Sunday, October 11, 2009

Vintage goodness: shadow boxes, projects, buttons and a magnetic memo tray








I decided it was high time to go through my two tins of buttons, and when I found this vintage tray a magnetic memo board came to life. The tray is actually salmon-colored, with gold and black, and so I used an assortment of red, pink, black, gray and gold buttons and the trusty glue gun.

I've been collecting vintage medical supplies for a long time, since I work in health care. The perfect shape shadowbox came along, and voila! Medical shadow box. I love using old printer's type-storage trays and drawers for shawdow boxes. My next project is to incorporate my vintage art, school and office supplies.


Sunday, October 4, 2009

Score! Birthday! Ebay! Etsy! Junking! Swaps!












September went out like a lamb, which was merciful, considering a certain number birthday--or perhaps other of life's diversions--has caused my blood pressure to rise into the danger zone. A little week-long break from blogging, Flickr, Hotmail, Etsy, Ebay, swaps, groups, and virtually everything else didn't necessarily help the BP but it did show me I really missed blogging.

I like my virtual record of art I've made, received, stuff I've done, read, etc., and although I don't post to my Blythe blog or my writing blog as often as this one, I do like to upload my photos to Flickr as soon as I take them, and organize them accordingly.

The books above, an old Alice in Wonderland, barely hanging together, and a fashion compendium with 1,000 pictures, were both found in antiques shops in North Webster, IN for $3.00 each. They're going to come in handy for altered art.

And thanks to some help from Maggie on Etsy, my Avon Small World re-collection of the eight 1970s figures is essentially complete, sans a few boxes.

The blue charm bracelet is the finished version of the charm bracelet I blogged about starting here. It traveled around the world, literally, to California, Pennsylvania, Norway and more, before making its way back to me in the Marie Antoinette Mail Art round robin charm bracelet swap.

And last but not least, the crazy assortment of goodies photo includes an Alice doll, some doll heads, a pink beaded jewelry box from Pier 1, some old Bailey's Irish Cream cups, a pretty pink rose necklace, a little lavender crescent-shaped dish, a reproduction apothecary bottle, an old tin robot and the finished version of my Zettiology skinny book, from a swap on Flickr, blogged about here. These treasures arrived via various means and reasons but all helped to make my birthday week and month special. More on the finished Zetti book soon. It's an explosion of art and color.

Meanwhile, many of the vintage books and treasures, bottles and doll heads came from one of the most wonderful places on earth: Green Oak Antiques in Rochester, IN. These three buildings are 10,000 ft2 (that's right, ten thousand) of furniture, junk, garden wire, salvage, cottage, victorian, primitive, jewelry and more.

Owner Ann Burton Wootten Furnivall and I had some great chats in person and via email about altered art, steampunk jewelry, favorite sites and more. She has some great sites: her blog Magpie Cottage, Gypsy Market on Etsy and the shop site, Green Oak Antiques.

I highly recommend a drive to Rochester from wherever you are. Out-of-state visitors are very common. You'll need several hours and probably a truck. They are open 10-5 every day but Thursday.

The Making of A Marie





































Here is an approximate 22" Marie Antoinette dress form I made for a swap with Stephanie Watt. I covered two paper boxes and attached them together and then attached a paper mache dress form which I had covered with tissue paper, lace, sheet music, tulle, ribbon and to which I lashed a decorative feather corset-style. I've been saving this feather I got from Dale McLain for almost two years! Some of the luxurious beaded trims came from Hobby Lobby.
For the absent head I used a white porcelain rose drawer pull, with part of an old earring and green micro beads. The skirt is made from a rose-print fabric wrapped in irridescent chiffon and trimmed with several different laces and velvet ribbon. There is no sewing anywhere on the form. Can't wait to see the peach form I am getting in exchange!
You can see more of my Marie Antoinette dress forms in my Flickr set here.