History Museum - History and Travel from the Previous Century

Also with Rene Bane, I've teamed up to list a bunch of great World War II memorabilia.  Rene sent over an album from her great uncle or grandfather who was stationed in different places as a World War II cryptographer.  His collection of photographs and cards from the era include some interesting landscapes, such as Isle of Capri and the oasis at Aden which is, I think, in Yemen.  Some of these are stunning because they depict cultures and societies which in the 1940s were quite primitive.  Using these images, we've created a series of postcards, cards, mugs, hats, tees, buttons, magnets and what-have-you.  For the history buff of World War II or the geographer of the Meditereanian nations, you'll find visual adventure and local color, some esprit de corps of WWII, planes and people.  Check it out.  If you find an image you'd like to purchase for collage, let me know at ktibbits at lrec.org and I can fix you up with a download or disc also.  More images will be created and uploaded as time allows.

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.

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

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.

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.

Steampunk Time Travelling Machine

Steampunk Time Travelling Machine

Habitat for Humanity hosts an annual bird house auction to raise money for building homes. The bird houses are decorated by area artists.  This year my donation is this fun Steampunk Time Travelling Machine, created from radio gauges and watch parts with glass tiles and brass or copper other bits.  It is edged in copper flashing.  My collaborator for this project was Gene Carter, who helped me drill and set the gauges.  If one were to go about creating a time travelling machine, what would be the essential parts?  Plenty of dials so as to calibrate the dates and measure the travel, plus interesting-looking whirlygigs that could move fast.  There are few moving parts to this little endeavour, but it does look strangely wonderfully gadgety.  It will be available at the Habitat auction in May in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.  If you'd like to make an offer on purchasing it, call me at 918 797 5016 and I will relay your bid to the auction coordinators.

Steampunk Fiddle

 

Here's a steampunk fiddle I created into a collage.  It started out as a fiddle that had been last mended by Sam Mouse (how Cherokee is that surname?)   in 1982, but which would not hold tuning.  It had been just hanging on Friedrick's wall five years ago when I moved here.  People would take it down and try to play it.  The sprockets are sort of a nonverbal sign saying, "Um, I don't think this fiddle is a serious musical instrument any longer." 

Anyway, it is featured among the 1,000 in an art book about 1,000 ways to recycle.  Some day I will post a a link and review of that book.  It is chock full of great art.