Here for now - to go into the Artwork blog as works in progress

Here are a few of the pieces I've been working on - experiments as always, and fun as fun can be.

They're works in progress, texture going onto the cedar shakes from that 100 year old house. They'll get acrylic and/or metallic, depending on what they want when comes the time to finish them up.

This one will most likely want acrylics. The exact same paints are going to look different when applied to the wood of the cedar shake and to the texturing, so we'll see what comes of it. The good news is that if it turns out to be something i don't like the looks of I can always paint over it and start fresh!

  I have a feeling this one will end up being something of an abstract. Although the foundation is there to go with a 'traditional' landscape/skyscape, I don't think that's what Destiny has in mind for it.

And this one ... ah, this one might end up being quite an interesting little piece, although it certainly doesn't have to go that route.  But what I'm seeing is a background of stone with a sort of futuristic 'city' in the foreground. Is the city protected by the stone or held captive by it? That's a Story the might have to find a way to tell itself as I have absolutely no idea at present! Part of the Story might emerge as the paints go onto the piece, so ... be ready to see this one when it's complete.

Part of the fun of it is how the pigments and/or metallics react  and interact with the different textures of the wood of the cedar shakes and the smoothness of the texturing.

Special Room, Special Memories

The doors mentioned below all have the same brass hinges, knobs, plates, skeleton key locks (except the bathroom door). The interior doors are all five-panel.

Height: 83/84 inches

Depth: they're all about an inch and a half deep except for the entry doors which are closer to two inches

Width: 

four 36” – entry  doors w/beveled glass windows

300 each for the three painted ones; 400 for the varnished one

three 32”

200 each

four 30” 

150 each

two 27” – they’re the double doors

300 for both as they go together

And trim:

Trim is about 1" x 4" for all of them – both sides (of doorway) except for the exterior doors/windows; the 'toppers' are all the same design

Trim for interior doors

100 each (seven sets); 150 for double door set

Trim (interior only) for six windows, 65” x 28” 'inside frame' measure

100 each

Trim for two front windows, 65” x 48”

200 each

Trim for double kitchen windows, 53” tall X 67” wide 

200

Also:

Cold cupboard (was a kitchen window at one time) doors and trim

100

Two leaded glass windows, 48” x 19” (or so)

400 each

Clawfoot bathtub (sorry, sold)

100

Retro (1940s maybe?) kitchen sink with cabinet (IF I can get it out)

300

Small bathroom sink (wall mount)

50

Large double wash-sink from basement (IF I can get it out)

200

Assorted window screens

25 each

Two hanging light fixtures for living room/dining room (four bulbs each)

150 each

Two single hanging light fixtures 

50 each

One double hand-painted hanging light fixture

150

Light fixture, gas to electric converted (so I've been told)

200

* There are also a couple of brass push-button light switches, the brass doorbell set (button by door and 'ringer' in kitchen), a few kitchen/bathroom 'accessories', some oil lamps of different ages, several very sturdy counter tops that came out of an old chemistry lab (2'x5'), a wardrobe trunk and camel-back trunk in not so good shape, a screen door, a pair of weights and pulleys from a window that was into a door, and a few vintage theater reels in varying values and conditions from poor to excellent together with two non-functional vintage theater projectors (very heavy) and some accessories.

More photos available on request to vignettes.house@gmail.com

Thanks for taking a peek - please feel free to share if you know someone who might be interested in creating a special room in their home for memories made with love and laughter!

2015 May: Robin Hood

While mowing my front yard last week a pair of agitated robins kept making their warning cheep and swooping around the corner of my house. I looked in the honeysuckle and up into the trees nearby but didn't see a nest that they would be defending, so finished my mowing and they calmed down.

Yesterday when I mowed again they did the same thing and this time I found the nest - tucked into the corner of the outside window ledge at the front corner of my porch.

The grass will likely get a little long right around there for a while here. I'm fine with that.

Today, while out in my porch, I glanced over that way and saw a wide open baby robin beak waving around and ran to get my camera. By the time I got close enough to have taken a photo, a sharp cheep from a parent had that baby huddled down playing possum in the nest.

After a little while along comes a parent with a worm in its beak, landing on a little branch of the honeysuckle. It cocked its head at me one way, then cocked it the other way, and the baby kept its head down in the nest. I watched for a while, hoping to get a nice photo of the little one getting that worm, but that parent bird just kept giving me that old eagle eye so I'm leaving them alone for a while.

I did, however, raise the blind of that window right there so as to be able to have a better view. It gives them a better view, too. When I went back out, a parent was on the nest, watching me through the window.

Heh heh.

I just got myself a scolding from a bird.

I also got a 'sort of' picture of that baby's open mouth ... 

I'm fascinated by having a bird's nest that's only a windowpane away and it's tempting to just sit out there and watch- but I won't. It's not worth it to cause the parents the worry or to interfere with the baby's feeding, not just because I want to watch them and try to take pictures of them. 

While doing yard work on the other side of the house I saw that a nest in my ash tree over there wasn't the old abandoned nest that I had thought it was!

I'm surrounded!

Ah yes, life in the Robin Hood ... 

Designs Incubating ...

These are a few of the cedar shake paintings I did some time ago ... love the colors flowing together, and have missed doing them. 

So ... drum roll please ... maybe it's time to do some new ones since the inventory on them is pretty well depleted!

I know it's not even New Year's yet, but there are dozens of Valentine Designs running around in my head, with those colors flowing in the background and maybe some metallic pretties as little accents. 

After this weekend I'll have a few days to play, and am going to have a great time with all the playing I'm planning on doing! Got a bunch of cedar shakes from the roof of my 100 year old house, some brushes, some paints, and a lot of imagination just begging to be turned loose. Instead of (or in addition to?) landscape silhouettes, think designs maybe something like these I found in my internet roaming:

Here's where I found this version of a very old pattern:
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQDDnhVPH16PdUX-PX_zwqI2HsMSWwU-0vRX2AKX5IKJE2NK2Td

Or something like this on a hand-painted card maybe:

Somebody's rendition of a fun design ...
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ_E5YvuEfuEE0TjFtLXMT2APaf6SIU6vRQ2HM9W-u5x0vGyIJoyA

This could get to be a whole lot of fun!

There are thousands of intricately carved stones still in existence from a very long time ago, and even more fancies to be found in the metal-work of old times. Over and under and around and through, repeat and repeat and repeat in the most amazing ways ... fascinating stuff I tell you! A person can 'create' a design that they think is new and complex, then turn around and find almost the exact same thing that someone else 'created' a few thousand years ago ... and the wheel goes 'round and 'round ... so wrap your mind around it and come up with a 'creation' of your own! It's a challenge, and it's fun.

Let's see what we can 'create', shall we?

Some of the new pieces that I'm bound and determined to 'create' ought to be at Close to Home in The Q on Main Street of Fessenden ND USA just after the dawning of 2015 - a year that's something to look forward to - only a few days away!

ARTWORK: THE FIRST OF THE 'SERIES OF TWELVES'

It's a beginning.

In my attic hall I have hung a half dozen old tin ceiling panels, salvaged from an uptown building that is no longer there.  I'll use wood strips between them and around them to give them a more 'finished' look.  Into the dozen squares of the panels will go a dozen pictures, a series with a common theme of some kind. 

The first of these series is a no-brainer for me.  Among us four sisters we have a dozen children, the Dozen Cousins, and they will be represented as the first of the 'Twelves'. 

Being a lazy so-and-so I decided to cut Liza and Helen down to size and use the already-done silhouettes of them that have been hanging about, or lying about as the case may be, for years now.  The other cousins will get pictures, probably paintings (although you never know if I'm going to get REALLY lazy and use enlarged photos), that are representative of them as individuals from MY perspective. 

It's going to be a fun project, this first of the 'Twelves', and I'm very much looking forward to getting to work on it!



ANGELS

I BELIEVE THERE ARE ANGELS AMONG US

Some of my first experimental back-lighting pieces.  These four angels represent the four daughters of my mother.  They are painted with acrylic and pearls on fabric, using the screens from the windows themselves, hinged together, as easels.  When cut from the screens, they fit right into the windows.  I'll try to get a photo without all the tree shadows...!

Here are the angels from the back side, as seen from inside the front porch with the morning light illuminating them.  The same effect happens at night, viewed from the outside, with a light on inside the porch.



WINDOW TO DOOR

First you choose a window that doesn't have a radiator in front of it, more rare than you'd think in 100 year old houses.  This one is in my new kitchen, which used to be the back bedroom.  It looks out into my courtyard on the south side of the house.

In order to get the window out, you have to remove the trim and moldings.  Sounds simple enough but they only come out in a certain order, so you have to see what can come off first.  If your house is as old as mine and as well built, be prepared for a lot of humongous nails.

These are the inside moldings, holding the windows in place.

Here goes the window sill.

Finally the window frame comes loose, after a lot of cussing.

These weights, with pullies, are built into the window frames and the framing beside the windows.  They make for incredibly easy raising and lowering of the lower and upper windows.  They're also heavier than you'd think.  I didn't weigh them but they have a number seven embossed on the ones attacked to the upper windows and a number eight on the ones for the lower ones.  I'm guessing that's how much they weigh in pounds. 

I don't kow if you can read this but it's the name L. Schwartz written on the top of the window frame.  Since the name Louis Schwartz is written on other dismantled parts of the house I'm guessing that he's the one who built the place.  If he were still around I would first thank him for building such a very sturdy house and then ask him if it was REALLY NECESSARY to use so MANY very BIG NAILS. 

Here's the top parts of the pullies.  Those knots and the top part of the cords fit into the top outer edges of the windows, in a hole hollowed out in the side for the knot and a slot that the cord fits into. 

At the other end of the cords are the weights.  They have their own space alongside the window framing.

Knocking out the wall beneath the window is easier than I expected.  My skilsaw cut through the outside siding and the wooden wall with a minimum of hand-sawing at the bottom since I didn't want to make the cut past the level of where I wanted to fit the door sill.  The lath and plaster on the inside was a pain in the patoot.

Looking from the outside in, you can see through the room to the door just opposite - it has one of those windows that open up on top of it; I forget what they're called ... it'll come to me one of these days.

Here's the screen door I put in.  The heavier one will go in when the weather cools off.  For now I'm just happy to finally have gotten my door into my courtyard!  Duke likes it too. 

And yes, the trim is going back on as soon as I recuperate from the stress of it all. 

Also, a special thank you to my big sister who stood by me through the entire ordeal, cussing and all!

STRIPPING ONE OF MY WORK TABLES

This sturdy work table came with the house.  It's not fancy; two wooden rectangles support a thick wooden top and it's mounted on un-matching 2x4's.  But I love its strength and endurance.  The thing got painted with that same ungodly dark brown paint they used on all their floors (UGH!) which I don't like on my work surface any more than I do on my floors - so OFF it comes!

I spread that orange goopy stuff all over it and when it's ready I'll take it off; hopefully the nasty brown paint will come with it.

Well SUN ON A BEACH.

I can't get it to rotate.

At least that dark brown paint is GONE!!!

Now for a little sanding, a lot of sealing ...

and hopefully a LOT of USING!

VINTAGE CINEMA REELS

I have several of these hanging on my wall, my favorites.  The rest are hanging in the attic!  One of these days I'll figure out something creative to use them for; meanwhile, I like them just the way they are!



ROOF INTERIOR

Here's a photo I took through the attic hatch door to show my sister how come I'm not finding any antique high chairs with built in potties or any other fascinating stuff under MY roof!  It's all just one big wide open attic!

POPPIES!



The flowers never last as long as we want them to, sigh ... !  But they're beautiful during their short lives!

DUKE FROLICS IN THE BACK YARD

Hey Duke!

Go THAT way!

Swing arm.

Duke goes that way.

And again.

And then the other way.

It's good for him.



IVY OVER NORTH DOOR

This grape ivy is making a comeback over the north door of my Studio House!  When we first looked at the house, WAY back in the day, my children and I didn't even realize a door was under there!  I have a plan for this side of the house; implementation may take a good while, but once it's complete it's going to be GREAT!  Just you wait and see!  And yes it involves the ivy.