An Outpouring of Support

SlipCover is going to San Jose!

Hello from a rainbow puddle of gratitude.

Since my last newsletter, I’ve been on a roller coaster of highs (the pop up show in St. Johnsbury was a great success!), lows (thinking I had to drop out of the show at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles!), and loop-de-loops (wow, that’s a LOT of new instagram followers!).

That’s SlipCover in the foreground, Beware Joyless Urgency on the wall, the Regal Ruffle Snake Plushie on the couch, and Our First Lady of the Weight on the wall near the door, all set up at Haven in St. Johnsbury.

The short version is that I had a flash fundraiser and my sculpture, SlipCover, IS going to San Jose California! She will be in the 8th Annual Excellence in Fibers exhibition hosted by Fiber Art Now Magazine, opening September 15th.

If you’d like the long version about how I remade the sculpture for shipping, and then completely bungled the shipping and then somehow un-bungled it again, keep reading.

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Thank you— and now the saga that has consumed me for weeks.

The St. Johnsbury pop-up show was the perfect test run for SlipCover’s new hot bod. I originally made SlipCover by wrapping my friend Monika in duct tape, creating Duct Tape Monika and drafting the dress from that form. Sadly, Duct Tape Monika has deteriorated significantly in the last 18 months, and I needed something sturdy, lightweight, and long-lasting for her cross-country journey and extended stay in San Jose. It took a few weeks and was an unpleasant business, but I fully remade her out of styrofoam. Ultimately, I think the sculpture is even stronger now, and I can trust that she won’t move, slip, or lose the illusion while in a museum for several months.

Styrofoam Monika is the new structure that holds up the dress in SlipCover. It was a huge pain in the ass to make, but the sculpture is better now.

Despite the success of the pop-up show, where I sold many pieces and met many new art fans, I was feeling discouraged about how to promote my work. Two very good (and digitally skilled) friends of mine suggested that I put myself in front of the camera more. They pointed out that though they admire and support my work, they are friends with me, and to share some of my energy and humor with everybody else.

Under this cute outfit—an existential crisis is happening!

“Yeah, sure,” I said, internally cringing. And then a lot happened at once.

I took their advice and posted several videos on instagram about the creation and process behind SlipCover, and they completely took off. My phone blew up with notifications, new followers, and likes. Then, after having spent weeks preparing the sculpture for the San Jose show and telling everyone about it, I tripped over my own misinformation and into a shipping crisis.

For some combination of reasons, this video got a LOT of attention.

Thinking I was being super responsible and proactive, I had called FedEx twice in the past few months, for information and a quote about how to freight ship SlipCover’s armchair from Vermont to California. I was under the impression that it would be about $600. I spent two days building a shipping crate for the chair (with the help of Tom Alberico, a fantastic artist), and called FedEx for same-day pickup, ready to wave goodbye and get back to my summer reading list. But I must have given or received the wrong information, because I was told it would cost $1600! And then FedEx called me and said “Is this art? We Do Not Ship Art!”

Finished building this crate just in time to find out I couldn’t use it…ughh.

I spent the rest of the day trying not to cry and calling different shipping companies, who also wouldn’t ship art or antiques. I stopped saying it was art, and just said it was a used armchair. I was told that yes, it would be around $1600 and it wasn’t their fault if the chair got damaged. I was told “I’ll take your money, but I recommend you don’t do this.” I called professional furniture moving services and was told it could get there late for $2000. The team at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles were so supportive, and we entertained the creative idea of finding a similar chair on the West coast, instead of risking the original. My husband, Ian, and I talked about doing a road trip ourselves, but it didn’t look feasible.

I started to reconcile with not being in the show.

SlipCover in the living room, patiently awaiting news of her future.

Many people suggested uShip, which is a listing service originally created for eBay sellers. I posted a listing that felt like a long shot—it was starting to feel impossible to find a safe option, much less an affordable one. I was about to give up completely when a mom n’ pop shipping service offered me the safe, careful, white glove road trip transport I didn’t think existed, for the same price as an ill-advised freight voyage. With fees and insurance, it would be $1500 to get her there, and $1500 again in a few months to get her back, for a total of $3000.

It was time to reevaluate. I had $700 in sales from the Haven show, $400 in reimbursement available from the museum, and 800 new instagram followers, telling me they were rooting for me and SlipCover. Now, I know that instagram attention is pretty suspect (more on that later), but I decided, as I often say to my peers, to take the damn compliment.

Last Wednesday, I asked for help raising $1900, and through direct Venmo donations and sticker sales, I was at $1500 by the next afternoon. I sold out of stickers and had to order more. I cried several times in a row. We hit the $1900 goal by the next day.

Oh, just crying again while trying to film a thank you video.

SlipCover is being picked up tomorrow. She will open in the Excellence in Fibers show at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles on September 15th, and I’m gonna be there to see it.

This whole debacle-turned-success story has made me think a lot about content creation and audience. Instagram is on my phone and in my hand all the time, and has been full of nonstop hearts and comments and bings and bongs and emojis and compliments in a way I have never experienced in the last eight years I’ve been on the app.

Sending off another batch of stickers, like a real artist with a shop.

The problem with instagram, though, is that all of the work I put into it is at the whim of an algorithm, and I have no actual idea how any post will perform. You, my fine email subscriber, have chosen to receive this newsletter, right to your inbox. It is to you, in honor of this choice, that I wish to direct my best efforts.

As a thank you for being an email subscriber, you can use the code EMAIL10 to get 10% off all original artworks in my shop for the rest of the month. I’ve added quilted “Paintings” of all sizes and plushie snakes just desperate to brighten up your couch. SlipCover stickers are $5 each if you’re a fan.

If you would like to support my work for free, please share it with others. Subscribe and forward this newsletter, share my posts on godscursed instagram, or send your favorite fiber nerd to my website to look at my portfolio.

Baba Yaga totally reads my newsletter.

If you need me, I’ll be sitting in the yard, incredulous.

Thank you so, so much,

Ruth