International Strange Music Day-A Peek-a-Boo Project

 I enjoy looking up unusual holiday to see if I can include them in my blog posts. Today, August 24, 2022, is as my title says  International Strange Music Day, a day that encourages people to listen to all types of music they don't usually listen to. It is a also a day to discover strange and bizarre kinds of music. "Madam Butterfly" by Malcolm McLaren is one type of music many may not know. It is the inspiration for this artwork. 

Supplies:  GSLC ATC Shrine Box, GSLC Royal Flourishes, GSLC Vine Corners, GSLC Gothic Cross Miniatures, Weldbond, Polymer Clay, Plastic Wooden Texture Plate, Liquid Clay, Embossing Powders in Brown, Polymer Clay Oven, Small Golden Beads, Small Golden Nails, Shades of Green Acrylic Paint, Gold Design Cream Paint, Glossy Accents, Transparent Butterfly Wings, Golden Heavy Matte Gel Medium

1.  Gather Supplies.

2.  Put Together GSLC ATC Shrine Box and Secure with Weldbond.

3.  Roll Out a Thin Sheet of Polymer Clay and Press into Plastic Wooden Texture Plate.

4.  Cut Panels of Clay and Adhere to GSLC ATC  Shrine Box with Liquid Clay.

5.  Brush Empty Areas with Liquid Clay and Sprinkle with brown Embossing Powders.

6.  Cure in Polymer Clay Oven.

7.  Build a Butterfly Body Totem In Middle of Cured Box Using Small beads for Eyes and Small Nails for Antennas.

8.  Paint GSLC Vine Corners with Shades of Green Acrylic Paints.

9.  Paint GSLC Royal Flourishes with Gold Design Cream.

10.                Attach GSLC Vine Corners and GSLC Royal Flourishes with Liquid Clay and Cure Again in Polymer Clay Oven.

11.                Use Glossy Accents to Attach Transparent Butterfly Wings to Butterfly Body.

12.                Add Patina to Art Piece using Dry Brush Technique and Acrylic Paints.

13.                Paint GSLC Gothic Cross Miniatures with Gold Design Cream.

14.                Attach GSLC Gothic Cross Miniatures with Golden Heavy Matte Gel Medium

Some Final Thoughts.

I enjoy a variety of music, Putumayo is a great starting place to discover different types of World Music. I have enjoyed their A Native American Odyssey,, Gypsy Caravan,  India Compilation, Louisiana Music Sampler, and Zydeco.

 I Have Favorite Female Vocalists, Tori Amos, Annie Lennox, Miley Cyrus, Tones and I, Natalie Merchant, Sinead O'Conner and Tracy Chapman.

 My Favorite music group is Over The Rhine, whom I have quoted many times here on my blog posts. I Like U2, REM, the Chieftains, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Moby, Gregorian, Rammstein,  and Grant Lee Buffalo.

There are so many different styles of music for me to still discover. Tell me a few of your favorites.

 

Cuckoo Clocks and S-Town-A Peek-a-Boo Project

 My father brought back a Cuckoo Clock from when he was stationed in Germany during WWII near the Black Forest Region. That Cuckoo Clock was a permanent fixture in my childhood home. I was mesmerized by its intricate carvings and fascinating features. the first podcast I ever listened to was S-Town, whose main character a horologist, a time keeper repairman, these are the inspirations for this artwork. 

Supplies:  GSLC Cuckoo Clock, Bookboard, Ruler, Cutter, Scrap Paper, UHU Gluestick, Embossing Ink, Embossing Powders Brown, Wooden Grain Embossing Folder, Fan Brush, Various Shades of Brown Acrylic Paints, Artist Cloth, DecoArt One Step Crackle Finish, Glossy Accents, Watch Parts, Clock Face Embellishment, Design Cream Gold Paint, Art Alchemy Metallique Hazelnut Acrylic Paint, Golden Heavy Gel Matte Medium, Colored Pencils, Matte Varnish, Liquid Pearls

1.  Gather Supplies.

2.  Cut a Piece of Bookboard, Mine is 5 by 10 Inches.

3.  Choose Pieces of Scrap Paper to Add an Interesting Background, Cut and Use a UHU Glue Stick to Attach.

4.  Use Embossing Ink, Brown Embossing Powders and a Wooden Grain Embossing Folder To Add "Wood Grain" to GSLC Cuckoo Clock Top Portion.

5.  Use a Fan Brush and Various Shades of Brown Acrylic Paints to Continue the Wood Grain.

6.  Use and Artist Cloth Brown Paints to Add Patina and Distress You Prepared Background.

7.   Cover Background With DecoArt One Step Crackle Finish, Allowing to Air Dry Fully.

8.  Use Design Cream Gold Paint to Paint  Top Part of Cuckoo Clock Balances.

9.  Use Art Alchemy Metallique Hazelnut Acrylic Paint to Paint Bottom Portion of Cuckoo Clock Balances.

10.                Use Golden Heavy Gel Matte to Secure GSLC Cuckoo Clock Parts to Background.

11.                Use Art Alchemy Metallique Hazelnut Acrylic Paint to Paint Inside of "Windows" of GSLC Cuckoo Clock.

12.                Use Glossy Accents to Secure Watch Parts and Clock Face Embellishment.

13.                Use a Colored Pencil to Fill in the Cracks from the Crackle Finish and to Distress Edges of Background.

14.                Use Liquid Pearls to Add Details to Background.

15.                Use Matte Gel Varnish to Seal the Entire Piece of Art.

 

Some Final Thoughts:

I wish I would have found and taken the Black Forest Cuckoo Clock my father brought back from Germany, that was a great memory from my childhood when we sold the Ole homestead a few years ago, but it was nowhere to be found in the many boxes shoved into the ancient attic. I may one day splurge and buy a one as a replacement for our condo, but of our limited space it would need to be much smaller.  I am fortunate that I have a musical beer stein my dad gave to me years ago, a nice remembrance of our German heritage.

S-Town tells the story of John B. McLemore, who despises his small Alabama town, where he alleges there is a murder that is being covered up by a wealth family and police corruption. It is described as an investigative journalism, serialized audio narrative meaning it tells the story through recordings of many of the key characters and added narration to tell the back story.

One such conversation:

One day, John was on the phone with me, and he looked out his window and started listing off the flowers that were in bloom in his yard, and the ones that were dying. He sighed and said,

JOHN B. McLEMORE:

It's tedious and brief. That's a sundial motto—tedious and brief.

BRIAN REED:

Before we had clocks, we had sundials, and I never thought about this until I started talking to John, but watching a sundial, which could be as simple as a stick in the ground, as the shadow crept along, you were actually witnessing the rotation of the Earth. It's so much less abstracted than a clock, a level closer to time itself. Anyway, John told me sundials often have mottoes engraved on them. John says "tedious and brief" is one.

BRIAN REED:

What do you mean, "tedious and brief?"

JOHN B. McLEMORE:

Your life is tedious and brief. All sundial mottoes are sad like that.

BRIAN REED:

There are hundreds of these mottoes. "Life passes like this shadow." "Make haste, but slowly." "Use the hours, don't count them." "Even as you watch, I'm fleeing." "Soon comes night."

These little reminders are out there, hidden in crannies around the world. I recently happened upon a sundial in the cemetery of an old Catholic mission next to a grave. Because of John, I knew to look for the motto. It read, "Nil boni hodie. Diem perdidi." "I did nothing good today. I have lost a day." 

As I see my summer break slipping away I remind myself to use my hours and not count them. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here.

 

 

 

The Baroness of the Bramble Patch-A Peek-a-Boo Project

 July in the farmland and foothills of rural Pennsylvania is black raspberry pickin' season and gardens are full of fresh vegetable. It was a also the time in my youth that I read 53 books in one summer. One that I remember vividly is "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett and later "The Secret Life of Bees" and "The Mermaid Chair" by Sue Monk Kidd. I'm sad to say that I have lost my love of reading. These are the inspirations of this artwork.

Supplies:  GSLC Honeycomb & Queen Bees ATC Sized, GSLC Acorn Border Set, GSLC Queen Anne's Lace, GSLC Arch Top Triptych 8 Inch, Cosmic Shimmer Lava Paste, Chili Powder, Nutmeg, Gold and Green Mica Powder, Small Plastic Palette Knife, Heating Tool, TH Rusty Hinge Distress Stain, Paintbrush, Magazine Pictures, Scissors, Weldbond, DecoArt One Step Crackle Finish, DecoArt Triple Thick Gloss Glaze, Glossy Accent Gloss Finish, Fussy Cut Flowers and Butterflies, Acrylic Paint Gray and Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold, Spray Bottle of Water, Paintbrush, Clear Stickers of Birds, Butterflies and Flowers, Tweezers, Flat Back Rhinestone Jewels

1.  Gather Supplies-I did not use Creepy Tree 5 Inch.

2.   Use Cosmic Shimmer Lava Paste by adding  Chili Powder, Nutmeg, and Green and Gold Mica Powders Adding Just Enough Water to Keep Paint Like Consistency.

3.  Spread on Upper Portion of GSLC Arch Top Triptych 8 Inch Frame With a Small Plastic Palette Knife.

4.  Cure With a Heating Tool.

5.  Use TH Rusty Hinge Distress Stain Distress Stains to add Patina to Cured Frames Using a Paintbrush.

6.  Look for Interesting Magazine Pictures to Use as Focal Points-I Found a Woman's Face and an Arched Passageway.

7.  Glue Arch Passageway to Top Portion of Back of GSLC Arch and  Image of Woman Face on Bottom Portion with Weldbond.

8.  Attach Front Frame to Back Portion of GSLC Arch Triptych with Weldbond and Secure with Clasps.

9.  I am Using GSLC Honeycomb & Queen Bees ATC Sized, GSLC Acorn Border Set, and GSLC Queen Anne's Lace, I Painted for a Previous Project Using a Variety of Acrylic Paints and Fussy Cut Flowers and Butterflies to Create a Border Around  Woman's Face.

10.                I Used, DecoArt One Step Crackle Finish and DecoArt Triple Thick Gloss Glaze to Layer my Border.

11.                Make a wash Out of Diluted, Gray and Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold Acrylic Paint.

12.                Add Clear Stickers of Birds, Butterflies and Flowers with DecoArt Triple Thick Gloss Glaze.

13.                When Fully Dry use Tweezers to  Glue Flat Back Rhinestone Jewels to Border Using Weldbond.

Some Final Thoughts.

All of the books I mentioned have strong main female characters as does July in America. One of the symbols of our nation is the Statue of Liberty, representing Freedom and Justice. For this reason I always thought July was named after a woman but it was not. July was named after Julius Cesar but for me it will always have a different meaning and origin story. The Image on this art piece pays homage to all of these strong women.

 My momma was one of the strongest women I knew but she was humble in her demure but to us she was queen of our homestead. They say a baroness is the lowest of five noble classes so that would make my momma, the  baroness of our bramble patch. She was a master gardener and knew all the best raspberry patches, she even remembered that next to Luther's orchard, closest to yellow delicious tree, were a rare white raspberry bush, I didn't have the heart to tell her I thought they were more of a yellow variety.

 She also said she heard there were red raspberry that grew on the dirt farm road just past our little white church on the hill,  heading towards Touchshay's that is  mentioned in Waiting For Robins. She said they would be found near the largest abounded barn in the lowlands but to be extra careful because the fields would be overgrown, and rattlers and copperheads love to bask in the early morning sun. if we were successful in our berry picking we could have a patriotic cobbler complete with red white and blue raspberries.

 "It  was the sweetest, most mysterious-looking place any one could imagine. The high wall which shut it in were covered with leafless stems of climbing poses, which were so thick they were matted together."  The Secret Garden

 "Most People don't have any idea about all the complicated life  going on inside a hive. Bee have a secret life we don't know anything about." The Secret Life of Bees

 "You can go other places, all right-you can live on the other side of the world, but you can't ever leave home"

The Mermaid Chair