tubing. Someone somewhere probably fashioned the first, but by season's end they had become "buy/sell", popular in garden stores. By the next season they were in WallMart. 

These operatives bought container loads of stock, and even sent operatives out to half a dozen shows a weekend. When shabby chic first came around, it probably began at craft shows. I once exhibited next to a young woman with a booth of battered watering cans, painted, and interesting three pronged trowels, chattering with customers about scouring the back roads of New York for these items. During one long break in the action, I became aware of her on the phone with someone, laughing that her husband was in China as they spoke, sourcing another container.

Those of us who honestly produced our craft cringed at the sight of buy/sell that got past the sponsor of the show. We generally asked the buy/sell exhibitor not be invited back next year, and they were not, but there were two more to fill the shoes.

About the plastic barrier on my window: this morning I scrunched down in bed, waiting for the alarm to ring, and listened to the sparrows calling. I could hear them, a bit muffled. They are loud and noisy fellows.

I bought a Roomba, probably ten or twelve years ago. It was the first year I thought it just past prohibitively expensive. They still weren't advertising on TV, just in magazines. I think I paid almost four hundred dollars for the machine. But, you could sit in our living room at any time and watch animal hair floating. I thought it would be a good investment. It was a family Christmas extravaganza.

Every room on the ground floor level had a hard surface, wood or tile. There was a minute step up between the wood and tile surfaces; the Roomba could go down, but needed a boost up. Watching the little fellow work was more entertaining than TV, and we even set it to business for guests.

And then it quit working. Emptying the dirt reservoirs made no change. Reading deep in the instructions, there was much more to be cleaned. In essence, the thing had to be disassembled. Much cleaning was involved. It was beyond the interest of any of the family it was purchased for, and beyond the skill of the person who bought it. I gave it to an engineer friend to learn about how it navigated.

And finally, what is a Bazingo? It is a tool I bought from a wood worker friend at a show, and brought home for my brother-in-law. It had a different name, that I don't remember. The wood worker moaned that every man he sold one to probably went home and made a dozen. I said that's exactly what I knew Tom would do.


The original name was lost in translation, and Tom christened it Bazingo. It is the best back scratcher I've ever known. It hung in the kitchen in the old house, by the Hoosier.

 

33 comments:

  1. I have never heard of that buy/sell issue. So, some sellers are actually corporate, or leaning that way? I think about a Roomba sometimes with the cat hair. Maybe Mari could ride around on it? ;)

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  2. I did wonder what a Bazingo was, thanks for clearing that up. I still have my bamboo back scratcher that I bought at a market stall 27 years ago. I think my local once-a-month market has a few buy/sell stalls amongst the genuine I-made-these stalls. I rarely go to this market anymore since there is never anything new to see.

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  3. I would hate to have to do without my Roomba. It is almost as valuable as my dishwasher.

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  4. It seems that there is always one more gimmick to show up on a sale.

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  5. The buy/sell people have NO place in a craft show - or so I believe.
    I am grateful to have Bazingo cleared up - essentially a backscratching thingamajig.
    I hear you on the floating cat fur. Years back I had to take a teaspoon of the contents of the vacuum cleaner to an allergist. I essentially took him in a clump of dirty cat fur (and for the record of the ten most common allergens dog and cat fur are the only ones I don't have problems with).

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  6. Some craft markets here forbid visitors from taking photographs. The stall holders are very reluctant to let ‘buyers’ pick up and examine their goods.....they know the ‘buyers’ are making keen mental observations and will be churning the articles out themselves very quickly.

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  7. My closest friend here has two big dogs and a log haired cat, she bought two Roombas in a row and finally decided they were simply not worth it. Here we have a cental vac, no pets. We are not too happy about the central vac getting into corners and about to check out adding an ordinary vacuum cleaner as well!

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  8. Buy/sell makes me even gladder that I switched from craft shows to "bear shows"... no being told my bears were too expensive... no having to explain what an artist bear was and no worries about seeing copies of my designs!! Of course no physical shows anymore... all my bear shows are online!!

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  9. At least I have learnt what a Roombas was, cute little thing that vacuums and frightens the pets!

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  10. Thanks for filling us in on what a Bazingo is! I can't live without my back scratcher but I like the look of the Bazingo much more!

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  11. Hari OM
    Oh I need a bazingo badly... and I have to re-read that last post, because I understood the 'friend' to have bought something of yours which was the wrong size and just needed you to sell it to get her money back... but it seems she had a bundle of other goods, so yeah, I'd have said no, too. I gave up attending general 'craft' shows years back when I started to see so many of much the same thing. They had become, in fact, bazaars. YAM xx

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    1. ...ah, I see that you actually refer to the event in question as a bazaar, actually... am all afuzz, as you may understand... Yxx

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    2. Everyone needs a back scratcher - call it what you will.

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  12. A back scratcher - now I could use more than one of those. You can't have too many. Right now the one I have works just fine; she's called Miriam.

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  13. I don't know Roomba. I could look it up, but I rather like the mystery at this point. :)

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  14. I'm happy to know what a Bazingo is. It would look great sticking out the top of a Christmas stocking.

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  15. Craft show organisers should be aware of the buy'sell operators and ban them...even evict them if they manage to get in regardless.

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  16. Every artisan feels the pain that you describe at the mass production of junk. I understand how frustrated you must have been.
    I want a roomba. They now know when their charge is low and go plug themselves in.
    As for backscratchers- I find that the plastic pasta server works better than any other thing I've ever used. Of course, I've never tried a Bazingo. Please don't tell Tom I said that.

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  17. Thanks for filling me in on your roomba experience!

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  18. Dilly-Dog wigs out at the mere sound of the vacuum cleaner. She'd probably happily rip a roomba to shreds just to show it who's boss around here.

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  19. I have a collapsible back scratcher for years. Does a fine job and isn't it interesting that once you talk about back scratching you want to scratch your own? I just did. LOL

    And yes, I have exhibited at craft fairs and been appalled at the non-artisans allowed to set up with their Chinese tat.

    XO
    WWW

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  20. I had a really nice bamboo back scratcher with a decorative handle and then one of the grandkids broke it. don't remember which one. I have a replacement now but it's not nearly as pretty as the broken on. just functional. we bought a cheapo version of the roomba, cost all of $140 and it worked fine until I removed the long roller brush that scoots the stuff in the bin, cleaned it thoroughly and put it back exactly as it was before and in fact will only fit back in one way but it no longer scoots the dirt and pet hair into the bin. it all just collects on the brush.

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  21. I think the main use of a Roomba is to provide rides for cats. Some of them believe it's their toy. Dogs are more likely to look on the Roomba as an electrically driven mailman.

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  22. That looks like a handy back scratcher.

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  23. The Art Shows I've been to don't have a craft item in sight. I'd like a Roomba, but don't they eat the fringe on rugs? :) Shabby Chic? I lived it for too many years. The alleys in OB were wonderful sources for what ever one needed.

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  24. Buy/sell is not what I thought. Thanks for the info.

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  25. It is hard to fine craft shows with hand made crafts. Bazingo - That's new to me. My Roomba worked for a few years and then it didn't. Not worth the $$$.

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  26. Thank you for answering questions. It's all interesting. I have two Roombas, both going strong after years of use. Sad about yours. It must have been a Lemon Roomba.

    Love,
    Janie

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  27. I've never heard or seen a Roomba. Now I need to google it!

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  28. Replies
    1. There's also a lawnmowing version of it. You sit and sip your cool drink in the shade while it travels back and forth cutting the grass. At least that's the idea.

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  29. Roombas are a rarity in the UK. I don't know anyone who has one. I wonder how efficient they are - presumably there are lots of nooks and crannies they can't get into?

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  30. Thank you for alerting me to the real source of Bezos’s wealth. Wonder how much tax he pays?

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