BARTERING

bar·ter

ˈbärdər/

verb

1. 1.

   exchange (goods or services) for other goods or services without using money.

I love to barter!

Nearly....no....all.....the art in my house has been acquired through bartering.

Now let me say this about that...that does not mean I will trade for anything. It has to be something I really want, have room for, can use or need.

When we had our picture framing business I did a lot of bartering. Extensive dental work was bartered for framing! 

Yes, I love good bartering.

One of my loves is wind chimes. If you watch any of my videos on You tube, you will hear my wind chimes in most of them instead of music. Often I combine the two.

My Dad made wind chimes with beautiful sound to them. He was a welder by trade but this was something he did when he retired and he did a local art fair and made a killing!

This is one of his. I only have 2 left. It's been about 35 years.

He would etch his own drawings (very good ones) into the plexi clapper. birds mostly.

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When you come to our house, you come to the back because the front faces the lake. We have a 2 car carport and when my Dad was still alive and making his chimes, this carport was lined with his chimes and the sound was what heaven must sound like to me. These were pipe wind chimes and he hung them just right for the tones to be melodious.

We called it "Dickson's Cathedral" (Dickson was my maiden name)

Wish I had a pic of how it looked then but these are some pics of the ones I have now and, of course, they all have stories:

The bamboo one up front, my daughter bought for me when she went back to the Bahamas for her one year wedding anniversary.

The blue one was a gift from "Blue Moon Art Gallery" when they closed. I was with them the 17 years they were open.

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This one I bought in the Bahamas when I went there in 2008 to my daughters wedding.

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This is a beautiful Shell one I purchased 

just because I love it! 

The pipe one in the background is another one of my Dad's

This is a large pipe chime I purchased...nice deep sound.

I SAY ALL THIS.....to show you the wonderful barter I did recently with my new friend Jeri Bellini who, among other things, makes wind chimes out of recycled everything!!

When I saw them I knew I wanted and had to have, and when I learned she coveted one of my Journey Journals, well...the rest was history!

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So here is my new treasure!! Bottle caps, forks and knife, cradle for a casserole dish and the top from an old light fixture on top!! Now, sound is not what this one is all about...it makes sound but not really a chime, more of a "clank"...this one is about taking discarded treasures and turning them into something wonderful!

I LOVE it!!!

And here is what Jeri got.

Journey Journal No. 87

and this is "Sassy Suzi" (Jeri's name) which was inside.

We are both happy campers :)

I've loved being able to have treasures from other artists through the years and loved that they want my art enough to trade. I've only been turned down once by an artist I admire but that is okay. I also have had to turn down offers on my end also. 

Just wanted to share a little about bartering!

thanks for stopping by,

Suzi