Basically, it started with books. For almost a year, six of us, give or take a few, have had this little book club. We started off reading something once per month, then once per 7 or 8 weeks, then every-other month.
The writing's on the wall, you see where this is going.
Eventually we decided that on the "off" months, we'd get together to talk about whatever we'd been reading on our own. Then we came up with
this idea. In my memory, it's so clear that
I was the one who came up with this, but--
thank you, technology--in rereading our emails I realize it was actually Eric and Scott.
Eric:
I have an idea which kinda defies the laws of book clubnicity. . . (insert idea here). . .
Kind of like show and tell. (He first uttered the phrase).
Scott:
Thinking about it, it could be totally open, you (could) just bring something cool. Something you made or saw somewhere or a strange thing you found on the ground or a song you can sing. And there would be food. Could be fun. I could see Readymade magazine doing an article about how "Show and Tell" clubs are the new thing. (He ran with it).
So, there you have it. They stole my idea first. And so began the Show & Tell Club. We had our inaugural meeting over brunch on September 7 at our place. I made the invitations above and hand-colored them with fancy colored pencils. There was a blurb inside that read:
The Show & Tell club is a small group of hoodlums who seem to enjoy telling each other stories and wowing one another with dance moves, book suggestions, weight lifting, and clean jokes. Please humor them by bringing along something to share. Perhaps you could sing a song, read a poem, bring something you handcrafted, or share your most prized possession (even if that item is only a pencil sharpener).
Words cannot describe the beauty of Show & Tell Club.
Here was the rundown:
Vince brought his high heels from the Walk in Her Shoes fundraiser. John had his 80's paint-splattered sunglasses (totally ridiculous creation).
Marie brought handmade flipbooks.
David had some insane photos he'd taken with a new 3-D lens. Eric brought old photos and trinkets he'd come across. Clare brought two sweet handmade creatures.
Scott read one of his poems, as did David. Suzanne had some of her first screenprinting designs. Catherine brought these little handmade books from her childhood. I read my journal from 1994. Wes had made his own memory tiles (more on those later).
Laura brought a piece of her pottery. Tony released his famous blueberry muffin recipe from the secret family vault. And Tracy showed some of his artwork from his summer internship.
Whew! A lot, huh? You can thank me later, Readymade magazine. A royalty check would be fine.
Check
flickr for all the photos. Just you wait, Show & Tell Club #2: Halloween Edition will be at John and Lindsay's. It's bound to be good.
In my last post I mentioned the memory cards Wes made for Show & Tell Club. The cards shown in these photos are actually the set I made for Lindsay as a birthday gift, but you get the gist. We can't take the credit for this idea, we played with David and Marie's handmade set a few weeks ago, and Wes was so inspired he woke up the next morning, took us all to the thrift store to buy old books (thank you, thank you, thank you), and spent the day making his own.
