Continuing on from my last post on rapid prototyping…

Five of my last batch of blobs sat looking at me, waiting for string, and a curious thought entered my head.  They were buttons.  Can you put buttons in jewellery show? I asked Raewyn: Are buttons jewellery? She responded with a page from a Warwick Freeman book on buttons. Of course they were.

My next conundrum: could I charge as much for buttons as I did for slugs on strings? My first instinct was that they should be worth less because the lacked a string, but then I was giving away free strings anyway, so of course they had to be the same price. I think the fact that they were going to be decoration on clothing made them feel less worthy than a pendant.

I ran out of string at a time when I needed more so I popped into the fishing shop on my way to deliver the second batch to Masterworks and quickly made another 20 free ‘string theories’ in the kombi, parked on Mt Eden Road.

Test driving the string theory:

19 slugs and 2 thirty monsters on strings, 5 buttons and 4 free string theories. Although the pricelist said they were free, nobody took a free string until I prompted Cath to go get one. She returned a few minutes later asking about the free string. Was she really allowed to just grab one? Was I sure? Yes, I said.  She went back across the crowded room and got a string.

With the first one taken, boom, the strings were gone. I asked Suzette to replace the strings and boom within a few minutes they were gone again.  The strings had started populating the room. Raewyn had to give her one away to someone who really really wanted it so I made her another one at dinner.

It was good. I was happy. But it hadn’t gone quite as I had thought it might. People are too polite to take a string from a gallery installation.

The next night at the Gray Street Workshop artist talk at Toi Tu I analised my findings with Renee.

• I suspected that once the free strings started infiltrating the room, nobody contemplated purchasing a pendant.
• Was the price too high? No, probably not.
• Should all the blobs be up on the wall and the strings be hanging from a hook? You can get a free string and/or you can get a blob (That was my original idea for Platina but I thought this would put too much pressure on the gallery/purchaser to string it themselves – and I wouldnt have control on the final knotting).
• Our conclusion: unstringed would be best. I could suggest how it should be strung, but the new owner had ultimate control
• Just before the Gray Street talk began Renee came up with a pearler: A whole lot of strings for a whole lot of things – that could be your title.Yup, that could be my title, I quickly wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget.