The errand was going to be a breeze; drop off the It's About Time artwork to Urban Arts and Crafts. They will use their handy dandy Thermofax machine to burn 2 screens while we are getting a workout and then the rest of the day will unfold just as we planned...ummm...no.
I walked into Urban and asked for them to burn the screens (which I have done for the last 4 years for various projects). The owner steps up and politely replies, "oh, I sold my machine about 3 months ago." To which I respond, "No, oh no!!" If I had said what I was really thinking I would have been escorted from the store and I couldn't have used that kind of language on a family blog :( I asked if they had any leads for where I might find another merchant with that machine and they gave me the name of a screen printer, down the rabbit hold I went. I called them immediately and they had no ability to help me. ACK!
A panic rose up inside me. I quickly reach inside my brain for the an internal GPS that I hope can get me to the quickest route for solving this problem. Here is what we know... It is Wednesday. Many people silkscreen. Tomorrow is screening day. Many people silkscreen. Many have RSVP'd. Many people silkscreen. I don't have the supplies to burn my own screen right now. Many people silkscreen, I must find those people and beg them to burn screens for me. We pulled into the Community Center and Hawk went into to workout while I stayed in the car and burned calories with my index finger.
After 27 phones calls and an amazing amount of support from a community of screeners that I never knew existed, I found a woman in Independence who was willing to do this job on short notice. I found her after I had consciously given up panicking, found a lucky penny on the ground, and decided that, if I had to, I would call everyone in the group to say there would be no screening on Thursday.
Her business was in the new Englewood's Art District and I knew it was going to be an interesting exchange when her shop window was filled with treasure chests of various sizes that were all embedded with old jewelry and other found objects. When you held your face close to the window and blocked the reflection with your hands you could see that she also sold t-shirts. She too seemed to be working on priorities.
I dropped off the art. We had a great conversation about art from found objects, Lucas, Kansas and the various uses for E6000. Oh , yeah. We also talked about silkscreening. She agreed to do the job, taught me a few things about how best to prep my transparencies next time around and promised to have the screens done by 10 am Thursday.
I jumped back in the car to head home; and to revisit my own list of priorities. It was a great afternoon. FYI - we got the costume done... well almost.
