Riverside Printing is my friendly printer!

When I decided that I really wanted to publish this book, I wanted to go local because Pueblo needs the money as bad as anyone else.  So I called several printing companies in search of one who did books and that included the "perfect binding" as opposed to the spiral.  I found one, took my info in the them and they promised a price.  Two days later I stopped in and the boss was still not in.  Couple more days and a couple more phone calls and still nothing.  After almost two weeks I renewed my quest.  And that is when I found Riverside Printing!

Here we are right on the corner of 9th and Elizabeth.  Riverside Printing. 

And here is Evelyn, who took my order, gave me a price and told   me all the little things I needed to know to make this book a reality!  Very nice lady.  I left my little flash drive with her and toddled on home, still raw from my first rejection.  Hopefully this one would want my money!

                                             

I was absolutely amazed when the phone rang that evening and Evelyn had a price for me!  I was astounded at the price, but then we discussed a larger quantity and the price began to fall.  My hat is off the that woman!  And then again when I ordered the books and said I would like a proof copy, I sat back to wait.  Soon I received a call for my original art work as it needed a bit of a tweek.  Emailed that over and sat back to wait.  Nothing on Friday, so I figured it would be another one of those deals.  Silly me!

The phone rang on Saturday afternoon.  Lady named Susie was at the golf course ready to tee off and had my proof in the car and if I would run by and pick it up she could get on with her game. I did not know that anyone in this town actually did business on Saturday!  So off I went and picked it up and the rest is history.   The pictures and barcode were perfect.  Inside looked good (I have since found a booboo, but that is my bad.) so we were good to go. 

I picked up 10 copies on Friday and those are already gone.  So I am waiting for Susie to crank up the presses and then I will launch the website and very soon you will have your copy in your hands!

One of my dreams has come true.

WHOOPS!!!



It is the annual Handweavers Guild of Pueblo Sale at the Vail Hotel!

I would like to cordially invite you to the 26th Annual Handwoven Holiday Sale

November 5th – 13th

10:00 A.M. – 6:00 P.M. Daily

Historic Vail Hotel, 217 S Grand Ave, Pueblo, CO

(Union & Grand Downtown)

The sale will showcase one-of-a-kind hand-crafted items, including handwoven kitchen and bath towels, table linens, rugs, blankets, tapestries, hats, bags, wall art, jackets, scarves, wraps, basketry, gourds, exquisite pottery and jewelry, handmade cards, ornaments, roving along with hand-spun, hand-dyed yarns and more…..There will be demonstrations of weaving and spinning at 11:00 and 2:00 daily.

If you ever just wondered how to go from the first picture to the second  picture your are going to get your chance to learn.

All you got to do is show up at the Vail Hotel on Friday the 12 of November at 11:00 AM. Well any time between 11 and 2 cause I am going to be there to give you a demonstration. Oh these demonstrations are so much fun! Did you happen to pick up that the first 5 letters of the word spell DEMON? I have been told by the avante guard that I am to behave like a lady! That failing I am not to get too far out of line! I am not sure that they told everybody this, but they might have. There are a couple other women there that we need to caution from time to time and the one in particular knows who she is!

I guess what I am telling you is this sale runs a full week and we have us a good time! Not rowdy, mind you, because I would never do anything to embarrass my dear friends, but this is an event that you need to attend. We work all year getting ready for this sale and there is beautiful workmanship in all our products. All I can say is it is a very good thing that some of the members work harder than I do! Could not pay the hall rental on my meager showing, but I have my lotions and soap there, so that buys me a spot.

And then there is the table over by the door with cookies, coffee and hot apple cider! These people are not only damn good weavers, knitters, gourd decorators, artisans, craftsmen, but accomplished bakers as well. And trust me on this, they all try to out do each other so there will be some cookies on that table that will make Betty Crocker green with envy!

So I hope to see some of you there and when you show up be sure and tell somebody that Lou Mercer sent you! Got to get my brownie points in, you know. A good time will be had by all!

John Clay, my friend in Beulah, is now a stone cutter !

See this little fellow here?  Remember all the beautiful wood carvings he did, like the tree stump he made into a beautiful dragon up on Pine Drive?  Well, guess what the little fellow is doing now?  Stone!  He is making some of the most beautiful pieces of art I have ever seen and he is doing it by chipping away at stone.  A regular Micheal Angelo if I ever saw one.

And do you see that big smile?  He is actually glad to see me!  This is taken at the Beulah Arts and Crafts Fair that I have been trying to get to for 30 years and never made it yet, but this was the day Val and I went up and just got lucky!  Serendipity, they call that!

(Sam, if you look real close on the right that is half of Melinda's face.)

So I went by his shop and checked out the Hawk he is working on.  In my usual haste I did not visit with John about what kind of stone this is.  I do recall a lady who had a gravel pit telling me that Beulah has some on the most beautiful marble in the world and that if I needed any she had access.  So from that conversation and the feel of this, I would say it is some kind of marble.  I do know Beulah has pink marble also.  I have seen some of John's stuff that is much lighter.  I am going to just publish a bunch of his work one of these days.

This is the back side of that Hawk.  I do not know how much more John has to do on this, but it is very smooth.  This just amazes me to no end!  I know rocks are very hard and I can not imagine how that man can shape something like that out of anything that hard, but you can rest assured I am going to visit that boy in the very near future and come away a much wiser woman!

But still I go back to this!  This is the Dragon's Nest that he started last Spring.  This is made out of a tree root and still needs a lot of work to be the work of art that John saw the first time he touched this.  I am going to nag him into submission on finishing this thing if I have to buy it myself!

 

Now I know I have once more given you a report and raised more questions than I have given answers.  Bad Lou!  Some day I will remember to take the notebook with prepared questions, write down the answers legibly, remember where the notebook is at when I write......There is just so much to do and so little time!

But anyway, hats off to John Clay!!  A Beulah Artisan, Stone cutter, Wood Carver, friend, handyman and just all around great guy! This man is going to make his mark on the world and I will be here to say "I found him first!"