What's a Girl to Do with ALL THESE RIBBONS

I blogged once before about this topic, but I thought it was timely to revisit this studio decluttering tip now that we all HAVE SO MUCH TIME ON OUR HANDS. 

I realize that this post might sound just a bit boastful or bragging but often when you enter any type of art show you have the potential of earning some beautiful ribbons.  Let me just state here that I care way more about what my collectors think of my art than some judge in a little art show so please don't think me puffy.

I know immediately, when your mind thinks of winning ribbons you think 1st (BLUE), 2nd (RED) and 3rd (WHITE) place.  I can see why you would think that, but did you know that in a typical art show there is "BEST  OF SHOW" and then 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each category class.  So for example, acrylic painting would be a class on it's own, as would watercolor, oil and so on. That is a WHOLE bunch more ribbons to win.

In some art shows I've participated in, each judge in the show can hand out a JUDGES CHOICE ribbon to a piece that they particularly liked.  The prettiest ribbon I've won is that of the DIRECTOR'S CHOICE.  In this particular art show, the director of the show awards a ribbon for her favorite piece.  You can see here just how beautiful it is in all it's giant pastel rainbow of colors.  So it really comes down to the fact that you can win several ribbons on just one piece of art.

I of course prefer cash prizes but you don't want to toss away all these pretty ribbons either.  My ribbons were stuffed in a drawer in my studio for quite some time until I decided that enough was enough.  I wanted to display them but just didn't have a clue what the best way to do that would be.  I have a really small studio space and I'm already a pack rat so I needed to condense them down.  As you can tell in the photo, these ribbons are at least 12 to 15 inches long.  Some of them have the information on them but as I went through this pile I realized that I had not done a very good job of recording them on my website resume or even making notes as to which piece won what.

It took about 3 hours that day, pouring over old photos to figure it out which artwork went with each ribbon.  Funny thing was after all that I still wound up with 1 extra judges preference ribbon that I couldn't identify. 
I WILL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!

To give me ideas, I turned to the best source for creative ideas out there and that is Pinterest.  What a amazing visual search engine and tool.  Within just a very short time, I had found the prefect solution for me and my ribbon debacle.  My answer was a SHADOW BOX!

I headed straight down to Hobby Lobby, the best store in my opinion to purchase frames.  Every other week they are 50% off so you can always find a bargain.  I found the perfect shadow box and it even had a barn wood style finish to it.  I chose the 16 x 20 inch size and purchased 2 of them.  With the 50% off it only set me back about $25.  That is WAY less than I had estimated I would spend.

I just randomly placed each ribbon rosette face down on the glass of the open shadow box and tried to pull the long ribbons in behind so they didn't show.  I can see that right in the middle I failed because there is a green ribbon showing.  I will probably fix this even though it was a bit difficult to get the shadow box back securely fastened down.  As you can see by this photo, I already have some ribbons to add to the 2nd shadow box but I will plenty of room to accommodate future ribbons.







So I have one little area in my studio now under control and I'm going to use this forced isolation time to get lots of cleaning and organizing projects done around the house.  Now I just need to figure out how to display my most prized award won.  Let me introduce you to my "PAHRANAGAT MAN" trophy that was awarded to me for winning the People Choice award one year at the Lincoln County Memorial Day Art Show one year.  That sucker weighs over 6.5 pounds and could do some real damage if you dropped it on your foot.