What a Gorgeous Weekend! ... and My Newest Mini-Theatre

What a glorious weekend, huh?! It was over 50 today and clear and wonderful. I took the dog to his favorite dog walking park - Edgerton Park on the other side of town. What a mistake. Usually Dusty is kind of a champagne color. He came home grey and dark brown with rusty dried leaves clinging to his wet and matted coat. Lovely. N0 - really - lovely. I guess just because it felt like Spring didn't mean I should have started acting as if it were Spring! Still, it was so nice to be outside without a stocking and gloves and shivering every step of the way. It was so nice to be able to be bare-headed-and-handed and only wearing a light coat, half-jogging around the park circular walkways. Just wonderful. And, of course, Dusty was in Seventh Doggy Heaven, out rolling in the mud and puddled snow and salt broth that was pooling everywhere, along with the piles of left over leaves from last Autumn and who-knows-what else! You'd think he would understand he's supposed to look nice. That's what all that hair is for, after all!

I finished a Marie Antoinette mini-theatre today - actually, the largest I've ever made, except for custom orders. It's almost 24"tall x 10"wide x 6" deep. I used lots of embellishments - vintage milinery roses, silk leaves, bead fringe, silk ribbon rosettes, Dresden scrap, lovely images of Marie Antoinette and the Neuschwanstein Castle. There is also a lot of Florentine gold ultra fine German glass glitter. I love the way the stuff shimmers rather than sparkles like regular glitter. All in all, I think it looks quite lavish and lush and extravagant ... very fitting for 'Toinette!



Between the warm weather, lots of fun movies on TCM and HBO and Showtime this weekend, my miserable cold finally abating somewhat, and getting this mini-theatre assembled and completed, I feel as if I've had a wonderful and productive weekend. Hope you did, as well!

Made some tussie mussies today ...

I wish they weren't called tussie mussies ... that's such a ridiculous sounding name for something. Of course, I guess they're rather ridiculous things anyway. My favorite one turned out to the pink, black and gold Casino de Paris one. It's kinda funny and innocently sexy and romantic. And I really like the vintage beaded fringe that are on the bottom with the silk ribbon streamers.

They all have a lot of vintage crepe paper - which I love - it's as soft as fabric, and silk ribbon, and Dresden scrap, and vintage trims, and vintage and reproduction papers and images, and assorted findings and fun things.

This children's one is sweet, too. The paper is a beautiful reproduction of a children-at-play toille type wallpaper. I found a lovely tiny vintage image of a child and put it in a miniature picture frame. And isn't that tiny swag of gold bullion on the frame wonderful?!


This sweet little Victorian piece has a fun piece of vintage German scrap - strawberries on the vine. Sweeeeeet! And a ton of lovely old vintage crepe papers.


And finally, a Marie Antoinette inspired piece. It's all lavender and pink and gold - and has a gorgeous piece of vintage velvet and metallic trim. The illustration of Marie Antoinette is a Tom Tierney paper doll.

Probably won't be making many more of these for awhile. For some reason, I make such a mess when I start working on these. I think it's smoothing glued paper onto a cone shape, which squeezes gel medium EVERYWHERE!

... and I really want to thank Catherine of A Thousand Clapping Hands for explaining to me the proper way to utilize the image uploader properly on this server! Thank you!

Today's Work is Just a Mere Whimsy

I love this striking little black, white and silver trinket box. It's a papier mache box covered with vintage and contemporary papers, painted wooden findings, vintage feathers and floral trims, ribbons, and wonderful contemporary eyelash fringe. The little beads around the top of the lid are antique black jet beads...I just love them, and don't have many left. I'll have to keep my eye out for another broken jet bead necklace so I can get a new stash! The dusting of white German glass glitter on the flower embellishment is the perfect extra sparkle!

This box is only 4" and makes a perfect hiding place for treasures - or a particularly lovely gift box for - oh, say - a diamond ring! I put this in my Etsy shop, if you're interested in it.

Is There Anything I Won't Alter?

I guess the answer would have to be NO.

Today I was making ham salad (yes, I use those cheap canned hams to make ham salad. Don't laugh at me; be amused, please).

Suddenly, I had a quick vision of what might be, and I quickly dug through the garbage to dig out the ham cans and ran them through the dishwasher.

Voila! I think they're going to be absolutely perfect for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) retablos/shrines. I'm thinking backgrounds of Our Lady of Guadalupe inside the arch with lots of flowers and skulls and crepe paper and milagros. I'm not sure if I'll be able to find the traditional marigolds in miniature artifical flowers. If not, I'll have to make do with other flowers.

Jon was laughing when he saw I was going to make art out of ham cans. He found this much funnier than when I use round bread crumb containers for mini-theatre structures.

I often wonder how I can do so much work with garbage - and yet still buy enough art supplies and vintage findings to support a small Third World country!

I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who makes stuff out of garbage. What's the wierdest thing you've ever made art from?

Black and White Pierrot Mini Theatre

Last night I started working on a small black and white theatre which might display a Pierrot or Pirouette paper doll puppet. I had planned on it being tiny, but the more I started playing with the black and white papers and trims and beads and feathers, I decided it really needed to be a larger theatre. So it grew into this 16" display theatre. I took a detail photo of the balcony, because I think the Dresden scrap 'railing' and and the antique jet beading trim are especially lovely. I found the black button that is in the middle of the back wall at an antique shop years ago and it's finally found a home. It's multi-faceted and looks like a big jet bead - though I don't believe it is. I think this is going to be a really pretty mini vintage theatre. Jon asked me if I was going to put a "splash of red" on it and I said that I hadn't planned on it. However, the idea of a black and white and red piece intrigues me, so I'm sure there is going to be one of them this year!

Today's Mini-"Vintage"-Theatre Construction

I was going to work on doing an out-doors-y sort of woodland faery theatre piece.

But, it just seemed to get fancier and fancier as I went along, and it turned out a tad too royal for a forest scene.

I think maybe it's going to require a Marie Antoinette character inside it ...

I used papier mache (as usual) for the basic structure, and added vintage and handmade papers, a beautiful piece of antique brass filigree, an Anna Griffin crown embellishment, glass fringe in the shape of leaves, crepe paper, silk ribbon (for the bunting) and paper-and-ribbon covered dowels for the columns. As I look at it more and more, I think that maybe I'll need to add something to the facing of the balcony to add to the rhinestones. They're looking a little lonely there by themselves.

I guess now I'll need to see if I can get that natural forest-y stage structure started!

Wolf and Little Red

Wolf and Little Red
Originally uploaded by salutor

We all know that I love fabric and faery tales and black-and-white - and this fabric by salutor certainly fits the bill for me!

But the thing that I'm most excited about is the company that actually prints this fabric ... it is Spoonflower. And they print fabric of YOUR designs for only $18 yard. Okay. So $18 yard for cotton quilting quality fabric isn't that inexpensive - but! of your own designs! How intriguing is that?!

I could have fabric made of all my favorite images! I could have quilt fabric made with photos of all my art quilts printed on it! I could recreate fabric that I loved which is no longer produced!

Some of the pictures of some of the fabrics they've done are just wonderful.

I think this is going to be a very valuable resource for those of us who like to do things from scratch!

Click on the picture to go to more photos!