An Honest Playmate, and Self Mastery

No problem here with the rush to sexualize the kids, or with glitzy plastic acoutrement, these are natural kids, and a natural child is a lot of fun.  They may be a little patched from skidding into home base, with grass stains and dirty feet, but they are completely loveable and just plain kids. They get along pretty well, most of the time. Their summers last for a long time, time enough for extended adventures of limitless days awaking joyous to sunlight and promise. Remember going to sleep to the sound of crickets and waking up to mocking birds?

These ones are stuffed with recycled sawdust from the local lumber store, and dressed in hand dyed salvaged fabric. They have old mother of pearl buttons for eyes, french knots for hair and embroidered smiles.

Couldn't you use a good, honest playmate?  Of course you could!

I'm relisting some of my older things, these dolls and some wall assemblage pieces from 2009. I like to keep a lot of variety in my shop, so please don't be confused by it all -- there are actually similarities between these pieces and the jewelry I make.

Should I go, or should I stay? The Chimera's Dilemma -- a little boy-faced bird perched on an old spool, in the doorway of the house, wondering whether to migrate with the birds or stay home, either way, there's yearning involved. If you go, you long for home, if you stay, you long to fly.  It is a dilemma.

Here's an altered Altoid tin (a favorite format), with a theme of "Master," and whatever thoughts may be inspired by the face I found on an antique cabinet card. He seems to have alot of composure and self mastery, but he is a bit odd, too. It features also scraps of my own marbled paper (from before you could find the ingredients or kits, from before the net, back when I was in school, mom saved it for me), a scrap of pressed brass, and a grand old key tag, wrinkled and stained, that finally found its home, just short of the trash pile, and of course the master key. And the great old electrical cord, with copper wires that got shorted, covered with fine cotton braiding. It's a bit of a challenge for some, but I do love this piece, and have kept it on my studio wall. Now that I am making more space for newer work, it's getting listed on Etsy.

We've had a brilliant summer here, and now the first cloudy and cool days of approaching autumn seem like a loss.  Enjoy each day my friends, change is the only constant!

Wunderkammer Miracle Cabbage Full of Life Seed Box, Brooch, Portable Art Work

I was fortunate to attend a class led by the Mistress of Tin, Marlene True (who is now represented as a tributary at the Metal Museum in Memphis), last year at The Ranch.  One of our projects was a hinged box. I made one of tin that I torched to remove the paint, and from there it became a little receptacle for three antique vials of seeds Randi gave me, from old hardware stock found in Maine; in my pile of antique magazines, one of them, believe it or not, The Modern Priscilla, I found an add for seeds ("Huckabee's Full of Life Seeds, Cabbage $800 an acre") and it all just fell together, the way things do when they need to happen.  It is now a brooch, or tabletop personal wunderkammer, or a wall piece, all TBD by a new owner.  I am beginning to think more of this sort of thing -- yes, it can function as jewelry, but it is really art on a personal scale, portable, adaptable to intimate spaces, and not far from being a toy, either.  I just love the little ol' thang, but thangs are piling up around here and I need to make room, figuratively (in my work generating internal spaces) and literally (in my work space).  To see more of Marlene's Work, click this, or go to the Metal Museum.  The thang is now in the statement gallery in my Etsy shop.

Virtues We Can Do Without

self-ef·fac·ing (slf-fsng)
adj.
Not drawing attention to oneself; modest.

self-ef·facement (-fsmnt) n.

This traditionally feminine virtue is not of much use when you are trying to sell your work.

Humility can be deceptive, anyway.  It is

most useful in getting a person to

share her ice cream.

Run, Don't Walk

Fellow artists, go right away over to Sparrow's latest post and even if it gives you prickly heat, read it and take it to heart.  As you read through the beefy paragraphs, don't argue, don't say "yes but," or "if only," because when you get down toward the end and read price comparisons to what can be had at trendy, up-market places, you will be gobsmacked!  Then reconsider the value of what you do, and expect to be paid for it.  Matter of fact, give yourself a raise!  If you don't, who will?

And read the comments, too.  You will have an answer for the next wannabe customer who expects the starving artist to give a discount, something along the lines of, "what would you say if your boss wanted you to take a 10% cut in pay?"

Thank you, Sparrow.  My eye is on you!

A Talsiman for the Time Traveler

One of the legends of the true cross tells of the journey of Helena, Constantine’s mother, to find the cross upon which Christ was crucified, which she found; ever after throughout medieval Christendom, bits of wood were hawked to pilgrims as pieces of the True Cross. The pendant talisman of Charlemagne, first Holy Roman Emperor, contains a piece of the True Cross, enshrined beneath a rock crystal jewel, with which he was entombed. A cycle of legends about the tree that was the source of the cross includes the story that it grew from a seed placed in the mouth of Adam’s corpse. All, I think the effort of folk to give faith material substance, alas, not such a simple matter, and one that makes us vulnerable to charlatans.

This necklace began as an old rosary, of dusty dry wooden beads, with only a fragment of the broken crucifix left hanging, which did make me think of the true cross phenomenon. To this I’ve added a pendant of oxidized copper in the shape of an eye, with milagros below – leg, foot, arm and hand, with the fragment hanging below. It makes a rustic and mysterious talisman, which I have charged with the duty to protect its owner from charlatans, mountebanks, and liars of all kinds.

It just might help.  If you think about it.

Definitely Done Now -- A Swivel Mechanism

Because a hefty pendant like this stop watch reliquary will want to turn as you move about, it should be joined to the chain with a swivel, which I found out after wear testing.  After a bit of ruminating (this stuff interferes with my sleep at night, actually), I came up with my own swivel mechanism:  A length of steel wire was flattened and spread in the middle, a hole drilled, a balled head pin fit to the hole, then the length was bent around a mandrel into a sort of split ring, hardened with some hammering, and the head pin slipped in and coiled into a connection that fit another jump ring.  Now all done, and the watch spins around nicely on the little swivel.  Now I'm done.

All Done Now

No good light here today, but I wanted to post it, so here it is, all done now!

It wears very nicely, although I think a pendant as massive ought to have a swivel mounting, which is what I'll try next.  I'm thinking more nails, used to make one of these.  You'll notice on the old watches, there was a swivel connection to the watch.  What I am noticing is, when it is worn around the neck, the weight and shape of the watch makes it turn around on the chain when you bend.  I am hoping a swivel will correct that.  Besides, it will be fun to make one.  So perhaps there'll be another WIP post.