Indoor Project

 

It happened again, an attack of the 'Creativity Bug'. I was walking in the last snowstorm and had seen the predictions for an extremally cold week following the snow. I decided to take a bag with me while getting the mail and find some things in nature to 'create' something with. I didn't even have any idea what I was going to do.

Sometimes creativity literally smacks me upside the head. I have to drop what I am doing and mess around to scratch the itch of imagination.

I had been reading some articles on toy photography that included all kinds of toys, but focused on the smaller posable toys. Did you know that is a thing? People photograph cars, model cars, model airplanes, Teddy Bears, and more. [I'm giving a nod to fellow blogger L.D. and his collection of old toy cars that he has been photographing in his new light box!]

I took a class in Still Life and enjoyed it. The variety of things one can do with Still Life is amazing and it doesn't cost anything really. It is fun and frustrating.

My journey in making things from weird stuff began when I wanted to do some Fairy Houses for my spring garden. I went to shops and was absolutely floored at how pricey a Fairy Garden could be. I decided then to make a non Fairy Fairy garden and some fun was born.

I wanted to go cheap. I wanted only materials I could find while on my walks. It is something I like to do when the weather is in the subzero range. It keeps my mind occupied and stirs my creative juices.

So here is 20 seconds of what I started, just for fun. You can skip it for sure....it is just some shots of the materials I used to get started.

I wanted to make a rope or perhaps a coiled miniature rug. So I even braided some dried grass. I learned something fun...
it braids much easier when it is damp. 

I gave up on going further as the grasses kept breaking, but I'll keep other materials in the back of my mind next time. I may collect some iris leaves towards the end of next fall to see if I can't weave something out of them.

I read about using plant leaves for weaving on another blog, thanks Boud!

Here is Maisie with her axe helping to build Acorn's new A Frame Home.

They decided to weave together some wild grass to use as a rope to pull more branches to the top of the A Frame.

Farmer Bob came by with a load of gnarly branches on his cart.

Hobby set down her camera and really got into the work!

Just add moss and more moss to fill in the holes and some bark...
it's messy work....

But it sure turned out cozy looking!

There he rests next to his little new house in the wild.

His friend Maisie heads out to the forest to cut some firewood.

All in a few days work!

[The trees were created from small scrub apple trees I found in the pasture. They really have character. 
I used clay as a base or in some cases medicine bottle tops. I took the cotton balls that came with the meds and dropped them in some paint and water then stretched it out to make something that looked like Spanish Moss. See photo below. It was messy, but fun.]

The project was cheap, easy, and mostly very cost effective. I only used items I had on hand.

See what happens when I'm stuck indoors? 

Dangerous Travel & Crafty Things

Travel not Advised was this morning's report at 6am.

I was good with that. I wasn't going anywhere.

These were 'the kids' this morning. I was taking it easy and didn't rush out at 7am and feed them. I waited and watched the snow come down. They were wearing nice snow coats.

Rich didn't feel well so the day was spent 'crafting'. You would be amazed at what a person can do with the cardboard from a toilet paper roll!

I used a top from a medicine bottle to make the bottom of the roll and the top of it more stable. I used a scrap of heavy weight paper to make a cone for the top. Scotch tape to add the little door and the piece of heavy paper above the 'door'. I imagined it to be a fungi...well, eventually.

Here is the 'stone' house I did last week. I set it on an ice pail cream lid. This summer I'll fill the lid with a bit of dirt and some moss. I poked holes in the plastic to let rain water out. I decided that this was not a fairy house, but a Squirrel's house.

I decided then to look up how to make tiny pots for tiny plants. How fun could this be???

Toothpaste cap. Script bottle cap, old twisters from the junk drawers...Scotch tape..paint...
and some straws.

Well, I had to do something while the toilet paper house was drying.

A bit of paint....
for the roll...

There are some finishing touches yet, but the top does fit on securely.

While that dried I returned to the mini plants I'd made.

This is the tiny plant I made out of used twisters and tape. The brown pot is the crest toothpaste top.
This next one is the mini plants I made out of straws.

And then after I finished with them...

I have to admit I really had my doubts this would work very well, but with the added touch of the tiny stones in the 'pots', I think it is cute!

Tomorrow, I'll put the new items together and see how it stacks up in a photo.

I'm enjoying this little Mini World!

Do you recognize this?

Email from my brother:  Artwork

Do you recognize this?

I found it buried in a box in my basement. I'd love to return it to the original artist/owner.

I opened the image and smiled with my face and my mind.

The artist was me many many years ago. I recall the art class, we were to make a sculpture of The Thinker I think. 
Well that is what I tried to do. I recall shaping the clay with my hands and being so disappointed that the clay wouldn't come to shape for me.

My hands were young and clumsy. I'd never studied human anatomy, and I felt the color and details were awful.
In fact when I brought the project home I felt embarrassed of the clunk of muddy looking clump of a human thing that I'd made.

I didn't want to show it to anyone, but I'd talked about the project at home and my dad insisted he see my sculpture.

Slowly I revealed the awful thing. I handed it to him.

My father's eyes lit up and a smile spread across his face. He claimed that it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.
That couldn't be, I'd thought at the time. Yet he asked me pointedly if he could please have it to display.

I gladly handed the monstrous thing over to him.

The 'sculpture' faded from memory and until I opened the image my brother sent, I'd forgotten all about it.

As I stared at the ugly thing, waves of emotion flowed over me. Dad loved this enough to move it to his Wisconsin home, to move it to his Virginia home... he never tossed it. He never threw it out. He kept it.
He
kept
it.

The Thinker was no longer ugly in my eyes. Instead I saw the obvious. My father loved it because I made it.

I typed out a reply.
Yes please, I'd love to have it back.