Get yourself a wooden bucket and USE it

We just spent a wonderful week in Mountain View Arkansas taking a tinsmithing class at the folk center.  Our teacher was Robert Stone.   He was awesome.  It was a crazy week.   We got up at 5:30 every morning and drove to the center.  We arrived at 9 and worked till 6 with an hour for lunch.   Then we drove back to my folks’ house where we were staying.  We were exhausted by the end, but it was all worth it.   Then you get to come home to our home.  Home to  bills, the job, the planning commission, and all the new ordinances the city council has imposed upon us since we left.  When you spend a week in a place where creativity and artisanship is appreciated and encouraged and embraced, its hard to come back to Fort Smith… the opposite.   I had written an entire blog about that, but I deleted it… I would rather focus on the positive and save my rant for the next politician that stops by my house.

Back to my happy place.   Tinsmithing is truly a dying art.   The machinery we worked on was from the mid 1800’s.   You can sometimes find modern equipment, but it doesn’t quite perform the same job.  I also learned that the first tinsmith shop in America was started by two Irish brothers in 1740.  We made sconces and cups and cookie cutters and all sorts of things.   It was great to use the hand-crank machinery and think about all the people who used it over the years before me.  Anyone who knows me, knows I am a hand-crank addict.  

My mother asked me an interesting question.   Do you think we have it better now or did we have it better then?  Not living in that other time, I can only assume.   MY answer?  Then.  This is why.  I truly appreciate craftsmanship.   Back then, you had one of something and you made it last.  You appreciated the effort it took to make it because you often had to trade something hard-earned for it.  I really admired the coopers buckets and it got me to thinking.  Today, if I want a bucket, I run to the Home Depot and I buy a bucket.  I buy a cheap, plastic disposable bucket.  Made in God only knows where.  I use it and I set it outside and eventually it finds its way to the landfill.  Now back then, I buy a wooden coopered bucket.  That is the bucket and it will have to last.   There would have been no running back to the store for another bucket.   Point being, you HAD to appreciate things more. 

I think that is what this disposable society is missing.   I figure in a hundred years or so, there will be no trace of this generation, other than the damage to the environment.   When people go to an antique store in the future, what will they find?   McDonald’s Collector glasses from China?  Will there even be an antique store?  Will we have anything worth preserving?  This is what I am going to do about it.   I am going to buy myself a wooden bucket and I am going to USE it.  I am going to make my own cookie cutters.  I am going to learn to be completely self sufficient from the “made in China” stores and I am going to teach others to do the same.  The thought of not needing a Wal-Mart is enticing isn’t it?   I am in the process of removing mass produced items from my house (unless they are American made).  I would rather have one wooden bucket than 5 plastic ones sitting in my back yard.  We need to get rid of our excess and go back to appreciating smaller quantities. 

Now I will get off my soap box.  And while I’m off, I might learn to make some soap J

zombies and snowman and lawn work, oh my

This weekend was hectic.  Time changes, oil changes, lawn work (much overdue) and then the fun.   This is a special potion I created in honor of my sister.   This poor girl keeps having traumas, but keeps coming right back… but I figured she could use a little extra help. I got the label at  Halloween 365.

Phil also turned this weekend…after building me a great new basket shelf… He informed me he had to drill like 130 holes or something.  That means I owe him one.  This is his wooden snowman and it appears that it has stolen a scarf from my basket…  I think it turned out great. 

Magic Happens

Gladys is trying to get her enchantment degree at the local magic school/beauty college. Poor little Gladys doesn’t always get her spells right. She tries hard, but usually finds herself in a bit of a pickle.. or sometimes she finds herself as a pickle. Seems like she is always getting her words messed up. Hope she knows the reversal spell.

I will keep it in my heart all the year through

The best part of art is getting to live in your favorite moments and holidays all the time.   Many of my pieces are inspired by my childhood.   I was lucky to have great family and teachers who encouraged creativity and experimentation.   I grew up in a house with Grimms and Potter (Beatrix, not Harry).   I had barefoot summers with homemade ice cream and gardens and fruit jars of fireflies and farm animals and fishing and all the perfect elements in a Country Time Lemonade Commercial.   The best part of my home studio is that I can keep these things around me all the time.   I can create Halloween in March and Christmas in April and I can go back to those barefoot summers on a tire swing (coming soon) anytime I want.   I have 35 years of inspiration to fall back on.  Years of great summers, wonderful tales, and a ton of experiences few get these days.   My goal is to share with you the feelings of these experiences and the images I would have in my head as my mother read those scary stories about getting lost in the woods and eating a house.   This should give you a glimpse into what is on the horizon.   Be on the lookout for a trip back to simpler times, bare feet and lots off good feelings… but be mindful of the darker things that lurk in the shadows… Always keep in mind that an evil child-eating witch could be on the other side of that gingerbread door.

Phil is making wooden ornaments!

If you like homespun Christmas's and remembrances to simpler times, you will love these ornaments.  Each one is hand turned and oiled to let the natural wood grain come out.  Be on the lookout for these at War Eagle,   they will be hiding out among my Belsnickles.  Each one will be different, so you will want to take home several

Hard at work

When some things in life don't work out, it allows us the time, ambition, motivation and grit to try something else.   It allows us to define our own identities.  For the first time in a long time, I have a goal and a drive and a true sense of what I want and who I want to be.  Sometimes the people who try to hold us down give us the greatest boosts.  I am completely focused on this coming year.  We have a few shows booked, and I am working on putting my stuff out there publicly.  We are defining our image and finding our voices.   This is a great time and I am having a blast.   I will be posting as many projects as I can as fast as I can... They will more than likely be from my iphone as my wonderful husband is the photographer, but I can't get him out of his workshop (formerly my car's house) long enough to snap any of his great looking professional photos.

Busy Busy

Hi folks.  We have been busy here.   I will post a few photos to prove it.   I recently ordered the Gertie tutorial from Nancy Malay... the awesome artist known for her Victorian bunnies and snow people.   Here is the finished image... I shared it with Nancy and she is going to post it on her blog.  I will link to it once she does!!!