Tribute to Robert Frost

Tribute to Robert Frost

I spent many hours on this gorgeous steampunk mirror frame.  It started out as a tacky junk store find, all tired and icky.  But I gave it a new perspective, new paint, and encrusted it with a wealth of interesting texture bits-- copper enamel beads and keys, stamped brass and... yes, a reptile eye.  It is a masculine piece.  The bottom part is a mirror, but I happened to angle it to capture some chandalier danglies and lace curtains that were just hanging in the background.  The more you look at it, the more you see.

The Steampunk Desk Accessory

Steampunk Desktop Card & Letter Organizer

I love to find old abandoned wooden things in the thrift stores with good sturdy bones, so I can give new life to something that might otherwise have gone unappreciated.  When I found this neat old letter and business card holder, how could I resist punking it all up with femo beads and watch parts, twisted wire and copper edging?  This lil sweetie is shown featuring my business card which says on one side, "Make Bad Problems Go Away."  (I am an attorney).  This desk piece will be available at my Island Retreat etsy store in a few days.  If you'd like to visit there, click on one of the pictures under the Island Retreat Widget and you'll be swhisked away to my lil store.

Steampunk Desk Organizer

Its Mardi Gras!

Mardi Gras Picture Frame

It is always Mardi Gras at Fluffy's Compleat Boutique.  I made this fun happy picture frame using stuff from my Mr. Collage kit and flowers for my mother.  Its a stand-up fabric covered commercial frame, recycled to make a nice 4x6 inch tribute to someone who graduated or somebody's birthday, or for a child.  Don't let little kids eat the parts, though.  This frame is going to be listed for sale at etsy.  Click one of the pictures on the Island Retreat widget at the righthand side of my blog to explore this and other items in the housewares and art end of things.

Mardi Gras Picture Frame

Steampunk Train

Steampunk Train

When my kids were little, I was a big Dr. Who fan, mostly because my son was The World's Biggest Dr. Who fan.  Today, he can still tell ya what actor played Dr. Who in sequential order.  So, couple that with Douglas Adams and Hitchiker's Guide the Galaxy, Metropolis, Dark City, Boys from Brazil, Mad Max and Tank Girl---- who wouldn't be fascinated by trains and steampunk.  Heck, I even bought an espresso machine so I could produce hydrogen in my own kitchen.

So, I found this dinky sad broken little train in the junk store, and recycled it into a thing of art.  This steampunk train is about 11 inches long and has a cargo area for Things.  A 1980 RCA TV transistor circuitboard fits perfectly over 4/5ths of the top, if you wanted to use it for ink pens but only had 5 ink pens.  And as I was remaking it, I wondered if  Thomas the Tank Engine looked like this when he grew up.  This little assemblage will be available via Oklahoma Food Cooperative.  Check it out at http://www.oklahomafood.coop/ .

Pensil Fairy Organizer

The Pensil Fairy

The Pensil Fairy works in the wee hours of night, carefully timing her visit during REM-stage sleep so as to avoid human detection.  She sets about the business of sharpening your pensils and *plink* restoring the erasers on the top.  This is her busy time of year, because so many people have been doing their taxes.  Pensils are in sad disarray across this vast continent.  But she's undaunted.  It does not bother her that she has to work in a crown of modge podge flowers with a corona of lindor ball chocolate wrappers, nor that she does her work gloved in a jaguar hand.  It is a privilege and an honor to be the Pensil Fairy, though it is a burden to have the weight of the world's pensil inventory maintenance on her delicate, almost Viscorian shoulders.

That is why I thought I should make it easy on her by creating the Pensil Fairy Organizer.  It is dually useful.  It can be a recycled tin to hold your pensils.  Or you can buy it for The Pensil Fairy Herself as a labour union meeting hall where she can change the whole Pensil system by training apprentice Pensil Fairies and journeyman Pensil Fairies in a proper Division of Pensil Labour.  It is truly an Organizer of Pensils and Labour. 

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Today is the birthday of my grandmother, Mary Eliabeth Ross Carter.  She was born in Treat, Arkansas and is interred in Tahlequah City Cemetery.  She played the banjo, and sang gospel songs.  She moved her lips when she read the newspaper to herself, and she made great biscuits.  She had red hair, and after my grandfather passed away, she became a driver for the blind, and a nurse aid.  She kept an extremely tidy house and worked hard.  Later, she married a man who loved wrestling on TV.  I saw the moon landing at her house.

Funky Little Photo Creche

Funky Little Photo Creche

Today (Friday) it is storming, so for some reason this blog is refusing to justify left.  See this delightful little creche?  It is made from a gold thing and a little crate (about CD size) that I got at a thrift store.  I love recycling found objects, especially rusty metal things crushed by cars.  This one, though, is not made with a lot of crushed metal.  It does have a couple of steampunk swirls on top.  I thought it would be nice for those tiny 2 by 3 inch photo frames.  It has some cool femo clay beads that I made, which look like eyes and a heart.  It has feathers and stuff, too.  This piece would be ideal for a girl's room or your darling one who is going off to college.  It is available for purchase via Oklahoma Food Cooperative.  Coolest of all, I love to do custom pieces reflecting the personality of the person that I'm making the creche for.  If you are a girley girl and want girley stuff, then I'm your girl.  If you need a Father's Day tribute to your supergreat man, I can make art for guys... which is kinda hard to find.  Want to commemmorate the birth of a new child?  The celebration of Grannyhood?  A special thank you thinkpiece?  Reach me if you'd like an affordable and fun custom assemblage.

The Fisherman's Thought

The Fisherman's Thought

While there is time before Father's Day, I've been thinking about what men think about.  I can ask Friedrick at any time, "What song are you singing in your head?"  And he'll come back with an instant answer.  It might be Seven Bridges Road, Amy, Beautiful Tonight, Rock and Roll Heart, St. James Infirmary, Faded Memory, or just about anything.  When you open your mind to a little mental picture of going fishing, do you see a lunker trout rise up out of the misty water to take your hand-tied fly?

I have the coolest Brother-In-Law.  He's the guy who saved the Air Force hundreds of thousands of dollars by coming up with a better way to de-ice the wings of airplanes.  That was when he was a chemist.  Now he's a CPA.  Maybe I relate to him because he's kinda like me... a nerd about many things, with a curious mind and (perhaps unlike me..) the knowledge to 'go there.'

For him, tax season is like a marathon race.  By April 16th, he's overworked and ready for about a week of healing at fishing camp on Lake Tenkiller or someplace else.  So, knowing that he hasn't been playing the scenario of a big lunker trout nearly often enough these days, I made him this little window into a thought about trout fishing.  And pheasants.  It is made of 1/8 inch pine with copper trim, Bombay mahogany finish and lots of little tinkering parts from watches or something.  It is about eight inches tall at the arch, and just a tad smaller between the windows than a business card. 

I would love to do a custom piece for you to give for a Father's Day present.  Email me ( ktibbits@lrec.org ) if you have a special guy who'd like a window expressing his favorite things--- sports or nascar, guitars or fighting roosters, his family and favorite book, or just something extremely avante garde and wierd.  Heck, I can come up with the ideas if you're at a loss for something really kampy and cool.