Reborn

Left for scrap in a corner of the junk yard...I could see the potential...

Peeling black paint...a warped plywood top...but there was something there...

I took it home...stripped off the paint...
shined up the chrome...decided to let the natural patina of the steel show its true colors...

Gave it a new solid wood top...
whitewashed the wood...













finished the edge with vintage surveyor's tape... 





























Ready for its trip to The Farm Chicks show...ready to give a bright idea to someone else that this is the perfect desk for their home...

The beauty of form & function

Last weekend I had a spare moment...and stopped in at an estate sale here in town...I love it when the ad mentions "...have lived in house for 63 years, everything must go..."

I  didn't make it over to the house until the end of the sale...so slimmer pickin's...that's fine by me...
really need to keep my accumulation under control...

My modus operandi is to always hit the garage and basement first...in this case, there was quite a cache of tools in the garage...with one BIG box of screwdrivers...I looked through the contents...and was really struck by the variety, texture and color of the wood handles...yes, all wood handles...no plastic to be seen.  I have an idea of a large multi media collage that I want to create for my summer art show - Fresh Paint held in Everett -
here's what I picked up...all for $2.00...

the diversity of the shapes and textures of the wood handles captivated me...such workmanship in their construction...no wonder they've lasted so long...

the shape of the handle providing placement of the palm...and the design within the wood to ensure a good grip...worn patina that belies their usefulness...

I also picked up this vintage black metal lunch box...
did the owner carry his lunch to work as a carpenter or handyman?

Whatever their prior history might have been...I will be giving these tools a new story...as I work to incorporate them as part of my art assemblage...details later this summer...

I'm packing my suitcase...

Do you remember playing that game as a child..."I'm packing my suitcase and I'm taking..." and then each person listed an item in the suitcase, starting with the letter A and continuing on through the alphabet...

Well, I'm packing my suitcase...and I'm taking an aluminum A...and a bounty of buttons...and a collection of cut-outs...and you get the idea...












This morning I'm traveling to Whidbey Island (a ferry ride across Puget Sound from here) and taking a two day workshop from Seth Apter...called Mixed Media Memoire.  Seth is a renown multi-media artist from NYC who has been a tremendous supporter of my work...so when I heard that he would be leading a workshop at the Pacific Northwest Art School in Coupeville, I just had to be there (many thanks to the Southern Man for underwriting a portion of this adventure!)

The workshop will combine bookbinding techniques with collage applications...I've been busy collecting the items on the supply list...as well as those special ephemera treasures that will make my book truly unique.  Here's a small sampling of what I have packed...and yes, I am packing all my supplies in one of my vintage suitcases...it only seemed right!

The above quote is a page from an old Anthropologie catalog...I've always loved it...
its been hanging on the bulletin board in my studio for 10 years...time to use it...

pages from dictionaries and reference books always provide inspiration...













I'll be staying overnight with my artist friend Wendy Lee Lynds...so of course I needed to pack a hostess gift...wine and chocolates...wrapped in an old burlap sack...tied up with a length of cloth surveyor's tape and embellished with a metal "W"...

It will be good to be the student this time...though I'm sure that we will all learn from each other...
its bound to be an adventure...

Creative distraction

Sometimes I see an idea...and it just gets stuck in my head...it intrigues me and stimulates my curiosity...how can I take that inspiration and tweak it...giving it my own twist...and I really won't rest until I give it a shot...









Such was the case with the lovely glass bottles that Kate of Full Circle Studio created for the Artist Collective Sale held last weekend...

Kate used her own collage images on the bottles...the same flavor of images that grace her switchplate covers, her tea towels and her paperweights...a distinctive vintage vibe with a modern interpretation...

Lately I had been playing with vintage bottles (as seen here...) and had a couple of bottles left...I gave myself an afternoon to experiment...

First I printed out some of my graphic images onto drafting transfer paper...this is what I had available in the studio...since I used my inkjet printer for color copies, the ink smeared when I began to adhere the transfer to the bottle...even waiting for the ink to dry overnight did not totally set the image...
so onto plan B...and now the creative distraction is on its second day...but I am determined to figure this out!

I turned to my stash of printed paper napkins...separating the 3-ply napkins and using only the top printed ply, I thought this sheet would be thin enough to lay smoothly on the bottle...

A coating of Elmer's glue was painted on the front face of the bottle...

and then the single ply sheet of the napkin was gently laid on top...
being ever so careful to smooth out the air bubbles without tearing the paper...

After the bottle was completely dry, I wiped off the excess dried glue and then very lightly sanded the paper napkin area to make it as smooth as possible...

and then I sealed the paper layer with a coat of wax...
















Let me interject here...an earlier post talked about my favorite tools...
my favorite supplies - by far and away - are Elmer's glue and Johnson's paste wax

I like using Elmer's because it has a long drying time...which gives me a little bit more latitude in working to position an image in just the right position...but the downside to Elmer's is that it is water-based...and any moisture will activate the glue to become sticky...this is where the Johnson's paste wax comes in...using a layer of wax seals the surface and makes it impenetrable to moisture...and the plus side is the slight sheen on the surface that results from buffing the wax...

and yes...I buy my Elmer's by the gallon...










Back to the bottles...if you're keeping track...my afternoon of distraction is now on day three...the surface of the bottles are glued and waxed...all I do is add a few snippets of ribbon, string or wire...and the bottles are complete...

I like how the paper napkin ended being so translucent...this is the front of the egg bottle...

and this is the view from the back of the bottle...
with the image on the front showing through...

















Each bottle has its own extra touch...the egg bottle has a feather tied on the neck...the French bottle has a red glass heart...and a postage stamp that I added before I waxed the surface...

The fern bottle has a handmade tag...my recent love of metal paper fasteners led me to snip off the end of one fastener, sanding the edges smooth...trimming a fortune cookie slip to size...gluing it inside the recessed area of the fastener...and adding a metal ball chain to dangle the tag from the bottle's neck...

Distraction over...curiosity sated...back to work at hand...

Linking up to Funky Junk Interiors Party Junk...more distractions over there!

One fine day

One of the bloggers who I follow regularly is Kim of Art in Red Wagons...lately she has started an on-going theme of One Fine Day...reflecting the positive enlightenment that can occur if one just tweaks their thinking a tiny tad...and takes a moment to breath...


I like this idea...I'm adopting it as my mantra...


edited with kk texture "may" at soft light 72% with
second layer at color burn 42%

The white lilacs are in bloom...the tree is in my neighbor's yard but a good share of the branches are hanging over my garden fence...the fragrance is astounding...and I love how the green leaves pop in my white composition photo...linking up to Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday...it is indeed one fine day...

Springs!

Never underestimate the determination of a woman with a power tool...

I have been working on finishing up projects for Farm Chicks...and needed assistance with some uncooperative wire...those really hard-core steel wire springs...that you can't bend with your hands or a pair of pliers...




I called on my artist friend Shelley...not only could she help but she had even more springs for me...she was dismantling a stripped down '51 Chevy truck seat...making it into a flower bed...here's a picture of the completed project - isn't this incredible?  It will be for sale in her booth at the garden art show, Sorticulture...

After I was done gawking at the flower bed, we bent into shape the wire springs I had...with the help of a very large vise...and then we were inspired...there was an old mattress box spring in Shelley's yard...with all of the fabric long gone...and the wood gray and weathered...and the springs corroded and rusty (and I could just kick myself for not getting a "before" picture!)

In no time at all, a power jigsaw cut the box spring into smaller pieces...and then it was just a matter of squaring off the ends with the table saw...Shelley wanted to remove the springs from the weathered wood...but I liked the patina of the wood...and decided that I would mount each spring on a painted piece of lumber to give it more heft and character...

When I got home...out came more power tools...cut up pieces of painted wood...sanded the edges...smoothed on a layer of paste wax and then attached each spring to the top of the painted piece with a squirt of glue between the two wood pieces and a couple of finishing nails pounded in from the bottom to securely hold the two pieces together...a rubber bumper on each corner ensures that the weathered wood won't scratch the table surface...

I added test tubes to each spring...making them into funky vases...

Some of the vases are singles, some are doubles...

And then I saw this pic from Curious Sofa...

and it inspired me to do this...

So I'm open to suggestions...what else could I put in them?