Elfshot is now on Facebook and Twitter

Elfshot now has a Facebook Page. I like how Facebook is set up to handle events and since this is turning out to be an eventful year, I couldn't put off joining any longer. My regular Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Blog posts should also appear on Elfshot's Facebook page as links. If you use Facebook to stay in touch with the world, please consider becoming a fan of Elfshot.

Ditto for Twitterers. You can now receive tweets from ElfshotGallery. Twitter followers should receive a quick note each time I add a post to Elfshot: Sticks and Stones or information to Elfshot's Facebook page.

Finally, there's a new Printer Friendly button at the bottom of all the posts, that not only creates a clean document that you can easily print, but also a .pdf that will be easy to store.

Hmm... I thought that would take longer to explain. I guess I've got room to tell you the story of The Archaeologist, The Niece, The Uncle and The Knapper.

An archaeologist living in Labrador contacted me last September with a few photos of a very nice point that was found during one of his excavations last summer. The crew member who found it was the niece of a man who thought that a flintknapped reproduction of the point would make a fine necklace. He wanted it made as a Christmas surprise for his niece, so I made the necklace and in October when the uncle was in St. John's he picked it up. Everyone was happy. The End.

... until the Fine Craft and Design Fair, in November....

A young woman came into my booth and explained that she was an archaeology student who was a crew member working with my archaeologist friend in Labrador last summer. She described finding this one particular point and wanted to know if I could make her a reproduction as a necklace if she sent me some photos of it. I realized right away that she was the niece and that her uncle had already got her exactly the necklace she wanted, but I couldn't very well tell her that. I was stuck. I couldn't say "no" without spoiling the surprise and I couldn't say "yes" and make her another necklace knowing that she already had one on the way. So I had to say "sure, no problem" and then I spent the rest of the fair trying to come up with a way out it all. I e-mailed the archaeologist and let him know what was up and we decided that the best thing to do would be to drag my heels until after the holidays and all would be revealed on Christmas morning. Still, I dreaded having to come up with an excuse to put her off and I hoped she would forget about me. No such luck. A few days later the exact same photos that the archaeologist sent me back in September arrived in my inbox, but this time from the niece. I had to pretend that I'd never seen them before, struggle over a quote, and then fabricate an excuse why I couldn't possible knap a single arrowhead for her until 2010!

Since its 2010, I figured it would be safe to check in with her yesterday and everything worked out just fine. No one spoiled the surprise and she loved her necklace!

Photo Credits:
Top: Screen Grab from Facebook
Second: Screen Grab from Twitter
Third: S. Neilsen
Fourth: Tim Rast

Photo Captions:
Top: Elfshot's Facebook Group
Second: ElfshotGallery Twitter
Third: The Point at the centre of The Archaeologist, The Niece, The Uncle, and the Knapper
Fourth: The Reproduction, ready to be wired for a surprise Christmas Necklace