Cinco De Mayo in Stilwell Oklahoma

Cinco De Mayo in Stilwell

Back From Hiatus

Zigmund Cadbury Snugglesworth

I've been on hiatus for a couple of days, but now I'm back.  If the weather clears up, I'll be posting some new art.  Just to keep things going, the next few days I apologize for the stifling indoor flash photos.  But I found this lovely pic from last week of our male British Shorthair, Ziggy.  He's such a doll to help me when I'm laying out a backdrop to take a picture.

And if you missed Cinco De Mayo, our little town of Stilwell had quite the hoedown.  Live music and fresh home made tamales and corn soup were just a few of the delights.  Thanks to Maria Maldonaldo at Cafe Mariachi who coordinated the event and made the paper flowers for the stage.

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.

A Little Steampunk Bird House

Here's a sweet little birdhouse, in my steampunk style.  To me, birdhouses are symbolic 'nests' like homes or comfy spots.  And I love birds.  We got our first hummingbird nipping at the hanging basket this week, and strong winds on Friday may have blown the little fellow up North.  This birdhouse is an art piece that is listed for sale at Oklahoma Food Cooperative.

Mudme Natural-Dyed Scarf

Mudme Natural Dyed Scarf

Mudme is a Thai technique for making great multi-colored tiedyes, by coloring bound objects which are then removed.  You can see I used a roundish shaped object (a rock) for the tie on this one, and instead of the traditional multi center, I used a soy wax resist to keep the white silk.  It is an imperfect process, and that is what makes this work so very intriguing.  Each scarf is a work of art, unlike any other.  There are so many uncontrollable variables which are interdependent.  For instance, the Madder Root dyestuff I was using had been reheated several times and was almost dust and twigs in the bottom of the pot when I sat it outside.  Then it rained and I thought for sure I'd get pale tones because the root was both exhausted and diluted.  But no.  You never know.  This one came out bright and just the color of fresh salmon.  Was it because oak flowers had fallen in?  Who knows!  There is a huge amount of serendipity in the process, and that's fun!

Silk, hand-dyed with natural madder root using vegan soy wax resist in a nontraditional mudme technique.  This scarf will be for sale at Oklahoma Food Coop and perhaps on etsy.  To buy it you can notify me by email.  $18 and that's a bargain!