Saturday, October 26, 2013

Constructing and Creating Crone Figures

I build crones, multi-media figures, representing the crone ~ a woman who has reached an age of wisdom and maturity.

The figures are built of salvaged materials, wood, metal, glass, clay. The faces are individually molded clay, all are painted. Each figure is different and transforms in form as part of the creation process; each is unique and individual.

This statement defines the crone and what goes into making one of my crone figures.


I usually create the crone figures in sets of two to four, the set pictured here are the Four Sisters Series.

Crone, one of the Four Sisters Series






























Crone, one of the Four Sisters Series


Crone, one of the Four Sisters Series
Crone, one of the Four Sisters Series

Crone, one of the Four Sisters Series

Thursday, October 24, 2013

tARTism #1



Everything has beauty

but not everyone sees it.

 



Some things a tART just has to say. 

I make these images using my photographs, vintage photographs, 
and vintage illustrations. 

I hope you enjoy them! 



A Cupboard Made

I have to confess that I love chippy old furniture, with the patina of age and all the stories that go with a vintage piece. Fortunately, I've married a man who likes old furniture, although not necessarily chippy furniture, and definitely likes saving money. Even better he has mad woodworking skills.

A friend of our gave us a pile of old windows salvaged from a hotel renovation in Virginia Beach, Virginia. They were in decent shape, and had some funky pink pepto-bismol paint.
    
The salvaged windows, pre-cleaning, still showing the original cord sash.  
We needed a place to store towels and bath supplies so these windows were to become the doors of a cupboard for our 1909 farmhouse on Virginia's eastern shore.

My husband built the frame out of salvaged wood he had in storage.

The windows became the cupboard doors, after we cleaned the windows we decided to leave the pink paint intact - so the inside of the cupboard doors is pink. And I even convinced the husband that the outside of the windows didn't need any thing more than a wire brushing to clean off any loose paint. We don't have small children so there were no worries about lead paint - otherwise the windows should probably be sealed with a clear varnish.

Ceramic electric 'knobs' from old knob and tube wiring were re-purposed as handles for the 'new' doors.

The top of the cupboard is barn wood salvaged from a barn that was torn down in Loudoun County, we left that as found - simply cleaned it up. The back is a piece of leftover bead board from the bathroom renovation. After much discussion we decided to use chicken wire, leftover trying to keep the rabbits out of the garden, as the sides. A coat of paint on the unfinished wood frame and our cupboard was finished.



The finished cupboard all loaded up, plenty of room for all our towels and bath supplies. And having glass doors forces us to stay tidy!































And here a picture of the cupboard from the side. I really like how the legs of the frame are tapered.































#recycle #salvage #reuse #vintage #green #creative