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Making of the Connect-the-Dots Party

To give our client, Rivet Magazine, the most bang for their buck, The Adventure School fabricated everything used at their art auction by hand for almost no cost. It meant that our hands were black for days and my circle cutting hand was sore for a week, but it also made for a good day’s work and a good nights sleep (as usual). We made one hundred and twenty five Connect-the-Dots auction paddles. The were very work intensive but it was worth it to see sophisticated art-hunters giggling with joy at writing their numbers on their paddles.

First, we purchased a box of tongue depressors to use as the bid number paddle handles. Then we spray painted them black on both sides.

We then hand painted 2-inch black styrofoam balls black. This was a hilarious feat because we then were left with the difficult task of letting the balls dry unblemished. Ding! Light bulb! Time for all the sake cups and all of the bottle caps in the house to get used to their new job as spray painted ball drying racks.

The face of the paddle was created by writing numbers in photoshop and then making each one into its own connect-the-dots puzzle, complete with tiny numbers and a wacky order of operations. Then the fun part, me and my trusty Cutter Bee circle making tool kit, sat in the studio for many hours, cutting the number pages into perfect seven inch circles. The fun wasn’t over as each numbered paddle circle need a 1/2 inch long incision about a half inch from the bottom, in which to slide the black tongue depressor. Then, Aviva dobbed a dab of hot glue onto each one to hold the stick in place. At last, we were able to slit the 2 inch styrofoam balls and jam the tongue depressor in! Voila! The most adorable and themed-out, do-it-yourself, bidder interactive auction paddles to have ever been made on Planet Earth.

With the paddles completed it was on to decorating the event venue. We decided to stick with seven inch circles, but for this part of the project they would be made of vinyl that we found (luckily) at the Northwest Sign Supply Company. These dots were then connected from the ceiling to the walls to the floor using black duct tape. Amazing! Cheap, conceptual and totally great looking. Now, that’s HOT (and immersive)!

The event venue was finished off by small touches such as creating a series of “Dot Family” portraits behind the bar, which ended up being manned by the Managing-Editor of the magazine, Nick Katsilometes. We also jazzed up the bathrooms by framing actual connect-the-dots pages from coloring books.

The gallery’s courtyard was also given the dot treatment. We spray painted a series of 3 foot-long dowels and 4 inch styrofoam balls to be sculpted into three-dimensional connect-the-dots structures. The Adventure School then set up an outdoor lounge with tents for the Seattle rain, Ikea chandeliers and borrowed benches kept costs down and maximized fun, completed our part of the look and feel of the event.

Many thanks go to the entire Rivet crew for being relentless in the honorable task of making a magazine and cultivating a diverse and exciting group of donating artists for the successful live and silent art auctions. We were really glad to be the decor part of the auction team.

Special Thanks to Rivet Staff including the be-polka-dotted editor, Leah Baltus, the Art Director, Allie Manch and the Design Director MichaelVincent Santos.

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