Reclaimed Shadow Boxes

8" x 12"
Red
an original painting background done by a friend, 2 Russian Spoons from a thrift store in Boise.
A doll found in a  thrift store while traveling. and a little matchbox drawer with buttons and flowers made by me. 

5 1/2" x 7"
Puppy Love
box is lined with vintage hand painted dictionary pages,
original painting by a friend, an encaustic collage by me a glass heart, a 60's dog pin with rhinestones.

5 1/2" x 7"
Penguins Play 
a map of Bogus Basin ski hill lines the back wall, a child's vocabulary card, game pieces, a penguin made of soapstone and an encaustic collage that says play

5 1/2" x 7"
Strength for When the Wolves Come
The complete blog post on this one can be found here.

5 1/2" x 7"
Me and My Bike
The complete blog post for this one can be found here

5 1/2" x 7"
Grown in Idaho
The complete blog post can be seen here

5 1/2" x 7"
Pray for Me
Glass bottle that I bought at a museum gift shop, silk flowers, candle, icon painting, small wooden saint that I have had since I was a little child, (I think it was my grandma's) prayer cards.

12" x 8"
M.O.M (Milk of Magnesia).
This piece started with the broken glass bottle that my daughters boyfriend collected from an old trash pit in the hills of Colorado. The dress is made from a Christmas Ornament that broke and the black bow is a hair clip I used to wear back in the 80's. 

51/2" x 7"
Diana
This box is lined with hand painted vintage dictionary pages.
An original encaustic collage made by me with a postage stamp of Princess Diana.
A box that opens with a tea set on top, porcelain cat on a lace rug, glass jar with pieces of glass from HI. 

51/2" x 7"
Noah's Ark
complete blog post can be seen here

Peace

Here is another project where I start out with a project from my friend Miriam who got rid of ALL of her art! She gifted me with many shadow boxes. This was one of them.

This was the perfect piece to show off my encaustic collage. 

Peace 12" x 8" shadow box mixed media 

Famous Potatoes

This piece started with one of three pieces of art that were given to me by an artist friend who was cleaning out all her art and what she couldn't sell, she was giving away or throwing away. These had colorful loops of hand painted paper glued on top. I hated to destroy her art but she gave me permission and said If I didn't take them they would go in the dumpster. I didn't know what I would do with them and didn't want to just hoard them so I only took 3 of these. I emailed her yesterday if she still had the others and she said they were all thrown away! That makes me sad. Not only for myself but for her, and for the landfill. 

So what did I do with the frames? Below is one of the pieces of art and the process I went through.

I had this encaustic collage hanging around the studio waiting for something to finish it off.  I made it at Karen Bubb's encaustic workshop   It was just a tad too wide to fit inside the frame so I asked a builder friend if he could cut a 1/2" off the side. Now it fit.

 

The next decision was what to do with the frame itself. It had paper and blobs of glue and glitter on it that I sanded off. I liked how it looked sanded and decided not to paint over it.

Next was how to finish off the top and bottom as I was left with an inch or so of space on top and bottom of the collage. I tried vintage children's blocks but they looked too blocky, even if the colors were good.

Next I painted around the edges of the frame with black, so the bright colors of the back ground would not show up.

This same day my husband was called by the elderly neighbor if he could go over and help change out her license plates on the car. He came back with two license plates and said "I thought you could use these for something" now if you know my husband, this is a rarity! He usually throws things away before I can say, "can I have that?"  My initial reaction was no thanks I don't want them but on second thought I said, well what the heck give them to me an I'll see if I can find something to do with them.

Here are 2 of my pieces drying in their frames with all my button and bead jars to help hold them down and glue flat.

Famous Potatoes 15" x 15" $250 Encaustic Collage/Mixed Media

I love serendipity. I had to cut the edges of the license plate off but I love the way it turned out especially with the truck. Can anyone guess what state this license plate is from?

Working with Encaustic Wax

Yesterday I got to play with one of my favorite mediums. This is actually my third workshop in Encaustic Painting. I have taken each class from a different artist. My first workshop was with Eve Marie. This sparked my interest in working with the medium and I really enjoyed it. Then at Art Fest I signed up for Stephanie Rubiano's class for a completely different encaustic experience. Yesterday's was at the studio of Karen Bubb who also took a class from Eve Marie and has put her own special twist on it.

First we started with a Native American Sage Cleansing.
This way we could all start fresh and get rid of any negativity holding us back. 

For inspiration, Karen had four big bins of papers we could go through, as well as many books, and the offer of reading our Tarot. I picked the "World Card" Here is the Wikipedia interpretation.

"The World represents an ending to a cycle of life, a pause in life before the next big cycle beginning with the fool. The figure is at once male and female, above and below, suspended between the heavens and the earth. It is completeness. It is also said to represent cosmic consciousness; the potential of perfect union with the One Power of the universe. It tells us full happiness is also to give back to the world, sharing what we have learned or gained."

I am in a new beginning in a way, re-evaluating everything I have been doing for the past 5 years, seeing what works and doesn't as related to my art career and getting started teaching adults what I do. 

The following are the pieces I made. All are encaustic using a variety of techniques, most are on wood. 

A few shots of the work space and class. 

A display of Karen's new work inspired by her recent trip to Cuba.

 Great day, a lot to think about, especially with my Tarot reading! Thanks Karen!

Antlers Change Direction

 

In my original piece of art using these antlers I made this Antler Mirror- Objects from my travels put together. The mirror was bought at a thrift shop from a trip to CA last year. The old bottle was from weird place in VA that I will be blogging about (my husband and I still have nightmares from this place)  and the antlers were obtained from my mom's garage in TX. (No one knows were they came from or how they got there) But that piece is no longer available as I took it apart to make something else. Why did I take it apart, well I had it outside and the antlers were glued and well...lets just say the antlers are too heavy for glue. Luckily nothing broke, just came apart.

The new incarnation of the antlers started with the handmade wooden box I found in a shopping cart in front of a thrift store marked "free" those are the best finds! It is a well made box, not flimsy. The rectangular pieces in the middle are small encaustic paintings that I made in a workshop last year. I really do need to go back to one of those classes as I have used up all but one of my wax painting/collages in an assemblage!

This time around the antlers are not only glued but also screwed into the wood. They are not coming off this time! Placed around the encaustics are river rocks given to me from a friend that brought them back from New Zealand for me.

The last step was I poured two part resin over all the rocks to seal everything in and the rocks appear to be under a layer of water.

I really like the simplicity and natural colors of this piece. I don't have a name for it yet. I'm taking suggestions. This piece is for sale $250.

Sew & Tell

Sew & Tell

This is one of my new mixed media pieces, I have included the frame in this photo as that is part of the piece. I took an old frame and collaged and painted it to coordinate with the art in the frame. The collage in the center is an encaustic collage with old sewing patterns and other bits of ephemera under layers of wax. This was then attached to a canvas panel that I collaged and painted and added old sewing thread, miniature sewing machine, metal sewing measure, and a tag from some jeans that says "Sew & Tell"

Memories in Blue

 

Memories in Blue 20" x 20" (including frame) 

I completed this 8" x 8" encaustic collage back in class in January. I have had it sitting around waiting to figure out how to finish it. I had several old frames out in my storage that someone had given me that were pretty beat up looking and decided to use them. I used one for Saint Sustainability

One I am still working on, and the third frame I used for this project. The frame had a piece of Masonite attached to it, which I painted and added tissue paper.   I painted the frame with transparent acrylics and coated all with mod podge.When it was dry I used e6000 glue to attach the encaustic board. It makes me happy when I can combine items I already have to make something new without having to go out and buy something. 

Create More, Consume Less!