Woo yay, and even houplah!
The story unfolds thusly:

I was bored and perusing Craigslist and found an ad that said that there were several upright pianos for the taking, in a building downtown with no elevators. They have lots of good lumber and machined parts, but are not really worth much as instruments.

I went to look, and sure enough, they're in the third floor of a church with narrow staircases. How they got up there is a mystery- unless you had four immensely strong men per piano, getting a 700 lb instrument up those narrow stairs with hairpin turn landings is fucking impossible. But taking them downstairs in pieces is feasible, so I agreed to at least try it on one.

I told a friend of mine about this, who in turn told another friend who wanted the ivory from the keyboards. He's an artist and a knife maker and wanted it for inlays, and was willing to help me tear stuff down in exchange for it. It turned out that he and I get along wonderfully, and got to be good friends over the next two days.

As it happens he has an ex girlfriend who works in a local art gallery- and not a high-end snooty place, but a gallery that features local artists and has a pretty high volume business. Charlie told her about my stained glass work, and I showed her some pictures I had on my iPod. She then caught me by the elbow and dragged me over to meet one of the owners of the gallery and asked me to show her the pics, which I did. She was intrigued and asked me to bring in some pieces.

I had one piece already and between yesterday and this morning I made another one. I had a third that I had made as a wedding present for a friend and carried that with me as well.

End result: I now have two pieces in the gallery, and have been asked to make lots more to display. Where everyone else is paying between $65 and $130 per month for gallery space as well as 15% commission, I'm paying NOTHING and have agreed to 40% commission on sales. In other words, it's costing me nothing to display my stuff here until I sell it- and if I get really going I can re-negotiate this. The owner was so impressed that she waived the usual jury process and let me immediately hang pieces in the window.

I know what I'll be doing this weekend...
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 17 Sep 2009, 2:27, 11 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

A fine example of
positive attitude bringing you a great new opportunity. Well done, having seen the photos of your stained glass table, I think you deserve to have a wider audience.
( chart cat has an itch, Thu 17 Sep 2009, 7:03, Reply)

Sounds like someone whose job it is
to identify stuff that will sell has rendered judgement on your work. Excellent!
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Thu 17 Sep 2009, 7:11, Reply)

Indeed.
She told me that the guy who did stained glass and had the window before me did reproductions of famous posters in glass and other very large (and expensive) panels, which really didn't sell well- especially because of their $2000 and up price tags. She said that mine were far more interesting and salable than his. Especially as I'm not even asking one tenth that much for my works.

Gonna get outside to my shop and start making another piece in a few minutes here...
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 17 Sep 2009, 13:55, Reply)

Wow, that's smart.
I thought the table you did was wonderful, so I'm not surprised you've been snapped-up. Good luck with it.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Thu 17 Sep 2009, 7:11, Reply)

hey congrats Loon.
that's really good! Here's hoping you get lots of work from it.
(Poppet some assembly required., Thu 17 Sep 2009, 8:20, Reply)

Hoo fucking Ray!!!!
At last, non-b3tans see the worth of your artistic efforts. Told you you were wasting your time working. Good luck dude.
(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Thu 17 Sep 2009, 9:26, Reply)

Ditto
*High fives*

p.s. I reckon there's a short story in how those pianos got up there. Not sure if I'd like to hear how they REALLY got up there, or a TRL version of events from your fertile imagination!!
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Thu 17 Sep 2009, 11:22, Reply)

I think I know how it was done.
I'm pretty sure that they took down the railings on the stairwell and had some ridiculously strong farmer types macho them up the stairs one at a time. There aren't any windows on that floor big enough to lift them through.

I intend to keep one piano harp intact for myself, and getting that out of there will be bad enough- I think I will have to build a friction brake to put in a doorway. It will be something of an engineering challenge.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 17 Sep 2009, 14:02, Reply)

Wow!
Impressed and also slightly jealous. I need to get my bum in gear and find some contacts for my stuff... thank you for giving me the kick I needed. :D
(Flim-Flam the Magnificent "You is talking loco and I like it!", Thu 17 Sep 2009, 11:34, Reply)

No prob.
The wildest part of this is how I met Charlie, and how he got my foot in the door for me. It was a strange load of coincidences that led to this.

I could have gotten in there on my own- and was in fact planning on doing so- but this way saved me quite a bit of money and time. Too bad Charlie doesn't drink or I'd buy him an extraordinary beer- guess I'll have to cook him a steak instead.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 17 Sep 2009, 13:59, Reply)

Yea!
I'm glad your stuff is out there to be seen and sold. You do great worl!
( flirting with badgers What? It sounded good at the time., Thu 17 Sep 2009, 18:47, Reply)