Ancient and mysterious boxes

I spent a significant portion of my day sanding the wooden boxes that I will be using as the foundations of my table displays. These boxes started their lives in a factory as storage for assorted cash register parts. I'm not sure when they were built (I removed a nail that was sticking out of one and discovered that the nail was square) but they have decades worth of grime worked into the wood. The result is a wonderful character, with a beautiful patina.

Unfortunately, after power washing them, I had to deal with a great many splinters that had been worked loose by the high pressure water. Since I didn't want to risk anyone getting splinters from my table displays, I sanded them and then applied paste wax. They look great. I'm leaving them in the sun at my mom's until tomorrow night to allow the solvent smell of the past wax to evaporate some.

The bisque kiln is going now. I need to turn it up to medium before I head up to bed and then arrange to turn it to high about 2 hours after that. With any luck at all, the kiln will be cool enough to open when I get up in the morning and cool enough to unload when I'm ready to leave.

Kim's husband is bringing me the results of her firing tomorrow, along with the contents of her various bead boxes. None of this stuff is actually priced for the show, there's not even an inventory. Kim says, "Price them as you see fit and take whatever percentage you need to take." The problem with this is that I have my own work that needs to be inventoried and priced for the show. There just isn't enough time to do everything.

I picked up some tissue paper for wrapping purchases and brown paper lunch bags. Since the tissue paper is so large, I cut it down to quarter size. I used the fact that I was quartering it to justify spending the extra money for tissue paper with a little glitz to it.

I'm still trying to figure out what I want the tablescape to look like. I have 3 of the wooden boxes right now. I will probably prop one at an angle at each end of the table and set one on edge in the center. The show rules state that the table must be draped to the floor. I've got a couple of options for fabric to drape the table and I'll use the brass dishes that I bought before the first "Art to Wear Fair" last fall. I'm thinking about digging out the frame corners for some extra display oomph.