Safe Harbor Fund Raising Event, Honey Gold & Vista

The other day, I met a very nice woman who is part of an upcoming event for Safe Harbor House, a domestic violence help organization for women and children.    She is helping to sponsor a fundraiser to benefit Safe Harbor.   In our conversation, she indicated some of the items they had received and other items that people were making to donate.   

Right about there, the lightbulb went on .... the Downsizing Box a Day Project that seems to have fallen on the back burner ... and I immediately committed to donating two pieces of art that I have stored away in the attic. 

On Friday I climbed up the fold-down stairs and started looking.   Well, most of the boxes are gone, but there are stacks of pictures, some framed, some panels and a number of concrete disk works, along with a few tables and mirrors.     I selected two items.  

They took a minimal amount of cleaning.   Surprising how clean the attic actually is ... more dust in the house than the attic. 

The two pieces I chose to donate for this event are :

Honey Gold

18" x 18" Mosaic Mirror

This piece was named for the china pattern of the primary glass.  It also incorporates in a few beads and glass gems.   Believe I created this around 1983.  

Vista

32" x 26" Mosaic, framed wall art

I'm not sure that I ever named this piece.   I went back through the Art Diary looking for it, but to no avail, which would imply that it was created 1986 or 1987.    The back was blank.  Apparently, I completed it, and had it hauled on upstairs to make room for the next project.    

I hope these two will assist in raising a few dollars to help a family. 

Provencial Bouquet - Day 4 of Box a Day Mission

Ya, I know ... it's been way more than 4 days.  Call this Good Intention meets procrastination !

Beau opened this box, he thought he saw a wood roach and rushed it to the Garage, where he opened, and thankfully, reported it was bug free (not that bugs would hurt mosaic any; it is just the thought ... he did head off however, to spray the attic ... just in case).

This piece is called Provencial Bouquet and is dated (one the back), March 2002.     And, of course, I remember it well.   It was made with a set of dishes I brought home called .... drumroll please .... Provencial Bouquet.   I suppose I was not to imaginative in the names, having a tendency to name pieces after the primary china pattern.  The dishes had the flower motif in the center and the edges were rimmed with the small blue flowers and dots.  It measures 11" Tall, 12" wide and the shelf stands out 5 1/2".  It has 4 pegs and weighs a whopping


This is, of course, a Peg Wall Shelf piece.   The first year or two that I worked mosaics, I had a tendency to craft functional items.   Functional pieces are wonderful blocks to build skills upon.  It is a real pretty piece, such a shame it's been in the attic so long.

I'm going to list it on Ebay and if it doesn't sell (Ebay is not really a great place to sell mosaics), I'll put it in my shop.    

Fabric Beaded Necklace, No More

A couple times last year, as you may recall, I created Fabric Beaded Necklaces from a variety of vintage scarves and fabrics.     I took these with me to a couple craft fairs and then put in my CTStudios shop.      A couple sold at the art/craft fairs, and although they garnered a lot of views in the shop, their were no further sales. 

I've been thinking about these for awhile ... along with the charm and fabric bracelet items in my shop.   I mostly think that they are out of par with what I create.   They were a fun little sidetrack, but largely not what I'm about, or what I create.    So, I decided to just get rid of them and then I wouldn't have to ponder the thought any more.     Kind of like one more act of downsizing, I suppose.  

So, I pondered the options ...

• Garbage ... well no, they certainly do not warrant that extreme of a measure ...
• Donate to Grans or Restore .... good option 

and then ..... I was thinking that the other thing on my list today was to get a box ready to ship the Big Blue Rose Vase to my sister.    And, just like that, the answer.  

I took all these sweet little fabric beaded necklaces (that, honestly, probably went out of style in the 90s ... I'm always just a little bit out of date) and stuffed them into the Vase!    I'll send most of them to my sister.    (She is a psychologist at a Veterans Home (Men & Women), and I thought, perhaps, she could give them out to some of the ladies when they were in need of some cheer ... or give to her local Goodwill, or whatever.  I put two in my closet ... perhaps I'll wear them someday, and I put two in Lilly's future dress-up box. 

Whew ... closed up the box and felt so accomplished .... one more act of downsizing and no more seeing something in my shop, that really doesn't belong there.  

Duck On In ; Day Two of the Box A Day Mission

 Beau, in preparation of my 'clear a box a day' from the attic mission had set one at the edge yesterday, so this morning, all he had to do was climb half way up and grab the box, delivered to me with a smile.

Duck On In written on the side of the not very heavy box.    Vaguely familiar, but if there had been money stacked on my being able to describe the contents, I'd be a few dollars shorter.   So, again, grabbed the box knife and cut it open.   Carefully wrapped in paper and placed amongst a bunch of styro-foam beads ...

 Well yes, I do remember this piece.   Beau had a set of coffee cups with Ducks on them when I married them.   After looking at them for a good 10 years or so, I was getting ready to add these to the donation box when the Duck On In thought struck and I headed with them out to my studio, where I cut those ducks right out of the cup and put it all together on this very simply wall plaque.   The back is signed and dated February 2002, before I'd started the Art Diary, so it was completely undocumented.  

What to do with it ... well, decided to list it out on Ebay for a Very Reasonable cost, as putting it back in the attic isn't going to be an option.     If it doesn't sell in the week, I'll place it in the Box for the Habitat Restore.

Blue Floral Vase

Periodically, I get in this downsizing mode.  The ultimate desire being to have only those things that we love, or those things that we use; disposing of all the clutter.  Much easier said than done, as you might imagine.  Well, I'm back in this phase.   (In fact, I'm so in this phase that I haven't even been going to yard sales !).   So far, through the last week, I've turned over 5 boxes of stuff to the Restore and listed a small variety of listings in Ebay.  

Along these general lines, I found myself thinking about all that stuff in the attic.  See, when I used to finish art projects, I'd dispatch them off to closets, and then, when the closets were, full, Beau would haul to the attic for me.    This morning, I asked him to go up and bring down one box from the 'art' section, with the perception that I would take whatever it was and make a decision on what to do with it ... and then do it.  

He came down with this box, which was marked Blue Floral Vase.

It was my handwriting, but Blue Floral Vase certainly was not ringing any bells.    A couple quick swipes of the box knife, and there she is ...

And whoa ... a whole lot of remembering going.  

I purchased a set of china, believe the name was Blue Rose, at a yard sale at a give away price.  It seemed much to nice to chop up for mosaic tiles, so I sold it on Ebay for $150.   Unfortunately, I either didn't pack it well enough, or the Post Office over manhandled it, and a number pieces were broken.   The buyer sent it back to me, I refunded her money and filed my claim with the Post Office.    Interestingly enough, they gave me the majority of china, somewhat broken, back.   So, in the end, I still had the china and spread it out and processed all of it into mosaic tiles. 

I created this vase with that china, along with some solid plate glass in white and blue.   She is grouted in white.  She weighs 6 1/2 pounds (certainly heavy enough to hold a large bouquet), stands a proud 10 1/2" tall, is 26" around at the middle and narrows to a small opening of 3" across.  

Now, I said I was going to decide what to do with whatever came down TODAY.   What pressure.    I thought that I should take pictures and put her in my CTStudios shop, but in the end, that means that she would go back into storage of sorts .... ah gosh ... this deciding in a day suck !

Perhaps I'll send her to my sister; I've not given her a vase and this one would certainly be a surprise.