Ginny's Small Studio

Fajita Friday!

Just returned from our regular Friday night Fajita dinner at our favorite restaurant.  In spite of the fact that our clothes smell like fajitas, we enjoyed the evening so much.  

Last blog we talked about mail art a bit. I love getting decorated envelopes.  I took some calligraphy lessons years ago, but did not keep up with my practice and have since lost the techniques and skill completely.  There is an annual contest run by the Washington Calligraphy Guild called the "Graceful Envelope".  Here is a sample of what they receive.

How I wish I had kept up with my study of calligraphy.  Of course we will never know if I could have been as talented at it as these calligraphers.  If you would like to see more go here.

Here are some questions for you today:

Do you wish you had kept up with something you started (and stopped) years ago?

Do you wish you were receiving interesting mail in your mail box?  Send a decorated envelope to my PO box and I will send you one back.  Deal?  

Ginny c/o  Small Studio

PO Box 11

Avon Lake OH 44012

Friendship

Years ago, I think it was the late 80s, when I first got on the internet I was on Prodigy.  I typed in "Rubber Stamps" and found a small group of about 20 people who were chatting on a shared list about stamping.  They all had stamp names like Stampo or Ex Posto Facto or Rubber Queen or Arto Posto.  The group was extremely active in mailing stuff back and forth. When I say stuff, I mean stuff.  Sure there were cards and envelopes, but also paper plates, Barbie dolls, shoes and all matter of other stuff unadorned, unwrapped, unboxed, but definitely stamped both with postage and rubber stamps and the Post Office let it all go through.  We were a tight group. We joked, we argued over what is art and we shared each others ups and downs.  Most of us had not met in person. Through the years several of us opened stores and several of us started stamp lines. Some became involved in mail art, some in formal art and a few drifted away.  When we come across each other either in person or online, it is a warm and friendly reunion.  It is as if we are family and had grown up together. Solid old friendships, they are.

Rubber stamping during my involvement, has gone through many transformations. It started out as funky and quirky and then became very cute with fluffy animals and fat simple flowers. Then it transformed itself into sophisticated art designs and I think now it has gone back to mostly cute and is generally clear stamps for scrapbookers full of words and phrases, flowers and scrolls.  There was a 20 year heyday for stamps that is slowly fading away.  The conventions have dwindled and there are very few true stamp stores left. 

What made me think about all this?  Yesterday I had to move all my stamp storage to get at the phone jack in my art room. I realized that I had not used a fraction of my stamps in a long time.  I thought that maybe I should try to sell them or donate them to a school art department.  As I looked at them, I realized how much I love those old friends, my stamps, and could not part with them, so back they went into their drawers. I will use them again, I am sure.

Today John hung an old architectural piece we recently purchased on impulse.  I love how it looks over the doorway!

The Morgan Conservatory

Actually the name of this wonderful art laboratory is Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory and Educational Foundation. Whew!  John and I spent the day there today filling our minds and hearts with the possibilities of making something grand and important and passionate and fulfilling and good.

A very enthusiastic volunteer and intern, John, gave us a tour of the facility and several demos.  He showed us the steps to making handmade papers and shared samples of different types.  There is a huge area of this very old brick warehouse devoted to papermaking.  Huge vats, presses, blenders, stacks of screens and deckles and large work tables fill the work area of the paper studio. 

Next area was the the print studio with huge old letterpress printing presses and many, many cabinets filled with the letters.

Okay, so now the paper is made and printed.  What is next? Binding it all into a book, of course.  The Morgan has wonderful equipment for that too. Look at these wonderful old book presses which are just part of their working collection.

Check out this big press.

And this.....

If that's not enough, they also have an urban garden created from a transformed industrial area. It is a great example of reuse and conservation.  There are cisterns to catch the water and compost bins. Among other things, they are growing Mulberry trees to harvest the raw fiber to process for the production of archival grade Kozo paper.  

There is a gallery which has an exhibit going on now until Nov 28th titled "Paper in Motion".  The artwork is not your usual fare, but is much more interesting and mind involving. For example, this life-size guy below moves when an old sewing machine on the other side of the wall begins stitching.

Tom Balbo is the executive director and this is his dream idea and his passion.  With so many schools eliminating or downsizing their offerings for art, here is a place full of instruction, inspiration and hope that the art of papermaking, letterpress and bookmaking continue.  

Tom's sister Susan is the best PR person I have ever met.  She is energetic, positive, warm and friendly and very generous with her time.  I know because I spent a great deal of time today with her and enjoyed every minute.

The workshop schedule of letterpress, papermaking, book restoration and binding will resume in the Spring.

The Morgan is located at 1754 47th St in Cleveland and their hours are Wednesday through Saturday 10-4.  They welcome visitors.

Fall Back

Holiday number one...check!  Halloween decorations make me smile, especially the newer ones that are life size and creepy. I went everywhere this past week looking for creepy doll heads among the offered Halloween decorations, but no luck. Last year I stashed away skeletons to use all year.  I was pretty proud of myself for thinking to do this.  I did miss stashing away Easter egg dye to color paper though. I was sure I could stash away some faces or heads for the year's projects, but I found nothing.  Maybe I will have to make pretty stuff this year.  Yikes.  No.  I have to draw the line somewhere.

We had a zillion kids on our street.  Last year my grandson asked if the famous football player who lives across the street from us was giving out autographs instead of candy.  If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that we were unable to get said autograph.  Well, famous football player was traded to the Jets last month.  So we are pretty sure that last night's mob was definitely out for the candy.

Next holiday coming up is my favorite.  Thanksgiving.  No hassle ahead of time, just cooking and baking. No presents. No pressure, just great family and friend time.  

I have been busy uploading items to my Etsy shop this morning and my daughter/webgirl has uploaded some more things to the Emporium, too.  Why not meander over and tell me what you like?

Before you do that though, here is the question of the day for you to answer:

What is the next technique or skill you want to learn? 

Odds and Ends

The view out one of our windows today is above.  This might be the last Fall photo.  It was windy last night and leaves are falling and falling and calling and calling to be raked.

One more odd chandelier.  Fun, but not my style.  I bet it casts some interesting colors and shadows on the walls.

Our ride through Amish country earlier this week had an interesting stop.  One of the shops we visited was owned by an Amish family.  I love the beards and severe clothing the men wear.  We walked into the shop and were greeted by a very friendly Amish gentleman.  We walked around the bright shop that was lit completely by many solatube rounds cut into the ceiling.  I added those last year to my art room and they really enhance the light.  The only artificial light was a floor lamp generated by a butane tank attached to the lamp.  Cash only as there was no electricity for a credit card machine. While we were there lunch was brought in for the man by horse and buggy and daughter.  

In the area we visited, the farms are picture perfect beautiful nestled among rolling hills. The steep and narrow roads are shared by car and buggy which can make for slow going even though the beautiful horses seem to be flying along. I have questions though.  In freezing weather with icy roads how do the horses fare?  How do they gain traction going uphill and how does the wagon not gain too much momentum going downhill on ice?   

I am organizing right now as we speak the 2010 Small Studio Workshop Series. The series will be one long weekend a month from May to October with some of my favorite instructor/artists. I have several excellent instructors lined up, just waiting on final dates.  Keith LoBue was coming in April, but has requested an October slot instead.  Tentatively Pam Sussman will teach in May and Michael deMeng will arrive in June.  I am very excited.  Details will be available here and on the Small Studio website as soon as they are written in stone.  

Collecting

We went to an estate sale last week and the vision of the collections of things that the owner had amassed has not left me.  He collected lots of toys, really old toys.  There were boxes and boxes of old heavy toy trucks like 8 year old boys played with in the 40s and 50s.  They were big and did I say heavy? Some were in pristine condition and some were devoid of paint and banged up pretty good.  Maybe they were the favorites of those little boys of long ago.  There were hundreds of little toy cars too.

The man collected trains.  I should say COLLECTED because there were even more trains than trucks. There was every size and type.  Metal and plastic trains both and lots and lots of train track and train signs and train buildings.  Most were rusty and beat up.  It was almost as if the collector had deliberately collected the most used and loved trains and trucks. He saw value in them and obviously relished the collecting of them at one time.  He also collected books and magazines about old train sets. 

Then there were the collections of badges.  He collected boy scout badges, girl scout badges and other badges from corporations.  They were in binders and in plastic bags. Hundreds of them.

He collected lots of other things too like the handles of tools and old chairs and pickets from fences and the rails from stairs, but mostly he collected old toys and games.

We got to the sale about two hours after it began and there was still a line waiting to get in.  Before we entered I saw people leaving with big boxes full of toys and yet there was an unimaginable amount left when we went in.  

Estate sales are usually held when the owners have passed away and there is no family or the family is uninterested in keeping the stuff.  I can't forget how I felt as I looked around at all the toys this person had rescued and saved.  He must have loved the toys.  Maybe he repaired them and gave them away or maybe he was reliving his childhood or maybe he was a dealer of some kind and resold them.  Whatever his reason, it made me sad to watch strangers go through his collections and make judgements to their worth and haggling over the price with the money takers.  This was his passion, I think and it was being sold for less than it's worth maybe and to strangers.

Of course the train of thought leads me to all the things I collect and hoard.  What will happen to them after we are gone?  Will my kids know the value or who will want them?  My son Tim teases me and tells me that he already has reserved a very big dumpster for the cleaning out of the house someday. Would it help if I left little notes on things telling the story of their acquisition and value or would it only make me feel better?   I have too much stuff, but I have moved so often in my lifetime that I have really only surrounded myself with things that have meaning to me and that I love.  I know it won't matter after all, but it does make me wonder.

Road Trip

Wow!  Thank you for the kind comments and e-mails in reference to our 350 project art pieces.  You are the best, everyone of you!

At lunch today we were discussing who should rake the leaves that were falling like confetti all over our yard when it it occurred to us that the trees would be bare very soon. John was traveling the first two Fall seasons after we moved here, so this has really been his first Autumn in the East.  We quickly decided to take a road trip for the afternoon.  Keys? Check. Camera? Check.  Water? Check.  Map?  Don't be silly. John chose South, so off we went in the general direction of South. We drove side roads, of course, not major highways.

We saw more lovely old towns settled in the early and mid 1800s.

 

We drove through rolling hills with picturesque farms.

We dealt with the local traffic with good humor. If you click on the picture above, you can see two small faces solemnly looking back at us.

We found a parking spot in the crowded parking lot.

Our parking spot came without a shovel to clean up after our vehicle!

350 Project @ Zinnia

All reports exclaim over the 350 art show at Zinnia's in South Pasadena.  I so wish that we could have been there too.  I have no idea if the pieces John and I created sold or not, but it doesn't matter because we had fun making them.

Tamara gave John and I 8 almost 5"x5" pieces of wood to finish any way we chose.  The only rule was that we had to keep our creations contained within the side measurements to allow her to hang the 350 pieces (total) side by side in a grid.

Here are our 8:

Here are John's:

He wanted to do just two.  I love his use of texture and materials.

Below are the ones that I made:

What is Abundance?

Defined, the word "abundance" usually means an overflowing fullness; ample sufficiency; great plenty; profusion; copious supply; wealth. A lack of scarcity in all things.

For me abundance is defined as being able to pay all my bills at the end of the month, having enough food, enough room to feel free, enough gas to get where I want and all those basic types of needs fulfilled.  Real abundance I think is having a safe and happy family, love that surrounds one and the ability to recognize it all as wealth. Oh, and I want access to books I haven't yet read and art supplies I haven't used up.  I want people to admire and learn from and yes, an abundance of laughter.  I want to have curiosity and some skills.  I want to believe in things like the goodness of people, honesty, fairness and community.  I want to have friends who cherish these things also, lots of friends.  Life is good with all these things in it if we recognize them as abundance.

When we are young and we are asked what we want out of life, we often answered what career we wanted or where we wanted to live.  Seldom does anyone young answer that they want the abundance of happiness, love and passion for what we do. But really I think that is what we all want as our bottom line in life.

Why am I thinking of this tonight?  I am not sure, but personally life is so good right now and I am just so aware of how lucky I am to be so happy.

It Was a Day

Did you know that it is still really dark at 7AM?  We were up earlier than usual today for a Saturday.  We wanted to drive over to see my grandson Tony play football.  I was amazed at how serious a group of 7 & 8 year olds are about their sports. The field was muddy, the kids were dirty and we adults were so cold. It was about 45-50 degrees and windy.  I am such a wuss when it comes to being cold, but we were surrounded by the bright Fall colors and we had such a good time. Afterwards we all went to breakfast and I have told you often how I feel about a big table of laughing, chatting family. Makes me happy.

The high point of the day for me was a tour of son Tim's new offices and facilities.  Tim has recently started his own business with three other men.  They are commodities brokers dealing in the recycling of plastics.  It was really interesting to see the process.  They buy (among other things) the leg cutouts from companies that make diapers.  The huge bales of the polypropylene pieces are shredded and then spun until the force heats the shreds, water is shot at them and they become tiny pellets that can be resold and reformed into solid products.  In this case, they will be made into storage units by his next client. The machine that does this is huge and fills a giant warehouse, but can be run by just two workers and produces something like 1000 lbs of pellets an hour and a million lbs per month.  Generally though, they buy and resell without ever having the product go through their warehouse. It was fascinating and I am so proud of Tim.  

I deal in small products and feel insignificant next to the volumes he does.

Two of these small products have just been added to my etsy shop.

John and I found a watchmaker's case full of these wonderful little vials above for you to play with in your artwork.  I love the tiny labels.  The bottles are only about 1" high.

Coffee Break Design just sent me these wonderful Elevated Box Kits, not quite as small, for you to make something wonderful and artsy.  The large one fits an ATC perfectly.  Add a head and some arms and some design details and you will have created a funky little doll.

Recycling Art Revisited

Seth over at the Altered Page has a blog entry about recycling his own art.  You will want to go visit him. He also organizes many collaborative efforts on his blog.  He reminded me of one of our activities at my former store.  When samples would get worn, faded or out of date, we would cannibalize them for the usable parts and recycle them into new samples.

Former employee and long time friend, Kathy Herda sent me to this wonderful site, This Into That, where the artist makes useful shelves and bookcases out of everyday item.  Very cool.  Here is a sample:

I love how the artist used old books to make a bookcase!

And this table using all sorts of odd things:

Now I want to return to all those antique malls and flea markets to look for more stuff.  I think I have a big enough cabinet card collection.  I also recently found this card holder to keep them in.

 

And last for today on the subject of recycling, I received this "1000" book and I am really, really enjoying looking at all the different interpretations of recycling into art.

I am getting better and better at remembering to put my canvas bags into the car and remembering to take them into the stores with me.  How about you?

Chandeliers, Part II

The other day I posted about chandeliers, unusual chandeliers, sold in mainstream catalogues.  Somehow I missed this Pottery Barn submission.  Check it out above.  Any one of us that consider ourselves "alternative artists" could and would have this in our art rooms.  Clips hod anything one could want to display such as this collection of ephemera.  Pottery Barn shows this second use of the same clip chandelier system for the holidays. It would be fun for a birthday or anniversary with old photos.  I kinda like it, but I dont' think I would like 24/7 in my dining room.

I turned onto a little traveled, wooded road today to get home from errands and was confronted with a gaggle of geese numbering well over 100 dawdling in the middle of the road. They just looked at me when I drove near, never batting an eyelash.  Do geese have eyelashes?  I don't know, but I am sure you understand.  I had to wait 10 minutes until they decided to move en masse to the side of the road.  I had plenty of time to get a good photo for you, except I did not have my camera with me.  Bummer.  You are all creative.  Just use your imagination.  Here I will help:  autumn colored leaves on the heavily wooded trees surrounding me and the geese....dappled sunshine peeking through those leaves, the light through the dust of the aging leaves casting a golden haze.  Lovely.

I am slowly getting the items we found on our two road trips into my Small Studio Etsy shop. The latest includes three wonderful antique photo albums.  Lately I have seen the pages from this type of album used for garlands and also for the base for collage.  They are in varying degrees of distress, but definitely usable for art projects.  C'mon over and have a visit.

A Sunday Drive

I threatened you earlier that there would be more Fall photos.  I was not kidding.  Today was a wonderful crisp Fall day with sunshine after a gloomy week.  After a late breakfast we decided we wanted to get out of the house for a few hours.  Yes, back into the car for a short road trip.  We are major road trippers.

The colors are beginning to get to the breathtaking point.

We drove over to Norwalk.  I think I have mentioned it before, but it is a lovely town filled to the brim with century old houses and buildings.  We love to drive over there.

Everything in town looks well kept up and just like it must have a 100 years or more ago.  The town was incorporated in 1833.  Notice the tops of the buildings and the moldings.  It is just lovely.  We particularly like the old library.  We think it must be one of the Carnegie libraries that were built across the country.

On the way back home we passed some artful stuff.  Do you think it is art?  John calls it functional art.

Is it art?  This very functional and large (!)house number.  How about this wood pile at the local firewood business...Art?

Or how about this team of mailboxes that I photographed last year? Is it art?

I recently was friended by an old friend that I don't believe I have seen since college days.  I was so pleased to see that he has followed his art passion and it has taken him on quite a journey.  Go check out his sculptures here.

Recycling Art

My own personal carpenter, John, has been busy making boxes from Yardsticks for you.  Some of them are already up on my Etsy shop today.  We have also added some new photos and cabinet cards.  So much to do and so little times.

While we are in the recycling mode, my blog friend, Yaz alerted me to this very cool blog on recycling the everyday into art and other useful things.  Spend some time browsing it for fun and inspiration.

Lights On!

The Fall catalogues have been streaming into the house lately.  I have to admit that I really like to look through all those glossy catalogues.  

I turn the pages of the Williams Sonoma offerings, devouring the luscious looking recipes.  I just know that if I had all those perfect cooking supplies, I would be a an excellent cook. My presentation would be perfect too.  

You all know how I feel about the Pottery Barn catalogue.  If we ever move, I want to move into the current catalogue pages.  It all looks so inviting and comfy. My friends would exclaim over the clever wall treatments and the clever tabletop displays.  he thing I want the most in the catalogue is the huge wheel of fortune that hangs on one of the walls and it is not for sale.

Lately I have been noticing the chandeliers that ae for sale. They look like they could have been a class offering at an art retreat.

Pottery Barn offers a bottle chandelier for a mere $349 marked down from $399:

The Napa Style catalogue offers several interesting lighting fixtures.  The first is a teacup chandelier for the low price of $999:

Or you can order the silverware version for $399 for a small version to $899 for the largest version:

The one that I like is from Napa Style.  It is this very cool doorknob backplate chandelier sans the knobs.  How cool would this look in one of our art rooms?  The price?  $599.  I estimate that it took 20 backplates.  It might be tough to find 20 all the same dimensions.  In our area antique stores, backplates range from about $7 to $20 depending on condition.  It would be pretty easy to make I think.  Let me rephrase that.  It would be pretty easy for John to make. Hint, hint.