The Table Project

I am part owner of a cybercafé in my town, and our café tables have glass table tops. This allows us to change the decoration on the table tops on a fairly regular basis, and we rotate art, articles of local interest, photos from hacked-up National Geographics, and so on. The tables, of course, have a high mortality rate (that is to say, people spill stuff).

Just about the time The Gryphon hit stores, I had A Thought™: what if we decorated a table with art from the trilogy? Of course, I wasn't about to tear apart my books. And I didn't want to make colour copies that infringed on copyright. So I had a novel idea: write and ask permission from the author.

I got it. *grin*

Sadly, life got entirely too busy at about the same time, and until now I have not been able to get my little table project off of the ground. It was receiving Alexandria for a birthday present, signed for me with mention of my "special permission", that really poked me in the backside.

I decided that for sanity's sake, I would restrict myself to images and text from the first of the new trilogy, The Gryphon, with a few pictures from the second, Alexandria. Two and a half hours after I began scanning, I had a finished table.

Here are some pictures I took. I had to take the glass off to avoid the glare of the flash obliterating the image. Bear in mind that the flash did wipe out some ofthe vividness of the image's colours.

84K, 72dpi, 600 px x 450 px Here's the table at a distance. Of course, it looks a lot better with the glass on. Much more 'finished'. (In the background is Tara, a cast bronze Hindu goddess. Seems appropriate, somehow.)

88K, 72dpi, 600 px x 450 px The first postcard in the book is the last image from The Golden Mean, and the bridge between the original trilogy and the new one... so I thought I would make it the centerpiece (top left in picture).

84K, 72dpi, 600 px x 450 px Another shot of the table.

92K, 72dpi, 600 px x 450 px And... yet another shot of the table.

76K, 72dpi, 600 px x 450 px No flash. Whoops. Very blurry!

76K, 72dpi, 600 px x 450 px Here's a closeup of the one thing I was asked to do: info on the books (even closer).

84K, 72dpi, 600 px x 450 px Hummingbird -- from the cover of Alexandria.

A day after I set the table up... a customer spilled hot cocoa on it. Minimal damage but... doesn't it just figure?

(To Mr. Bantock, many many thanks for allowing me to do this. I had fun, and I think it looks terrific.)

Last updated 10 November 2002
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