Ilse continued to work hard. She requested an email address for the gallery and made a contact page on the website with just that one email address. All other email addresses on the pages of the various artists she deleted. She filled in the chosen name for the gallery, 'Art, the expression of our soul', on the page where Huib had already described their vision, their starting point. She created a third page, 'Our Artists', and in the editor mode moved the artists Huib had given a place on the website under that heading of that third page. She also added a page under it for Danielle, Bianca and Maureen, but made sure they were not yet visible to the public, as she had not yet received photo collages from them.

Next point of attention were the artists' email addresses and phone numbers. She decided to make a list of all the people with their details in the spreadsheet programme Excel. Thanks to her notes, she knew what kind of art the people provided and she added that in a separate column. Suddenly she remembered, and saw this elsewhere in her notes, that they would also change the names of the artists' pages: first the art form, a comma and then the person's name. She immediately changed it on the website and crossed it out in her notes.

Back to Excel... she made columns with the art forms, the names, email addresses, phone numbers. "Addresses I don't have yet, do I need them?" she muttered aloud. "Not yet, but I'll write it down, maybe check with everyone later. Someday it might come in handy to have them there. Or wait, I have to send them an e-mail later anyway, then I'll ask for their details right away."

At the top of the following columns, she typed: address, postcode, city.

"Bankaccount number"

She put it at the top of the next column and wrote it in her notes, that she should ask for that too.

She saved the file under the name "Gallery administration summary". In the same file, she opened a separate folder for each artist. In it, she would keep track of sales. She made an overview by typing what she thought she needed at the top of the columns and prepared the columns: date, article, price, paid, 90%, 10% Ilse, buyer details. For now, that seemed enough to her.

After each month, she would add up the price, the 90% and the 10% and put that in a separate Excel file, so she could email that summary, neatly completed, to the artists each time.

"I actually need to make a kind of playbook," she whispered to herself. "All the actions I need to take, what I need to write down." She opened a Word file and started typing out what came into her mind. "Also, at the end of a year, an annual review, then they can use that for the tax return... pfff!"

She stretched and decided to grab some coffee. With the mug in her hands, a slice of gingerbread with butter alongside, she reviewed her notes.

"Oh yes, an offer and an invoice..." She knew that each artist had their own way of calculating the price, but profoundly it did not matter. The artists could email her their details for each commission, then she would adjust the quote accordingly. She made a standard outline for both, and saved them.

She decided to send all participants their first group email first, asking them to pass on the details she still needed. As soon as they came in, she entered them in her spreadsheet file.

She sent Danielle, Bianca and Maureen each a separate email asking them, once they had made collages of their photos, to email them to her with measurements of their artwork and the price attached. Once she had them, she could add them to the website and open their page as well. She got an uncertain message back from Bianca and Maureen, as they did not know how to calculate the price.

Ilse emailed them back, telling them that Huib and the others were asking for fifteen euros an hourly wage, and that it was absolutely right to ask that for their work. They could estimate the material costs and add them to that. Bianca mailed back that she had already done this for her first doll's dress, but that it had turned out to be an awfully high amount, six hundred euros. Ilse understood that Bianca thought this was a lot, but e-mailed her back that it was really worth it. Well, Bianca wrote back, Huib had said the same thing... Maureen also thought it would be quite expensive. Ilse explained that on the one hand it had to do with the hours she had worked on it, and on the other with the enormous value of art coming from the soul. Maureen understood, but still found it difficult....

.

"What else?" asked Ilse to herself. "A new bank account!" She had not mentioned it explicitly in her notes, but of course it had to be included!

Ilse phoned Huib, asked him if he had any preferences for a bank. He told her which bank he himself was with, but otherwise left it up to her, thought it was important that it clicked for her. She decided to choose her own bank because it was familiar to her. She knew exactly how it worked.

She requested an account, and once everything was arranged for that, she completed the basic invoice with it.

Finally, she ran through all the pages and sub-pages of the website again. For most of them, there were only a few pictures left. For instance, Margreet only had both the large wall hangings of themselves and Sjaak and Lisa, and the four smaller ones she had made for The Shelter, on her page. It suddenly dawned on Ilse that there was no text with them, and no price. At the pictures of Margreet, she typed 'Sold'. She drafted an e-mail that she sent to each person individually. In that e-mail, she asked if, when sending her collages of works of art, they would mention not only the price, but also the name of the work of art. In the e-mail she sent to Huib, she asked him whether he would be OK if she divided his page into two parts, namely 'Furniture' and 'Other work' and whether he would then, when she had finished splitting it up, type in the text and the price or 'Sold'. He emailed her back with an idea that went a little further, namely four sections, splitting 'Furniture' into 'For Sale' and 'Sold' and the same for the other work. She liked the idea and made those four different pages under his name. She emailed him if he would write the text and price with them as soon as possible, and she would move them to the right pages. She got a thumbs-up and a notification that he would get right on it. During the time he was doing that, Ilse took a break with the music Lisa had allowed her to copy on her computer. She relaxed with it and let her tears flow again.

About half an hour later, she received a message from Huib: he had finished! She wrote him back: 'Thanks, then I'll get on with it!'

She started shuffling his images and texts, moved them to the right sub-pages. When she finished, she was thoroughly satisfied with it and emailed Huib that she was done. He wrote back, saying he was impressed.

Moments later, she saw that he was coming. She let him in, happy as a child: "I think I have really finished everything! I hope everyone will send in their collages soon, then I can really complete things and then it's only a matter of adding if you guys have made something new."

Huib smiled at her enthusiasm. "Tell, show me, I have already seen the website, saw that you had made but not yet opened the pages of Danielle, Bianca and Maureen. A good idea! I taught them both how to make those collages, they would work on them and try to forward them to you today."

Ilse beamed: "That would be nice! I also emailed Elly about it. I typed 'Sold' under her murals, and under that an announcement that she has switched to smaller paintings, that the pictures will follow soon. I think with her, since she produces quite a lot, I'm also going to do a distribution like yours."

"Good idea. The others don't have very many yet, but once they have sold a few, it is not so complicated to make such a division for them too. Right? Or is it tricky?"

"Well, it's a bit of work, but I don't find it difficult. I put the Editor of the website twice on my screen, side by side, and slide from one to the other."

"Oh, really? Can it be that simple?" asked Huib in surprise.

"Yes, just look at it!" She opened the Editor double and started sliding. "Easy right?" And she slid them back into place. "I can easily do that for those who sold things in between, no problem really!"

"Ilse, I am deeply impressed by the website alone! Really great job!"

Ilse, absolutely delighted at his enthusiasm, opened her other files and explained to him how she had made them and wanted to use them.

"I'll be honest with you," Huib said when he had seen everything, "that I don't understand everything, how you managed it, that especially, but that I do sense how you are going to use this and that it is a genius set-up! I'm happy with it! I think the others will like it if you make a group email, with the link of the website and saying it's basically ready."

"Well," Ilse hesitated, "I think I'd rather wait for that until I have the images of Bianca, Maureen, Elly and Danielle as well. Then we'll have a more complete overview of all the genius artworks!"

"Good idea, right you are!"

"Great, then I'm going to create accounts on Facebook and Twitter and add and follow you all. Does everyone already have accounts?"

"Yes, that's taken care of, I already have them all as friends and followers."

"Hahahaha, followers, you are a great leader Huib!"

"Please no..." groaned Huib.

"No, I understand you don't want to be, but you are the one who set things up, and you did a fantastic job. I had a perfect base to work on! Anyway, that has nothing to do with those followers," she chuckled.

"That's just the way it is! I'll let you play around with social media and get some more work done. By the way, do you back up regularly?"

"Yes, I have them here on an external drive."

"Perfectly done, topper! Good luck with those socials!

" Thankie!"

Huib walked out and Ilse turned back to her computer. She opened accounts at both socials, as Huib so conveniently called it. She saved all login details, including those of the website, in a separate file.

.

The next day, she had all the collages in, so she could put them on the website. She could vividly imagine how difficult it was for anyone to charge such high prices. She knew that Huib had suggested to Bianca that she continue to listen to her inner voice on this in the future. If their soul made it clear to them that they needed to give a work of art to someone cheaper or even for free, there would be a reason, it would be necessary for that person. She was reminded of Elly, that she started crying when she saw Bianca's doll. Later, Elly had told her, that she had already seen the dress, without the doll once, but somehow it had touched her deeply to see the dress while that doll was wearing it. She couldn't explain it, but it had happened. Similarly, others might need such a touch.

If an artist knew with certainty that he had to give something for free, she would get no income from it... Ilse smiled. There had been a time when she would have found that difficult, it would have felt like not fair. But now that she was in the middle of this group, in their work, she felt clearly how she was allowed to be one with them and was extremely grateful for that alone. How things would turn out financially... she would see!

Feeling grateful, she opened all the pages and mailed the link in a group e-mail. The reactions soon poured in. Without a doubt, everyone was extremely happy with the result of her work!

And she herself? She had enjoyed setting this up!

To chapter 38. Making clips of the music recordings

Or to the Table of contents