Oh, THAT Kind of a Day...

So I thought I'd have a cup of tea before I go out to weed and flicked on the TV; there's a man interrupting a Koala couple and collecting Koala semen; it was Koala conservation doco.

There's usually nothing interesting in the mornings on telly in New Zealand

In Nelson we have a local television station, (actually a series of them,) called Mainland which broadcasts the best docos from overseas, Al Jazeera, Germany's DW, China's CCTV, Bloomberg, as well as local news. But Mainland programs are not listed in any publication, and on their website they only specify "documentary", so it's a hit-and-miss thing, though when they show docos, they repeat them several times at different time slots for about a week.

It must have been Thursday when I caught the tail end of a doco on Brunelleschi building the dome in Firenze, and seeing as I've been struggling through a very slim volume on the subject for over a year, (again, I can't visualize some of the things they talk about because I don't have enough knowledge in architectural lingo,) I've been desperate to catch it with no luck so far.

On a more serious note, two and a half years ago, one of the first things St Martin told me was to get business cards printed properly and quit the home-made ink-jet job. Back then I liked the "all hand crafted" personal look and even looked for brown recycled paper for business cards. In the last year or so I've seen of my care labels fade in the sun and have been thinking he was of course right, I should get proper ones made up. But I don't like having different kinds of stationary, either. It's not only uneconomical, but also confusing.

I have only two cards, well three - two with my contact details, one without I use when my work is sold in galleries - and I print out care instructions, (English only; most Japanese know how to care for textiles,) on the back and use them as swing tags. The ones with my contact details without the care instructions act as my business card.

This morning I found Moo.com offers business cards; I think this is new because 18 months ago when I looked into this, they didn't have business cards. Anyhoo, although I like to buy things made in New Zealand in the first instance, I think Moo quality is tops and for value for money, (even with the Kiwi dollar scrambling at the pathetically-cheap end), and I'm feeling warm towards Moo, though I need to reassess what types of cards I need OR want.

What do you use as your marketing tool for your art promotion?

PS. Mainland also shows deliciously old B/W movies, but sometimes it times out before the end of the film. One time Ronette got so annoyed she rang them, to which they explained it's automated and has something to do with satellites! At least we know it's automated; sometimes they have Windows error message screens showing for hours.

PPS. When a Koala Baby grows big but still clings to Mama's back for dear life when Mama is in a hurry, Baby looks like an overweight jocky in a country horse race. I knew you needed to know this to improve your artful weaving.