This is another experimental piece. I made the oriental fan and hand painted it. But I couldn't decide what to do with it. I put some sheet music behind it, added a tiny, hand painted vintage looking button in the corner, and put it between thin pieces of glass. The cornucopia bowl of fruit at the bottom is hand cast in pewter.
It looks like a metal shadow box, with several loops at the bottom where shiny crystals could be hung.
Or, if I can figure out the setting for the orange-red fused glass faux gem, it would look great with the japanese fan's color!
The other shadowboxes I made earlier didn't have glass on the top, they were open. This one is glassed in on both front and back.
I like combining the resin, pewter, glass and solder to make something that looks really ancient.
Have you ever thought about writing a story, telling a tale. Maybe a made up one, maybe a true one from life. Something that happened, or something that we wish had happened. This last week I bought a package of various widths and sizes of paint brushes at the supply store. They aren't fancy; really, they are meant for kids. I thought if I brought them home for myself, maybe they'd get me started painting again, journaling in a notebook or something similar.
The term "journaling" makes it seem more formal and technical than it should be. I want to mess with color on paper, and maybe on cloth, and make fun images. Not knowing ahead of time what they will be, just splashes of color that begin to tell some kind of fun or sad or silly story.
I was thinking about the idea of the blog. If you were to write a story in a blog, would you have to write it in reverse? Because when you read a blog, you see the most recent thing first, and then go back in time. Backwards reading. From the present to the past to the deep long ago time.
So if you wanted to write a story in a blog, would you have to put the ending, and then the chapter before the ending, and so on, until the last thing you wrote was the beginning? So that when it was read in the blog, it would read in the right order? For some reason I've been thinking about this for days, trying to figure out how you could put a storytelling adventure into a blog, and have it read in the correct sequence when you were done.
If I was clever, I'd try to figure out a story that could be read in any order, sort of like pulling playing cards out of a deck, and have it still make sense. But depending on the order you read the cards, the story might come out with a different ending.Or if the story's pages had holes for putting into a 3-ring binder, the story could be changed, rearranged and added to all the time. Sort of like life feels like, sometimes.
Maybe the problem is words. If the story was told in images, in pictures, would it matter the same way what order you looked at them? If I'm honest, does it really matter what order things appear in, as long as we truly see them, and make the images part of our story ... ?
I showed earlier how I put a mirror in a bezel and covered it with a swinging lid. That reminded me of a medallion I created a while back with lovebirds on it.
I wanted to put some color into it, a bright blue that looks like bird's eggs.
It's glossy like enameled metal, but it's hand painted, not fused.
The bezel has an egg shape to it, rounded and oval, with the blue background and the sweet nesting birds on it.
I guess it's summertime, with bright blue skies and bird's eggs.
If this one has now found a home somewhere I'll make some more like it. I think it's very fun, I can see it with baby blue pearls in a strand, as a pretty necklace for a summertime party.
Last weekend I spent time just letting my fingers make whatever they wanted. Not especially planned, just spur of the moment.
Sometimes I have a specific idea in mind. And other times I just let things go, and wait to see with some surprise what comes. This focal bead, with its partial initial and wire work, reminds me of the kinds of advertising plaques you used to see in old general stores.
For some kind of liquor, or maybe patent medicine.
I'm not sure exactly what it is myself, I guess you can help me write its story.
This focal has an oriental feeling to me, with the round bezel and the peaceful moon face inside.
It's hand polished and buffed to a very worn and natural sheen.
And this one has a french feeling with the ornate decorative fleur de lys pattern on it, in a walnut brown warm tone, with fancy wire scrollwork.
Like something on a garden gate in the deep south, in Louisiana.
Seeing what comes out of working for a couple of days is just as surprising to me as anyone!
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Hey, I've been putting some special things on SALE in the Etsy shop - they're going kind of quickly so if you've had your eye on something pop over, it might be a great deal!
I'm looking for a fun summer read. When the weather warms up, and it isn't raining (which lately hasn't happened but I know it will someday) I like to sit on the back desk after the day job and read a book until the dusk falls.
I wanted this little butterfly component to look like the books I remember from the library, with the cloth backing embossed with writing and designs.
Do you remember those old books, with their worn and dark colors?
So maybe later this week I'll go over to the library and try to find an easy read. Maybe a historical drama, or something in a mystery.
What are you reading - anything fun?
It's raining here today, since last night it has rained steadily. It means that the last of the snow is gone. And that it's above freezing, otherwise there'd be more snow. A lot more snow, if all this rain turned to snow instead.
I didn't work late into the night again. I got too tired. But I did get all my orders shipped out yesterday, except for one large custom order I'm finishing up today. So that makes me happy. I like the feeling of completion I get when the goodies head out the door to new homes.
Today is strictly for finishing the custom order - then maybe something else. I made some new molds yesterday too, and can't wait to take some first casts from them in pewter.
This resin piece I created a while back, I wanted to see if I could drill through the resin to turn the cabochons into beads of a sort. On this one I wanted to add some twisted wire hanger made of annealed iron, to make it look like an old advertising token of some kind. It has the words "OLD STORY" in it, with several different memory recollection images inside it.
I put it into the Etsy shop, I have a couple more to photograph and add there later.
If I finish the custom order in time, I want to pour some more resin while the temperatures are warmer. The resin has to cure overnight, so I have to be sure it stays warm enough in the studio for it.
In using the mini-vacuum to clean up resin dust the other day I think I accidently captured some small resin beads in the dust catcher of the vacuum, so I need to open it carefully. I can hear something solid rattling inside, and two of the smaller resin beads are missing.
The dog comes in from outdoors with shiny drops of water on her back and dark feet from the wetness on the ground. I don't mind the rain, since I don't have to go anywhere today. I can just watch it out the patio door, dripping on the deck.
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PS - I put a few things on sale in the Etsy shop, if you've been waiting for a little sale you might pop over and check out the list, maybe your favorite is included...
Here's another example I just finished, of creating the metal collages. I used a shield shaped pewter medallion and added a detailed emblem of the lovebirds.
They're pretty fanciful, I know. They remind me of my idea of antique medals and medallions, the kind I was searching for on the trip to Ireland but couldn't find the real thing during the trip.
It looks sort of sentimental to me, like a Victorian love charm or memento mori piece.
Maybe I'll try engraving some sweet messages on the backs of some of these. You know, like the flowery initials and names you see on some vintage pieces, on the reverse side.
And they're still very lightweight this way, I'm very pleased.
Now, if the weather will warm up a bit, I'll turn to taking a cast off the authentic french medal, and see about using it on something similar.
I can't wait! Can we have spring now, please? Instead of all this snow...
