Well first off I'm back from Poland! Was good to spend a little time in quite a different world, and the hospitality was top drawer... and... we even did two trades in Poland! More on those soon...
And there's more... Trade 23 Peter M Adamson has given us a mention on Salford City Radio, and they played "The Anglo-American and World Recession Blues" over the Manchester airwaves...
It's been a little quiet here lately, I've noticed. That's what summers can do, I guess. But there may well be various pieces of activity happening soon...
No seriously, don't laugh, there really might be... maybe even quite a lot!!
And listen up, there might even be Teddy Bears On Tour action coming soon!!!
Who knows!!
I know I don't. But I do know a few trades are looking good to happen soon.
Also I'll be in Poland next weekend, over near Belarus, and I'll bring a couple of small items along with me, just in case, maybe bring back a Polski this or a Polska that...
Step 3... Send the instrumental track to someone practically anywhere else on the planet, with a little help from the Internet. In this case, Sarah in North America sent her track to Peter in Europe.
Step 4... Work out some great lyrics and melody, and record the lead vocals. Send back to be mixed in, as Peter did, sending back to Sarah.
Step 5... Mix in vocals, and add other bits and pieces, eg. maybe backing vocals and electric guitar solo... as Sarah did.
Step 6... Sit back (optional) and enjoy, eg. "The Anglo-American and World Recession Blues"...
Step 8 (optional)... Create a dedicated website, and enable visitors to download, and maybe even don't keep all the proceeds, eg. the Anglo American Blues MySpace.
London-based artist Tina Mammoser had wanted to trade with me for a while... she just wasn't sure what to trade me!
Then one day she filled in the form:
"... have a look on my Etsy at timelady.etsy.com I also have a women's brand new (still on packaging) Bontrader racing bike saddle, a Race Lux, 146mm wide, 272mm long, 340grams..."
So, something arty and something else cycling offered from the cycling artist - how neat!!
From me, Tina wanted 500 printed balloons, to be used at an art open day she was organising, to help indicate the locations of participating houses.
I checked out Tina's blog "The Cycling Artist", and thought to myself "that must be quite challenging, painting and cycling at the same time* ".
* might not be the exact words
The Cycling Artist? I don't even want to start thinking about the potential health and safety issues... I just hope Tina took some good advice.
Anyhow, one doesn't get the chance to do a trade with a cycling artist every day, I was quite sure. And there must be some bragging rights to be gained too, I thought. And the more I thought about the bragging rights, the more I was hoping we would work something out.
At some point we agreed I would choose one of Tina's original paintings from her "Nereids" series, and I would probably choose which one exactly on the day of the swap.
The only question remaining really was when and where. We wanted to trade in person, and I figured I would get round to visiting London sooner or later... I just didn't know when.
In the meantime Tina wanted to use the balloons. So I asked Jim to take care of her, which he did with impressive efficiency - two days from "order" to delivery I think.
Tina's red balloons were soon to be seen strategically dotted around Greenwich...
And Tina was delighted she needed only about half of the 500 - so she can use the other half in next year's open day.
But when would we trade?
One day I received a text message:
"...I'm actually at a street art fair in Brixton all weekend but is fun place to do the swap if you're in London?..."
I could think of worse things to do than spend a day out to London... so on Saturday morning I hopped on a bus. Though not literally, of course.
Somehow, without even the use of a compass, and without the tube (The Victoria line was closed for the weekend), I managed to make my way to Josephine Avenue in Brixton.
Lots of artists were there showing off their creations, along both sides of the road. I eventually found Tina, who had thankfully remembered to bring along her bicycle saddle, arguably a work of art in its own right, some might say.
Then I had to decide... I took forever deliberating which one of the Nereids paintings to take, narrowing my choice down to three, then two... before finally settling on "Oreithyia".
Tina then insisted we quickly get on with making the trade before I could change my mind, and I cooperated fully...
Tina rhymes with Nena.
Imagine the French version - "quatre vingt dix neuf ballons rouges..."
Anyway, we were both delighted!
Carrying my two new additions to the trading nothing "collection", I then milled around, taking in the artworks on display and talking to several artists. Many expressed an interest in doing a trade with me at some point in the future, including Rodney and his partner Kathryn, who explained they were friends with Tina and were already aware of me and this trading up adventure. They even had a laptop connected to the Internet with them in their van, so they checked out tradingnothing.com as I wandered off...
A few minutes later I heard Kathryn running towards me like a mad woman. "Andrew! Andrew! We can do a trade now!", I think she said. Well, words to that effect anyhow. So back to the van we went...
Rodney and Kathryn were happy to take Tina's "Oreithyia", but what would I take for it? Size was a consideration, nothing too big for the proper London double decker bus and coach journey home...
Without any fussing, we all agreed I would receive four of Rodney's paintings - one quite large, and the other three quite small works which could be traded on as a set or separately.
And we did the trade, Trade 26 I make it...
A great couple of trades had happened, then... but I soon learned there was yet more to come!
Kathryn had had her eye on one particular painting of Tina's, and she figured out a great way to acquire it:
That's right, the "Oreithyia" painting was traded back to Tina, on the day after Tina traded it to me.
I hope you're not too confused now.
So I guess Tina now has "Oreithyia" for sale again!
If you want to offer me something "bigger/better" for this/these and/or any other item I have up for a trade, please go ahead! (give me a shout or fill the form)
