CRASH!

2 big crashes in the studio this weekend!

1st Crash: Blue screen of death on the laptop I use for my art business! While I was looking into whether or not I wanted to switch to Apple, sell my Microsoft stock and spend the next two years trash talking Dell, my next door neighbor came over for dinner and well, he has a computer repair business. I think it's now fixed! Disclaimer: the dinner was planned before the nasty blue screen business happened.

2nd Crash: My brand new (delivered in March) Dick Blick easel broke! And by broke, it really broke, fell apart, pieces flying around. Luckily I was behind it and nothing was in front of it when it crashed forward. I stood there like a cartoon character, eyebrows raised, hands up in wonder. My son was in the house and came running out to see if I was OK. Yep, just stunned.

How did it break? The metal piece that hooked the cable to the painting tray fell off, the painting tray crashed down, the force of that broke the wood at the base so that the big bolt attaching the wood, well, see the photos below:

Here's the bolt and below it, you can see the wood that split open where the bolt is supposed to go. Sheesh! The horizontal piece that's split is part of the base that holds the easel together.

And next to the hinge you can see the offending metal piece that somehow came off.

Luckily the painting on the easel at the time was small and wasn't damaged. I pulled it from beneath the wreckage. And now I know why my dog has declined to be in the studio with me since the new easel arrived: she had a bad feeling about the new easel and probably could hear the cable straining.

I do buy lots from Dick Blick and I'm optimistic it will all be made right.