So I've spent the last month collecting sturdy boxes, plus lots of tape, the heavy duty stuff in a holder with a toothed edge which cuts the end and holds the tag end from dropping back onto the main roll so you don't have to fight all over again to get it up and usable, and that's if it doesn't split in the process. There's been the sorting, starting in two categories: books we're keeping, which basically get stuffed into any box that will hold them but we can still lift, and the "necessary" parts of my SW pottery collection. Of course that means lots and lots of bubble wrap, large bubble and small bubble. I went to the store and bought a large roll of each kind. They're both used up, though I have lots of little pieces from other things I've been going through that I pull out to use again.
In order to reach the back of my bedroom closet, I've had to clear several boxes of rocks up off the floor. We won't mention pulling the muscle in my arm from that. A few have gone into the front garden to help keep down weeds and make the dirt pretty. The other ones have gotten donated to the club for the members to use as they teach or learn lapidary... with a couple exceptions. I do admit I wonder however: why on earth did I separate my rock slabs, planned at purchase for lapidary use until I got distracted by copper, then sterling, and now glass, with bubble wrap? I can't explain it, but I'm grateful there are still some bubbles left in the stuff. It's still great for the bitty things needing cushioning, or stuffing in a small shopping bag to fill a large space inside a tote to keep things from sifting during loading and travel.
I hit a milestone today: all the pottery which is going north has been bubble wrapped and packed. It had to wait a couple extra weeks to get finished. I wanted to see what I could do to find somebody to handle the other pieces, some of which have significant value, at least in my world. None of this hundreds of years old, thousands-of-dollars-a-piece stuff. Let the Heard Museum have that... and pay the insurance premiums. I have collected some pieces from more recent potters who have gone our into their local areas, scouted for sherds and clay deposits, and effectively reinvented their pueblo's traditions, teaching others as well. All those are being kept.
We did have one fellow in during the first sale, looking for pottery. He knew which were the good pieces, but when he heard MY price to sell them, even discounted from what I paid, let me know he wasn't my buyer. He was strictly a middle man and needed his slice of the cut. Nope, not my problem. I decided to try to sell them myself, starting with the little, inexpensive stuff. The first set I put out sold in a snap, one person taking the whole lot. OK, bigger and better for next time then. And so on, saving the best for the estate sale. But in the process of his looking through stuff, I decided that a couple he showed extra interest in should go into the "must keep" list. He even commented that they should be passed on in the family.
The wait to pack wasn't all that bad. It worked well with other circumstances. I finally got photos taken of all the rest of the pottery, which I could then email up to Steph and ask what she was interested in. We'd discussed it when she came to visit last spring, and she had interest but wanted to give it some thought. So once mine was packed, I finished the photos, and sent them up with minimal descriptions, like "the two shiny brown ones in front are from ______ Pueblo", or "this shelf is all _____ and note the fish and turtle effigies." She answerd promptly with a request for both a Hopi and a Santo Domingo piece, and regrets that she didn't think she'd truly be able to enjoy more pieces the way they deserved. We'll see what she - and others - think once they are up north and on view. Somebody should inherit, right? Maybe several.
The other delay was getting bubble wrap. I'd used up everything already, and knew I'd need a lot more. So I mail ordered a HUGE roll, two feet wide instead of the standard one foot, in a 125 foot long roll. Huge box! With the bubble wrap still inside, it made a great sign box for the driveway to advertise our sale, visible from 3 sides to traffic. Now that the tail ends of cleanup from that are mostly done, it was time to open the box and use the contents. The huge box can advertise future sales, then maybe get packed with pillows and linens or such.
It's great bubble wrap, especially for those larger pieces. There's just one, significant, problem.
It's not perforated. Not each foot, not in a yard, not in 6 feet sections. Nowhere! So it has to be torn or cut. Tearing means it winds up going across in a diagonal pattern no matter how diligantly I fight to keep it straight. A scissors not only dulls instantly from cutting plastic, just like a knife would, but gets tossed aside after about three tries to cut through the stuff out of sheer frustration. Hey, great for paper, even now. Not bubblewrap however. I suspect this roll of stuff is made for industrial use where first, it rarely gets cut at all, and second, they have special tools for the job and no care how straight it gets cut. Hmmm, maybe a hot bar to melt it apart?
But seriously, why couldn't the seller simply had it perfed every so often? Or in the description mentioned that it wouldn't be?
If it hadn't cost so much, I'd think seriously about packing it as a unit, and once we're up north, dividing it up among the grandkids to play with. Their parents can fight with making portion sizes! Then again, used or not, during the move, all of it has to go somewhere anyway once we're relocated.
Hey, you in the younger generation with your families: Guess what everybody's getting for presents next year!!!!! I could even tape it into bundles so everybody'd think there was something inside! Wouldn't that be fun?
Maybe I should actually put a set of earplugs inside each, eh?
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