Inspire Me Thursday -- Show And Tell

Show and Tell for Inspire Me Thursday I am only a week late. And I forgot about the functional art as well. Where do my hours, days go?

I found a beautiful box "made in Bali" at the thrift store and knew what must be done with it immediately. Using a ceramic doll body and branches from my dead lilac, victim of the winter, I went to work creating an emotional piece for myself about my concern about what is happening to natual habitat. I used the antiquing technique that I learned from Jane Wynn's class. I would have painted it differently before her class. I cut the top of lid of box in half so I could expose the fairy, clued it all together with epoxy, primed and painted it with metal paint, then used the technique to make it look like rusted iron.

Not quite finished, as most of my pieces are right now...I am rethinking the leaves, as the original leaves, dark, dead ones are falling off. But I wanted to be able to add words, quotes cut from books, to the little branches with the small clothes pin. Words of encouragement, words about not cutting down all of our trees. I live in a place full of trees, that disappear daily. This is my hopeful tree fairy, that trees will survive our need to have a view of the water! I am still trying to conjure up the the appropriate words, title to go with this piece.

"God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools" ~ John Muir





And then for the functional art for last week. I painted furniture many years ago. I love bright colors, collecting stuff from the thrift store to reuse. I painted bowls and this was my favorite, except no one but me got it. ;) But I am still painting my bowls. The idea behind this one was having a gated bowl. Painted dowels, drilled holes along the edge, they are removable.