A Love-Hate-Relationship

Actually, you can delete the item ‚love’ in the heading, at least from my side... I have taken several trips to the customs offices this year already. One in May on the occasion that my quilt “Illuminated” was returned to me early, taken out of the show “Beyond Comfort” after some crew had managed to lose the plug and adapter. I had to prove that it was mine indeed, that it had not been out of the country for longer than three years, and then I was questioned on why I had not had export papers done when I sent it in the first place. I did not have to pay taxes or fine or customs, though. But they told me I should make sure I got export papers from them the next time I sent a quilt to non-EU countries. At that point, I told them that I would be expecting a second quilt from this same exhibition later on.

In August, I had bought a few printing stencils and a necklace made from old glass beads via the TAFA-List, which were sent without a proof of purchase or value. In order to retrieve this I had to go to customs twice because they would not accept my paperwork the first time, and I had to bring proof of the actual amount of payment. I had to pay slightly over 12 euros VAT on this occasion. (Not to mention the gas money for two trips.)

Today I went to retrieve that second quilt from Beyond Comfort, “Yellow Line”, which again had been caught.

My husband has already asked me who this boyfriend is at the customs office...

To be correct  – by now I know them all, the guys who work there. One is friendly ok, he is the one who took care of me and "Illuminated" earlier this year. One is efficient, strict, and correct, but not necessarily assuming you are trying to cheat him personally by millions of dollars when importing three printing stencils and a glass-bead-necklace, he took care of me and my little items on my second trip in one day in August. The third one, however, is small, very young compared to the other two, hyper-adhering to rules and regulations, and definitely trying to give everybody who has to come there a hard time. He took care of me on my first trip in August, and I had the bad luck of hitting onto him again today. The friendly one was present, too, but did not interfere in the process after they had agreed which one of them was going ‘to do her’ (except for sending me an eye-rolling look behind his colleague’s back when he was giving me a hard time). I brought all the same papers as I did when negotiating release of "Illuminated", thinking that that would be sufficient, after all, it had worked once. This included a catalogue from the exhibition, a print-out of the email telling me when to send the quilt so that it would arrive in the States on time, and my proof of identity. I also repeated the story from May, and stated that this was the second quilt I had mentioned then and that I did again not have export papers...

At first he questioned my explanation about a quilt going to an exhibition – but his colleague remembered me from May and spoke on my behalf. Then he questioned the validity of the e-mail message because it was sent such that the curator’s name appeared in the sender and the recipient’s space as she had bcc’ed it correctly to prevent every artist in the exhibition getting everybody else’s mail addresses. Then he said this didn’t prove anything at all about the time the quilt had been out of the country (it explicitly stated that the show premiered in August 2011 in Birmingham). What was the worth of the item? Why had I not got export papers?

I felt almost as badly as approx. 25 years ago when I was trying to enter the US in Dallas with an open return ticket – on that occasion I was retained by immigration for over an hour, questioning me because they thought I would go and catch myself an American husband. My parents were waiting outside and getting worried whether I had actually been on the plane.

Actually, I think the customs officer today didn’t know enough English to completely understand the content of the e-mail message, but I held back my offer of translating it for him, telling myself to not let this get out of hand. Finally, he graciously agreed to treat the packages as a ‘gift’, but warned me yet again about the export papers. And that next time he would be the one to estimate the worth of the item and that it would then be taxed accordingly. Again I bit my tongue and did not ask how much he would have estimated the item in question today...

Just how could I manage to not have to deal with this particular guy anymore? I certainly don't know enough about this kind of psychological warfare that these people have been trained in.

Trying to resurrect "Illuminated"

Do you have a favorite quilt of yours? I do. 'Illuminated', a white combination of silk, plastic meshing, pearls, corals, organza threads and an LED-string.

It was born out of the challenge in Ste. Marie-aus-Mines that called for combination of different materials. Can’t remember the exact title of that challenge... I entered – but I had managed to misread or rather, misinterpret, the size restrictions, it was too big, and didn’t get in. As Linda Colsh said during the opening of the exhibition that year, “Size does matter.” I understood that as a direct reference to my quilt and am sure I blushed noticeably, except that nobody was looking at me at that particular moment...

However, “Illuminated” got another chance as I turned around and entered it in SAQA’s “Beyond Comfort”. Not thinking about the troubles this would cause.

At the opening in Birmingham, the plug for the light string started smouldering in its adapter, and the quilt got turned off in order to prevent NEC from burning down. I went ahead and got another plug and adapter for the US, shipped them to Bill Redeker, and then it seemed ok for quite a while. Until earlier this year when I was told by the curator that there had again been ‘some problems’ with 'Illuminated'. A little later I learned that somehow the plug had been lost. How can you lose the the plug to a quilt with clearly electrical special effects right when you are packing it? Beyond my comfortable understanding! 

In any case, it was either show the quilt without its lights on -  or remove it from the show. I opted for the latter because I did not want people standing in front of it and laughing at the fact that it wasn’t lit.

So 'Illuminated' came home in May. I had to go to the customs office and have a bit of a discussion with the customs people who really wanted me to pay customs for my own quilt. They did tell me how to avoid these problems next time when I send a quilt to an international exhibit – get a stamped export permit when sending it, which would then count as proof upon its return. If it returns within three years. Or just declare material value of under €200. Really learned something there on the side!

At home, I first tried to take a transformer from another LED-string, but it made a flickering light that was decidedly unpleasant to look at. 

To be honest – when substituting the first plug after the accident in Birmingham, I had simply taken a transformer from another LED-string and sent that together with a new adapter. Nobody ever complained about the light quality, but then perhaps nobody noticed simply because nobody knew that it was supposed to be different? Did anybody who reads this blog see the exhibition "Beyond Comfort" somewhere before January this year, and did you notice anything about the steadiness of the light? 

I nevertheless put the quilt in the exhibition of my quilt group in May, and a visitor told me the flickering might be due to the fact that this transformer was not for the correct number of lights in the string. Get another transformer, and everything should be fine, that's what he suggested.

I went back to the electrical supplies store where I had bought the string in the first place. The problem is that I had bought that string at least four years ago, and did not know the name of the brand anymore. They took note of the number of the string as noted on the tag, and have been trying to get the right transformer since then. The first one again made a flickering light. The second one had the wrong connecting plug. The third one arrived yesterday, and again the light has a certain flickering quality.

Don’t know what I should do now. I think they are probably getting fed up with me at the store, although they have been very polite and definitely tried hard. I am getting embarassed to go back, though.

What have I learned from this? Don’t make quilts with LED-strings integrated into them – unless you plan to keep them next to you all the time. Otherwise you are bound to get into trouble. Or only attach the lights loosely so it might be easy to substitute with another. And don't give favorite quilts out of the house, keep 'em with you all the time.

No lights, no machines, no fabric...

Yesterday I received news from Eileen Doughty of SAQA that my quilt „Illuminated“, which is supposed to be still traveling with „Beyond Comfort“ has stopped functioning. The lights aren’t working anymore. After it had started with problems at the first venue in Birmingham in 2011, we had agreed that it would not be hung again should the lights fail again. I don’t want it to stick in people’s minds as the Un-Illuminated quilt when it is shown in the catalogue in its full glory. So the decision that Illuminated will no longer be on display with the rest of the exhibition is mine, full well. But I am very sad about this nevertheless. It is one of my favorite quilts of those I have made. I just hope it will be back to ‘functioning’ or at least repairable when it returns to that European voltage that the LED-lights were made for, and doesn’t have to live with an adapter anymore. Otherwise it would be quite a challenge to take off that string of lights and attach a new one, probably infeasible. Not exactly a good start to a week...

Add to that the fact that my sewing machines needed to go for a check-up, both at the same time. The “little one” had been for wellness in the fall already and I thought I had a safe backup with it, when the big Bernina, after 8 months of intensive usage started telling me that it wanted to be looked at. But when my son and I unpacked the little one to sew a costume for him for the upcoming carnival it kept leaving out stitches. So both of them went on a little retreat. I did get a substitute, but because it didn’t come with a quarter-inch-foot nor with a darning foot (and of course it doesn’t take the ones I have) I doubt that I will be using it a lot. There are plenty of other things that need to be done. Like basting a quilt so that it is ready for quilting when the machines come back.

Play of Lines XXXII being basted

Nevertheless, I do feel a bit amputated.

And, thirdly, the fabric that I ordered to start dyeing the January collection of the fabric club hasn’t arrived yet. It was supposed to be shipped at the beginning of last week, and I had planned to start dyeing yesterday. When I called yesterday, they said they would send it out right away. So perhaps Wednesday. Which means it will be Thursday before I can go ahead and start dyeing.

Beyond „Beyond Comfort“, „Color Improvisations“ and Carrefour Ste. Marie-aux-Mines

Currently I have five quilts travelling in internationally oriented exhibits.

Two of them are with SAQA’s “Beyond Comfort”, which will next be ssen at the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, from January 13 through March 10, 2013.

Two of them just had an appearance at the Alexandra Palace Knitting and Stitching Show to – “Color Improvisations” was in London, and is now scheduled to go to Dublin and then Neumünster in Northern Germany in December, before going on to other international venues. The fifth quilt is my jury member’s contribution to this year’s Contest at the Carrefour Ste. Marie-aux-Mines, which will be travelling with the exhibition for a whole year before it gets returned.

And of course, I had that big show in Ste. Marie-aux-Mines in September, so overall I guess I could already now say it has been a successful year.

However, I did not get into any of the other shows to which I submitted entries throughout the year. Neither EQA nor Quilt Triennale nor SAQA’s Wide Horizons III, nor Schweinfurth’s Quilts=Art=Quilts, and, most recently, Quilt National. Now with QN I didn’t get my hopes up high to begin with, having heard about the numbers of entries, which reduces probability to get selected even further than in any other big event. And I’m in good company when looking at all the people I have heard from who got declined as well. I think that might make a wonderful exhibit – “We did not get in”! (And, of course, it raises VERY high expectations as to the quality of the show as such, when all those well-known people were rejected.)  And after my experience as a jury member at the Carrefour, I have heard that I have been the cause of indignation in others, whom I (well, partly I) rejected...

Conclusions from this? Keep trying, don’t take it personally, and look for other chances and possibilities to exhibit.

"Beyond Comfort" - catalogue arrived in Germany!

Yesterday I finally received my complimentary copy of the catalogue for the “Beyond Comfort” exhibit, in which I have two quilts traveling right now. As I had not been able to go and see the exhibit at its opening in venue in Birmingham due to a mistake in planning our family holidays this year, I had been eagerly waiting for the catalogue because I wanted to know what “company” I was being shown in.

At first I was surprised because somehow it had not really registered with me that it is a select show of thirty quilts – even greater the honor to be one of the three artists represented with more than one quilt!

When sitting down to look at the catalogue in detail I was struck by the variety of the pieces included. After all, despite the fact that the challenge had been to move beyond the comfort zone of one’s artmaking until then, the artwork still had to meet the definition of “art quilt” as stated on SAQA’s homepage.

I tried to decide on a favorite – excluding my own ones, because, of course, I’m biased about those. But I couldn’t make up my mind completely.

I love the linework in ‘Mozart’ by Lynne Morin (all pictures taken from the catalogue - forgive the quality, my fault):

I love the approach of ‘When Fog Lifts’ by Tamar Drucker – "use your scrap bag, it’s all you’ve got!" And I was thrilled by Sharon Bell’s two pieces, 'Cascade', and 'Streaming'. Both of these capture the themes so clearly, but the simplicity and purity of design speak so beautifully for themselves that they would be just as powerful if they came without a title.

I sincerely regret that I did not get to see the exhibit in Birmingham, and who knows whether I will be able to see it anywhere at all...

Thanks to Eileen Doughty who curated the exhibit, and to Deidre Adams for the beautiful catalogue design.

The catalogue can be ordered via SAQA's store. I certainly am going to get a few copies to give away to friends.