Art (Work) Day at My House

Elaine Fuller, Beth Rogers and I take turns working on each others' houses.  Each home owner chooses the projects when it is her day.  Today was my day.  It was too cold to  work on the deck in the back yard and I didn't want the house to smell like paint.  I chose to work on art related projects.

The first project I gave to Beth was to design a bracket to hold a large roll of seamless background paper for a new photo stage.  My current photo stage is great for art dolls and other work that is similar in scale.  But my new work is too large for the old photo stage to handle.  Hopefully this seamless background will enable me to take photos of my new work. She built a mechanism from a bamboo pole, Tinkertoys, and bits of shaped wood from my stash.  In the photo the roll of paper is still snug in its plastic wrap. 

Recently, Chris Fondi gave me some strands of beads that incorporate her beautiful origami birds.  I gave Elaine the project of designing a way to display the birds in the top of my doorless kitchen doorway.  I also asked her to make some other things to display with the birds.  She did a great job with making filigree brackets, strands of beads and doodads on a bamboo pole.

Then I asked Beth to do something with the transom over the leaded glass doors that we installed a month ago.  She made a fantastic fish out of hardware bits.

I spent my time in the basement workshop.  It really can't be called a wood shop because it is primarily a place to work with hand tools.  But the convenience of just going to the basement to do basic woodworking can't be beat.  I have a good stash of lumber, plywood and shaped wood bits and pieces that enables the fabrication of most basic ideas.

I built a context for my button clown.  The back is luan, the shelf is cedar and the balls are probably maple.  The woods don't really matter because I'm working for paint, but the mix of woods interested me.  There was even enough time in the day for me to gesso the structure.  It has a shrine like shape and will contribute to the concept of the button clown being a very minor deity.  It will be interesting to see how this project progresses.