Thursday, December 5, 2013

Whips and guns and drums, oh my!


This week I have been shopping, but not like the normal folks out there, shopping for their Christmas treasures. I have been shopping for props for A Civil War Christmas. I have also been getting my studio ready for the Chatham Artists Studio Tour that starts this coming Saturday. And I've been unpacking all the Christmas decorations, cleaning the house and making things look pretty. As my grandmother used to say, "I am plum wore out" from it all. I laid down on the bed yesterday afternoon and got up two hours later. I never do that.....

Tuesday I went over to my favorite antique mall looking for a whip, a revolver and a drum, all 1800's era. I love this work, how fun to roam around in an antique mall all day and get paid for doing it!
No luck at the mall, so I went across the street to the nearly abandoned outlet mall. Most of the store fronts stand empty, thanks to the newer better outlet mall they built a couple of miles away, but there are a few random oddities still surviving.

First I went into a shop called Southern Heritage. Now I knew just from the name and the rebel flag outside that this was going to be an offensive store, and I was right. It was really difficult for me to keep my mouth shut and just ask the very large, "I will kick your ass"  woman working there if they sold whips. She was nice, they didn't have whips, but they did have a lot of anti Obama stickers, hateful slogans on t-shirts and a LOT of really ignorant merchandise that can sometimes make you embarrassed to be a part of the southern white race.

The large redneck woman sent me over to the western store, surely they will have a leather whip. No, but they did have a really nasty sign on their front door telling parents that they are responsible for their children and they need to make them behave while in the store, the store smelled good, leather and cowboy stuff makes me swoon.

The also redneck woman working at this store sent me across the street to Adam and Eve. This was my first experience in a sex shop, I promise, I've never really considered going into one before. MY! What an interesting place to shop. Yes they did have whips, but not the kind I was looking for. Do people really beat each other like that?! While I was there, I figured I might as well make the best of it and have a look around. There was a time when I would have been mortified to be in this store, but age has a way of making things not matter so much. There was a very beautiful very voluptuous african american woman working in the store, so kind and helpful and professional. I must say, there are some really creative things going on in bedrooms....... hmmmm.... I sent Wesley a text and told her I was in a sex shop looking for a whip, that was a fun text to send to my college daughter, haha!

The sex shop sent me next door to Steve's Leather. This was basically a biker shop/head shop. Had I been shopping for a pipe or a bong, this would have been a really great place to stop. But, wait, what was that hanging up behind the register?! A whip! The kind I need, and it was $3.00. Sold! and how do you think the biker chick (maybe crack girl)  recorded the sale of this whip? She got out her spiral bound notebook and wrote it down. I love it!

So, I'm not making pottery right now. I have plenty, my shop is full, just waiting on the tour goers to come and love everything and take it all home with them. Instead of making, I am shopping in western stores, head shops and sex toy stores. What a life! I did find an old toy cap gun that makes a nice prop revolver, I found a beautiful early american drum, navy blue with a rust red band on top and bottom. The lady at the antique store just let me borrow it, no charge, how amazing is that!? There is still kindness in the world and good Karma helps too I think. The house manager at the Artscenter is just by chance a drummer, and he put new heads on it and tuned it up for me. This is the thing that is so great about being a prop designer. I get to go into bizarre stores and I meet the most interesting folks and someone always knows how to do something that I don't and is willing to help me out. So great!

peace ya'll
xo

11 comments:

littlemancat said...

Oh Tracey, you made me laugh with your wonderful adventures! I can imagine how Wesley will love that text! Too funny - I am glad that you are enjoying this new journey/work, sounds like a good direction.
Happy hunting!
Oh - And I admire you for keeping your self control in the shops with those awful signs! It would have really been hard for me, I know.
Mary

Tracey Broome said...

Mary, I KNOW! I just wanted to scream, and then I started imagining forming a protest group with our own nasty signs! But who am I to judge.... sigh.... it's just ignorance of the South, blame it on poor education and intolerant parenting I suppose! I thought about being an African American or gay and how it would feel to walk in that store. It really should be shut down, but that's what our "freedom" is all about right?!

Michèle Hastings said...

Now that sounds like my kind of shopping! I used to spend a long weekend in Provincetown, MA, every summer with a couple I am friends with. They always dragged me into the sex shops there. I think they enjoyed telling what many of the items were used for.

I was wondering when your stars would appear this year. They are the best ceramic ornaments I have seen made.

Lori Buff said...

Too funny. I wonder how many of the people you encountered are talking about the woman that came in looking for a whip?

Dennis Allen said...

Sounds like an adventure for sure.

oldgreymare said...

I believe you could kick butt if needed :D
what? You have not read Shades of Grey? lol

Mr. Young said...

I love the stars! Are they glazed on both sides? If so ... how do you fire them?

cookingwithgas said...

I am plum wore out... we are so southern...
You and me baby, I have never made it in a sex shop either.
Although shopping for whips does sound fun.
I am still cleaning- I am whipping down on things here if I git it all done I will be right as rain....


You live an interesting life.

Tracey Broome said...

They are only glazed on one side, I raku fire them and the back gets black reduction, sort of nice looking....

June Perry said...

Rummaging around antique shops is one of my favorite things - so many possible treasures to unearth!

The sex shop sounds like a hoot. Guess there's always something to learn! LOL

Susan Wells said...

Lorda mercy. whips and signs and leather smells. The theater is soooo happy to have you!!