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!

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.

Today's Work Included a Mini-Parisienne Show Girl Mini-Theatre

This was such fun! I love this piece - I remember how disappointed I was by the Folies Bergeres Paris when when we were there (not Moulin Rouge though! - even the iconic red windmill is still there!). This is what I wanted the Folies to be - red and gilt with sexy black accents and over-the-top decoration. Alas, now it's all mirrors and light shows and just looks like another over-produced Vegas act. Oh, well. Anyway.

This piece, which again starts out as papier mache, uses antique sheet music, vintage and reproduction papers, Dresden scrap, gold silk ribbon wrapped around the columns, French millinery netting, rhinestones, miniature crepe paper flowers, jet beading, feathers and assorted findings.

The lovely showgirl is a reproduction of a vintage piece that I purchased a long time ago from Altered Pages - a terrific resource for vintage images, as well as other goodies to make stuff out of! I ended up bracing her with teensy tiny dowels so that she can stand upright on her own. I get a kick out of her pose - I'm not sure if she's displaying her lavishly feathered costume, the theatre, or her own - um - assets. Whichever, she's definitely quite proud! If you click on the image (as with all the images on my blog), it will open a larger image which makes it easier to see.

I think I spent too much time today running around and shopping for little elements that I needed to get as much stuff accomplished as I would like. I had hoped to get all the characters finished for all the other theatres I built this week. I only have three or four more mini-theatres to construct, and then I must get to work on trinket boxes, as they're always a popular selling item for me around Valentines Day.

I have some ideas for some teeny tiny two inch square trinket boxes which should be a lot of fun to put together - or else drive me up the wall! We shall see!

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!

What a discovery! Hand printed and bound paper theatre book!

This gorgeous book, hand printed and hand bound by Wendy Addison is a real treasure. As she states on her blog, ""Notebook for an Imaginary Life"- That is the sub-title for my book. For the past twelve years I have been drawing in my Theatre of Dreams notebooks, keeping track of ideas before they evaporate, making notes for future projects and drawing things I love. I also wrote a poem years ago about the making of an imaginary life, and the poem and the illustrations have come together to make a book!

I am piecing it together carefully and will complete a limited artist's edition of 350 copies. This book will be hand assembled and hand bound here at my studio in Port Costa, and will include collage, letterpress and a unique drawing on the flyleaf of each copy. Your copy will be signed, numbered and inscribed to you."

More information - and pictures of this gotta-have - can be found here. Be sure to check out the rest of her site which has pictures of her wonderful creations and finds and stuff. Everything here is well worth the time!