Getting Ready for the NCBA.

The North Carolina Basketmakers' Association Annual basket convention is less than one month away. This is my favorite out of all the conventions simply because that was the first basket-related gathering I attended with Eric four years ago. And one of the first "basket people" I met was Pattie Bagley... I mean, Madam President of the GBA (unmistakeable shameless brown-nosing).

Eric puts in many hours and long days getting ready for any convention, but especially NCBA's since it's one of the largest basketry conventions in the country. As most of you already know, I go downstairs to Eric's workshop many times throughout the day to say "hi" and, yes, annoy him a little. I cannot help it. It's so much fun! But weeks before a convention, he's so focused that he barely knows I'm there. 

Yesterday was one of those days. And I tried to get his attention to no avail. I grabbed the dog's front paws and started dancing. I threw the dog toy over his workstation to play fetch with the dog. I even performed my best "stripper-who-wears-sweatpants" interpretation. All I heard him say was “these stupid handles are frustrating me.” 

Uh oh. Time to leave him alone. No playing games today. (Come on people. I'm not that heartless!) His new handbag design has a complicated handle and lid configuration with many wooden parts that need to fit precisely. And being a new design, means that Eric needed to come up with a system or "jigs" for making everything come together many times over. I snapped some pics (after abandoning my attempt to distract him) of what he was working on.

Mr. Basketmaker's goal is to finish up all the basket parts for the new handbag and the Cottage Jewel basket over the weekend so they can be mailed to students sometime next week. This will give them plenty of time to properly finish the wooden parts before the convention classes begin.