Brown
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2001
- Messages
- 12,984
Today I celebrate the completion of my project that memorialized The Amazing Meeting 2. Silly me, I thought the project would take an hour or two to complete. As it happened, it took longer. Much longer.
The project is a display of photographs and artifacts from my visit to Las Vegas in January of this year. The centerpiece is the "Holy Relic," seen here:
This item is a cloth used by Penn and Teller during a performance at TAM2. In addition to the cloth, I have pictures to verify its provenance, including photos of the relic in performance and in the presence of the three signatories. (Thanks to Ray Beiersdra... Beiesford... Beiersdorfer. There!)
Other artifacts in the display include the golden envelope and a spoon used by Ian Rowland in his performance, a gift to me from Penn and Teller, a hunk of amethyst, a TAM2 brochure, and ticket stubs from various Vegas shows (Penn and Teller, Lance Burton, Mac King and Blue Man Group). Photos include sights from the conference, celebrities (many of them posing with me), sights from Vegas, and photos of Penn's home.
The practical problems associated with assembling the display seemed to become more complicated as time passed. The first major concern was finding a frame that could hold everything. Conventional frames didn't seem to have much promise. I checked into getting a custom-built frame, and found it would cost an estimated ... *cough* ... seven hundred dollars.
A close friend suggested that I get a "shadowbox," a suggestion that turned out to be excellent. Unfortunately, it took me a long time to find a shadowbox that was the right size. Arts and crafts stores carry them, but I hade to visit several such stores before finding one of suitable dimensions. As it happened, the size I selected was perfect!
The next hurdle involved finding a way to mount the relic in the shadowbox. I eventually bought a small curtain rod and modified it to fit in the shadowbox. Modifying the curtain rod, mounting it and adjusting the relic to fit in the box were challenging feats in their own right.
Then there was the problem of photos. I needed to make copies of some of my own photos and needed to print and assemble photos that others had kindly supplied. Easier said than done. Mounting the photos in the shadowbox also presented a challenge, but I eventually adopted a solution that was, I think, quite clever. I used hidden clasps, rather than adhesive, to attach some of the photos to the relic.
It took me many hours to crop the photos, arrange the artifacts and assemble the whole display. Naturally, once I assembed it, I dicovered that I made a mistake and I had to take the damned thing apart again to fix it.
But now I am confident that it is, after nearly ten months, finished. The only remaining challenge is to find a way to hang it on one of my walls, but I am willing to postpone that challenge for a while.
The project is a display of photographs and artifacts from my visit to Las Vegas in January of this year. The centerpiece is the "Holy Relic," seen here:
This item is a cloth used by Penn and Teller during a performance at TAM2. In addition to the cloth, I have pictures to verify its provenance, including photos of the relic in performance and in the presence of the three signatories. (Thanks to Ray Beiersdra... Beiesford... Beiersdorfer. There!)
Other artifacts in the display include the golden envelope and a spoon used by Ian Rowland in his performance, a gift to me from Penn and Teller, a hunk of amethyst, a TAM2 brochure, and ticket stubs from various Vegas shows (Penn and Teller, Lance Burton, Mac King and Blue Man Group). Photos include sights from the conference, celebrities (many of them posing with me), sights from Vegas, and photos of Penn's home.
The practical problems associated with assembling the display seemed to become more complicated as time passed. The first major concern was finding a frame that could hold everything. Conventional frames didn't seem to have much promise. I checked into getting a custom-built frame, and found it would cost an estimated ... *cough* ... seven hundred dollars.
A close friend suggested that I get a "shadowbox," a suggestion that turned out to be excellent. Unfortunately, it took me a long time to find a shadowbox that was the right size. Arts and crafts stores carry them, but I hade to visit several such stores before finding one of suitable dimensions. As it happened, the size I selected was perfect!
The next hurdle involved finding a way to mount the relic in the shadowbox. I eventually bought a small curtain rod and modified it to fit in the shadowbox. Modifying the curtain rod, mounting it and adjusting the relic to fit in the box were challenging feats in their own right.
Then there was the problem of photos. I needed to make copies of some of my own photos and needed to print and assemble photos that others had kindly supplied. Easier said than done. Mounting the photos in the shadowbox also presented a challenge, but I eventually adopted a solution that was, I think, quite clever. I used hidden clasps, rather than adhesive, to attach some of the photos to the relic.
It took me many hours to crop the photos, arrange the artifacts and assemble the whole display. Naturally, once I assembed it, I dicovered that I made a mistake and I had to take the damned thing apart again to fix it.
But now I am confident that it is, after nearly ten months, finished. The only remaining challenge is to find a way to hang it on one of my walls, but I am willing to postpone that challenge for a while.
