Garage Sale Finds-The pickin's were good!

Yes you are right! These are very old "Roller Skates"...most likely from the 40's. But this is the awesome part...(of course you know me everything has a little story to it)
I found these skates at the same garage sale that I found the little porcelain dolls below, and it was what I thought to be my last stop, and I only had enough money for the dolls, so I talked to the lady and told her I was a mixed media artist and I made all kinds of things out of old "stuff" (understatement). She asked if I saw the old skates?
(9 of them to be exact) so I went and looked at them, and ask how much she wanted for them, and she said "Oh $1 I guess". I told her that I had given her the last of my money for the dolls. Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather when she said why don't you just take them and make them into something, and she went and got a brown grocery sack and loaded all (9) of them up and gave them to me...well let me tell you tears came into my eyes and I hugged her and gave her my blog addy so she could visit her "skates" when they got made into an art piece...(inspired by Michael De Meng of course) You know this ole' world is all about communication (and money of course but that is another story)...I can't wait to get started with these skates.
I really have a great affection for these kind of skates because when I was about 4 or 5 years old my daddy made me the best scooter ever, he used a skate (like these) and an apple crate. It was awesome. I spent hours gliding down the street in front of our house in Wichita Falls Texas, until one day the Milk Man was delivering milk to our house (that was in 1946 when you could still get your milk delivered to your door) and I was coming down the hill pretty fast (at least it was fast to a 5 yr old...lol) and I could not stop and ran into the HUGE bummer of the milk truck...and yes it knocked me out and I saw stars and birdies flying around my head. When I woke up I was in my bed with an ice pack on my recently acquired "pop knot"...and bandages on both my knees and elbows...but let me tell you that is not what I think of when I remember all of this...what I remember was the terrific scooter that my daddy made me.

These are all of the skates. They are fantastic...can't wait to use them.


These are tiny little bisque fired porcelain dolls (sorry for the blurry) I am going to make jewelry out of them, and the good part is I only paid $3 for them, I am here to tell you that I wouldn't have poured and cleaned them for $3. My friend Ingrid makes these kind of dolls all the time and I don't know how she does it. They are so tiny and precious...I photographed them in the palm of my hand so you could see how small they are.


Below are some other great finds (eat your heart out Michael De Ming,,,lol) I had set my self a $20 limit for my Garage Sale shopping spree...and I spent $22...opps...because I found a printer (brand new Lemarx) for $3 dollars.

What we have above is a big bag of buttons for .50 and below some really cool stuff including a gauge, a really old (old enough to be called antique, which is older than me...lol) light off of a Singer sewing machine, a metal flower, some wire, a grater and something that looks like an insulator but I am sure it is some kind of attachment for an electric juicer...OMG...how cool is that? That white thing with the gold brads is a bracelet...OK...the possibilities are endless here....what fun.

Web Marketing SOS?

My friend and partner in crime, Christy Sobolewski has a new online business. Christy is only the most artistic and creative web designer on the net and she has decided to offer her services to anyone needing a Web Design, a Banner for a blog, Etsy shop or personal web space. She has been a web designer for 10 years and has master level skills. She has taught classes on our Ning Network "Artistic Avantgarde". Her new endeavor is called Web Marketing SOS. She offers a full service web marketing agency that can build custom CMS templates, find the right net works and they offer A La Carte Services to meet your personal and business needs at a timely schedule and bugetable price. She has a very knowledgeable full time staff. She is reliable and works in a timely manner to accommodate your needs...how could anyone go wrong with that?

The First Catalog Killing is finished

This is my first attempt at Catalog Killing...I killed 3 catalogs...and the other two are in work...if you click on this pic you can see it big and you can really tell what is what with the embellishments...this is great fun and you get to recycle some of the junk mail that we all seem to get everyday. I used a piece of mat board to mount the catalog, that way it can be hung on the wall. I used Golden Glazes to paint the mat board.

This is a close up of one of the clay pieces (made from a push mold) then painted and "glazed" to show more detail. This is a close up of the top left corner.

This is the complete piece...I have added some fibers and wire coils...the clay faces are some I made using a push mold...I sewed the fibers to the bottom of the catalog across the bottom, then I coiled some wire and used my Japanese screw punch to make some holes for the wire to be attached without it showing from the front.

The Killing of the Catalogs has begun!

This is my latest undertaking "Killing Catalogs for Art". This is a project inspired by a terrific mixed media artist from across the Big Pond (that would be the Atlantic) by the name of Maggie Grey... she is awesome. I am not big on the whole "Green" thing (maybe because of Al Gore?) but I figured that every little bit helps and my friends are all wonderful "recyclers", so this is my effort to help out...these are unsolicited catalogs that I got in the mail and a magazine that I had since 2007. The plan is to kill these catalogs and make them into a piece of art. I think Maggie Grey and her friends actually buried theirs, but I just threw mine in the bath tub with some dirt, lots of water and ashes and leaves and "what ever" (we all have some of that "what ever", mine included some Easter Egg dye tablets...how funny is that?) In a couple of hours I took out the "sloppy" globs of dead catalogs (I checked before proceeding...they were dead), then I rinsed off the dirt and "what ever" and threw them in a couple of pans, I then distressed them by squishing them and beating them with a stiff hair brush. I am now waiting for them to dry. If you go to Maggie Grey's web site you can see how the pros do this and you will see some beautiful finished pieces that are just fantastic. This is a pic of the magazine (Real Simple) still in the bath tub...you can see the egg dye tablets.

This is a catalog after I "squished" it

This is another catalog after I threw it in a roasting pan...ONLY TIME WILL TELL!

Next Step in my Gourd Project

The wood burning is complete and the lid is cut...this is the removal of the lid... Ok..so this is really ugly...you have to wear a mask and scrape out the old dried pulp and seeds.

This is a view of the inside of the lid...uggggllly! But just you wait and see how awesome it is when I scrape and sand and paint it...:)

This is a close up of the design that I carved in to the gourd with a wood burning tool.

The bottom after the carving of the design

This is the design on the other side.

The cutest Great Grand Baby Ever!

Not sure why this is so small...but it doesn't matter because she is the cutest thing you have ever seen...our Julieanne...7 weeks old...OMG

Cleaning of the gourds

This is how the gourds look when you receive them...I order my gourds from Welburn Gourd Farms...they have every kind of gourd that you can imagine. They grow 350,000 gourds every year. These are cantine gourds. They really are pretty ugly. This how they look after scrubbing....

This is how they look after their bath and they are dry.

This is one that I shined up a little by just rubbing with a towel.

I have drawn out my designs and will draw them onto the gourd with a pencil. Then using a wood burning tool I will burn the design into the gourd. So come back in a couple of days and see my progress.