Steam Bath

It’s the chicken and the egg question – we’re not sure if WE brought back the hot weather by putting this up on the mailbox on the 15th, or if it would have come anyway. If it’s our fault for the 95 degree weather plus a heat index making it feel like 106, we apologize. It’s always hot in Arkansas in the summer, and particularly in August. This year has been so wonky, though, with the grass staying green all summer, rather than turning brown and crunchy, that we got spoiled. It’s like a steam bath out there now.  This is the back of the piece. I tried to blend the support bar into his feet.

 

Here’s the front.  We thought this decoration wouldn’t be appropriate in that we’ve had so much rain, but that won’t be a problem much longer.

 

And We Pronounce It Finished!

 

We just hung up the Sun/Moon Metal Wall Hanging, pronouncing it finally, “Finished.”

 

It’s about 4 feet across by 2-1/2 feet high. The moon is a separate piece.

We hung it in our office, over my computer area. I learned a lot doing this piece, and look forward to doing more air brush work.

4th Time is the Charm?

Dodecapod.Com

This is the wall hanging we’re trying to make.

Yesterday I scraped off all the yellow my husband insisted we add. I’m going to paint those parts either black or the background color. When those dry, I told my husband we could add a BIT of yellow to some of the sun flame ends. Hopefully, we can agree this time that the piece is officially finished.

One really nice thing – my husband decided that instead of being forced to buy cans of compressed air to hook to the air brush, he would run a line from our air compressor over to my art table! He spent most of the day on the project yesterday, after we went to Yeagers and bought 30 feet of pvc pipe, some attachments, etc.  He had ordered a regulator from the net, plus 6 feet of hose, plus a DVD on how we are supposed to be using the air brush. We need to get another adaptor at Yeagers today, but the project is almost done!

Please wish us luck?

Tasmanian Devil Mailbox Decoration

We put up another of our favorite cartoon characters – The Tasmanian Devil – on the mailbox today. This is the back of the piece.

 

And this is the front. We hope he gives people a smirk or laugh as they drive by.

3rd Time?

the afterlife of billy fingers via cathy ruggiero

Now my husband wants me to add more yellow to the sun/moon piece with the air brush.

I’ve quit worrying now about whether its ‘good’ or not, and am concentrating on having fun with the air brush, plus making something my husband is happy with. I’m really enjoying the experimenting with a totally new kind of painting. We’ve ordered a set of air brush paint, empty bottles for each color we use, plus an adapter and hose so we can hook it to the air compressor in the shop, rather than having to use a can.

So far, we’re learning to clean the system properly, keep it going, and adjust the spray a bit. I’m hoping to find a video on YouTube so I can watch someone who knows what he/she is doing.

Learning a new technique opens up a whole new world of possibilities, making your mind race and your mouth water.

So, maybe the third time is the charm on the sun/moon metal wall hanging and maybe it isn’t. We’re having fun in the trying.

Finished for the 2nd Time…

This shows you the sun/moon metal wall hanging after I masked parts in order to use the air brush for shading.

 

Tracing paper is off. Finishing touches are ready to be done.

 

Offset ‘moon’ ready for mounting on the piece.

 

The piece is now drying. I’ll take a final pic when this is up on the wall in the office.

Hooray! It’s Sprinkling!!!

Daily Express

We’re having a wonderful afternoon.

First, it rained overnight and it’s sprinkling again now. We’re thankful for every drop.

My husband is on the driveway pad working on drilling holes in the antenna spokes for the ham radio tower and running a new length of wire around it. He says the sprinkling rain feels super good. :0)

I just came in from doing three things:

Thing One: 

I harvested two of my first-ever spaghetti squash!

 

When I bought one from the store, I washed the seeds and dried them. This spring I planted a couple of seeds in the house in small pots just to see if they would sprout. Not only did they sprout, they did well enough I transferred the plants into my raised bed square foot garden. The plants continued to do well, making yellow blooms and vines. As the other things in the garden came out, I just let the vines go where they wanted to in the squares. I harvested these two today. They’re almost as large as the ones I buy at the store. I have at least three more in the garden, and this was from TWO seeds!  I also got a handful of ripe grape tomatoes to add to my stash. :0)

Thing Two:

My husband and I took Amber with us out to the garden and then into the shop. She was wearing the new electronic collar. The whole time we were out – from the house out to the garden (waiting while I harvested), then to the shop – waiting while we painted – and then  back to the house, passing one of the cats – she was zapped twice. It’s as if we have a different dog! It’s becoming a pleasure to walk with her, rather than a “paying- attention-every-second-trying-to-anticipate, second-guess, and retain-control-whatever-happens” time.

Thing Three:

We went out to the shop to experiment with the air brush in the redoing of our sun/moon metal wall hanging. I felt really intimidated, since I’ve never used an air brush before. This made me determined to at least TRY it. I used paint thinner to make sure that the air brush and tube in the bottle were clean and ready to use. The other end of the tube is attached to a compressed air bottle. We then switched the bottle to a black paint for the shading we were trying to do. I practiced on a cardboard box until I was achieving a reasonably uniform, light spray. I had used tracing paper to mask some areas I didn’t want any shading on. I was able to achieve a darker shading around the sun face and along one side of the moon, with lighter shading on the flames of the sun. My husband and I looked at the picture on the computer together, deciding where the next shading should be.

Tomorrow we’ll look at what we’ve done, decide if we need more shading, or if I can move to a repaint of masked areas.

So far, I think the air brush is really fun. I’ve seen some beautiful things done with an air brush. If I can just get a subtle shading technique, I’ll be happy as a clam!

I’ll take pics of the metal wall hanging soon and post them.

2nd Try on Sun/Moon Wall Hanging

123RF

Once I got over the initial disappointment at my efforts on the sun/moon wall hanging painting, I got excited about a do-over, trying to make it come out more as I had hoped.

 

This is the picture and design my husband found on the net. There is a LOT of shading involved, and I chose the wrong color for the background initially.  Yesterday we got another sample can mixed at Yeagers and I got busy.

 

This is the initial try. I didn’t like the background color of the sun, and my husband didn’t like the shading. Other than that…. :0)

I got more of a coppery brown color for the sun this time. Yesterday I scraped off a  LOT of the paint and all of the accent lines. I then rubbed in the new background color with a cloth. Today I’ll use a sponge on the sun to get rid of the remaining ‘lines.’

When that is done, I’m going to mask off a lot of the painting and try using an air brush to do the shading.

It’s fun to learn a new technique. I’ve never done air brushing. I’ve seen some beautiful work that can be done with one by someone who knows what he/she is doing. I’m just hoping for a more subtle shading.

Wish me luck!

 

2nd Try

I finished painting this and wasn’t satisfied. It just didn’t turn out the way I had hoped. My husband tactfully agreed. Today I started scraping off a bunch of the paint. I’m going to repaint the two parts with background paint the best I can. Then we decided, as we were discussing what might be done, that I might try to use a used air brush setup I got a long time ago but have never used.

So, I’ll finish scraping paint, redo the background colors with sponge or cloth, and then we’ll see what we can do with the air brush.

Maybe we can do a better job this time.

Sun/Moon Wall Hanging is Drying

I finished the wall hanging last night. We’re letting it dry, and then we’ll bring it in and hang it up and see what we think. You can’t really see the 3-dimensional aspect of the moon in this picture. I hope it shows up better when the piece is up on the wall. Will take another pic later.

Wyle E. Coyote Mailbox Decoration

This is the back of the piece.

 

And this is the front. He’s about 2 feet tall.

Metal Wall Hanging Progress

I finished the basic color blocking yesterday and then started on the LOTS of shading needed on the piece.  The size is about 3 feet across by 2+ feet from top to bottom.

 

Here it is with the moon attached. I did a lot more shading this afternoon, but will wait until tomorrow to take more pictures.

I took Amber out to the shop with me, but she was finding a LOT to eat that she shouldn’t. I spent more time taking things out of her mouth and trying to find ‘safe’ things she could chew on, but she wouldn’t settle. I ended up taking her back to the porch and then going back out to do some work on the piece.

I have no confidence that what I’m doing is going to work. I’ll just keep on keepin’ on and hope for the best.

Fingers Crossed for Rain

Keeppy

It would be really nice if we get the scattered showers forecast for today and tomorrow. I think we have a 50% chance, and we see some dark clouds gathering from time to time.

It was nice and overcast when my husband and I got home from Lunch Bunch and errands today, so I went to put on my heavy socks and boots, got us each a sweat band and my husband grabbed the electric chain saw. He cut down some of the evergreen branches that were cut off recently and were looking pretty awful, and then he moved to the weed trees!

The minute we got started, the sun came out full force. We lasted about half an hour. We got several weed trees cut down, but we’ll wait until this evening to try to throw them into a pile. We huffed and puffed getting up to the porch again and downed a bottle of water before we even thought about feeling cooler.

We just turned on the a/c out in the shop. I’ll give it an hour and then go out and see what progress I can make with the metal sun/moon wall hanging. I’ll take my camera so I can show you progress thus far.

Meanwhile, fingers crossed for some clouds and rain.

Propane

You wouldn’t think a guy coming to fill the propane tanks would be fun, would you. We had the best time two days ago when the man came up the driveway.

First, he made sure we wanted fill-ups on both tanks (we have a 1,000 gallon tank for the house and a 250 gallon tank for the shop). Then he turned to his truck to get started and stopped, and started to laugh. He looked at us delightedly and said, “Oh, this is wonderful! I wish all my customers were so creative!”

 

We told him that it wasn’t OUR creativity, that we had seen this on the Internet and decided we wanted to try it. He said he didn’t care, he thought it was GREAT.

We’re still walking around about 3 inches off the ground from his nice pat on our heads. :0)

New Metal Piece

This is the latest piece we’re trying to make in the shop.

My husband has done his part, cutting out the pieces (he cut the moon out separately so that it could be mounted above the rest, making a bit of a 3-D effect), and adding a hanger.

Now it’s my turn. I’m intimidated by this one, because of all the shading. I’m concentrating on doing just the color blocking right now, and then will take a lot of time trying to study the piece on my computer for the intricate shading.

I just hope I can do a reasonable job on it.

New Work

Dodecapod.Com

 

My husband found this design on the net and we both liked it. I found the source, but not the name of the artist.  We both liked it a lot and we’re in the process of trying to make it.

My husband used the CNC table and the computerized torch to cut this out. The piece is about 3-1/2 feet wide and about 2 feet from top to bottom.  The piece is so much work for the torch that it overheated. We had to stop the cutting process and wait for the torch to cool down, and then start it up again, fingers crossed it would remember where it was in the design. Thankfully, it did. My husband still ended up having to cut out parts of it by hand.

He made the blue moon separately so that we could mount it on a spacer. We’ll attach it to the main piece through the back with a screw to give the piece more of a 3-dimensional quality.

I marked the metal yesterday.

If we can get our a/c fixed today, I’ll start the painting soon.

This will be a really difficult piece to paint. There is a LOT of great shading on the piece, making the sun look 3-D, for example, and the rays look curled up and wavy. I’ll give it my best shot.

This is the first piece we’ve seen in quite a while that got us excited about cutting out and making something.  If it turns out all right, we plan to hang it on the wall in our office.

Snoopy and Woodstock Mailbox Decoration

We love Snoopy and Woodstock, and it makes me smile each time I see them getting ready to celebrate their patriotism.

 

The sun went behind a cloud when I took a picture of the front of the piece.

Happy Independence Day!

Roadrunner on Mailbox

Wyle E. Coyote and the Roadrunner cartoons are some of our all-time favorites. The Roadrunner never runs out of energy, can run really fast and stop on a dime, and never lets poor Wyle win.

 

This is the back of the piece. Beep! Beep!

Yosemite Sam Mailbox Decoration

On the way to town this morning, we put up Yosemite Sam, one of our favorite cartoon characters. This is the back of the piece.

 

This is the front. He makes us smile.

Godzilla on Maibox

This is the back of the piece. You can see where I had to paint the bottom of the piece on the mounting bar.

 

Here’s the front. He doesn’t show up far down the road as some of our pieces do, but my husband is pleased with him. I’m relieved that he’s happy. We love Godzilla movies. They’re so awful! :0)

Godzilla

We put Godzilla up on the mailbox yesterday, but I forgot to take my camera to take pics. We went to town three times yesterday, trying to get everything done we needed to before my husband had his second cataract surgery this morning.  Simply too busy.

This morning we were up at 5am in order to be at the hospital on time for the surgery. Needless to say, I was barely functional at that hour, and so didn’t remember to take the camera.

Maybe I’ll remember tomorrow. This was a difficult one to paint. My husband says its one of his favorites, so I’m happy he’s pleased with our efforts. :0)

The Fedex Man

Fedex

Last evening our Fedex man brought us a delivery.

He jumped out of the truck with a serious look on his face. He looked at me and said, “You should sell this stuff.”  When I looked a bit blank, he added, “My wife and I just joined an artists group and they’re going to have shows. You and your husband should bring your artwork and sell it. I bet it would sell really well.”

 

Well, THAT made our day! :0)

We discovered that his wife is into interior design and furniture, and apparently has a real gift for decorating. But then he started talking about our critters again. I told him that it was harder and harder to find scrap metal. We used to be able to go to a junk yard and prowl around, gathering things that looked interesting. We did that at auto salvage places, too. Now, due to liability issues, no one will let you prowl around anymore. Sometimes we luck into things, but it really has limited our critter making.

He told us he would be on the lookout for interesting scraps and would bring them to us when he found them.

Isn’t he wonderful?

Sylvester and Tweetie Pie Mailbox Decoration

We took advantage of the drier weather today to change our mailbox decoration to Sylvester & Tweetie Pie. This is the back of the piece.

 

This is the front.  We’re satisfied with this piece because you can see what it is from fairly far down the road, and we did 3-dimensional whiskers on Sylvester and some hair on Tweetie Pie.

Easter Rabbit Mailbox Decoration

This is the back of the Easter rabbit and egg mailbox decoration. I tried to blend the support bar into his feet.

 

This is the front. I used Snow-Tex on the tail to give it more texture.

The ladies who deliver the mail drove up the driveway yesterday, instead of leaving the mail in the mailbox because we got a package we had to sign for. My husband came in, grinning. He said the ladies both told him how much they enjoyed ‘our artwork.’

ClipArtKid

 

Happy Easter!

“I’m Popeye the Sailor Man…”

We put Popeye up on the mailbox this morning. He makes us smile, and we hope he makes others smile, too.

 

He’s a tall piece (about 2-1/2 feet tall) and would bend in a good wind if we didn’t put a bunch of braces on him. Here is the back of the piece. You can see where the rods are, and how I tried to blend them into the figure.

Now I’ve got the Popeye song dancing around in my head…

Here are some lyrics so YOU’RE singing, too!  (Version One)

“I’m Popeye the sailor man
I’m Popeye the sailor man
I’m strong to the fin-ich
Cause I eats me spin-ach
I’m Popeye the sailor man.

I’m one tough Gazookus
Which hates all Palookas
What ain’t on the up and square.
I biffs ’em and buffs ’em
And always out roughs ’em
But none of ’em gets nowhere.

If anyone dares to risk my Fisk,
It’s Boff and it’s Wham, understand?
So keep Good Be-hav-or
That’s your one life saver
With Popeye the Sailor Man.

I’m Popeye the sailor man
I’m Popeye the sailor man
I’m strong to the fin-ich
Cause I eats me spin-ach
I’m Popeye the sailor man.”

---

“I’m Popeye the sailor man     (version two)
I live in a garbage can.
I eats all the worms
And spits out the germs
I’m Popeye the sailor man.

I’m Popeye the sailor man
I live in a frying pan
I turn up the heat
And burn up my feet
I’m Popeye the sailor man

I’m Popeye the sailor man
I’ve never stepped foot on the land
I like to go swimmin’
With them mermaid women
And float on my back to get tan.”

Carla’s Bowl is Finished!

I glued the felt on the bottom of the bowl this morning so it won’t scratch furniture.

 

I also did the final clean up of the glass.

 

Carla gave me the prettiest gift at Christmas. It’s a glass bowl, turned over on its top, in a base. You open it up, put some wonderful fragrance oil drops in it. and plug it in. The bowl itself is white on white, with white mosaic type shapes above the background. As it heats up, the whole bowl changes colors as you watch. The fragrance makes the whole room smell good. I put it on my buffet, so the wonderful smell spreads into the dining area, kitchen, hallway, pantry, and utility room. She said she ‘thought of me when she saw it.’

This one doesn’t change colors, or do any tricks, but it’s made with love and  I hope she likes it.

Mosaic Bowl is Almost Finished!

Yesterday morning I grouted the bowl. It’s a bit like making mud pies, in that you put a huge glop of grout on the side, then try to mash it in-between the tiles. Then you add another glop. There’s some water involved, vinyl gloves, sponges, cloths, etc. You cover the bowl generously, then start using the sponge to remove the excess. You want to end up with the space covered as evenly as possible with none left on the actual tiles.

 

I did this as much as possible yesterday. I’ll do a bit more clean up today, then paint on the sealer, and see if I can add just a bit of glitter. I’ll also cut a round piece of felt to glue on the bottom so that it won’t scratch furniture.  I’ll take pics again when it’s finished.

St Patrick’s Day Mailbox Decoration

We put this up this morning to be ready for St. Patrick’s Day. We used to have just a bare shamrock piece cut out, but I like this one better This is the back of the piece. You can see where I tried to blend in the mounting bar into the painting.

 

And this is the front of the piece.

“St. Patrick’s Day is an enchanted time – a day to begin transforming winter’s dreams into summer’s magic.”  ~Adrienne Cook

 

Current Mosaic Piece in Progress

I’m making this for a friend. What I’m picturing is that it will be a nice place to put a tea light and that it will glow through the pieces of glass.

All of the pieces of tile are now glued onto the glass. (This is the bowl upside-down. I’m planning to spread grout on the bottom so I can ‘sign’ it, using a baby trowel type tool.)

The next step is fun, labor-intensive, and quite messy – like playing in the mud or messing with play dough or finger painting.

I put grout all over the piece, making sure I get it all around all the pieces of glass tiles as evenly as possible. When that is done, I use warm water and a sponge, or cloth, or both, to wipe the piece to get all of the excess grout off the glass. This takes a lot of time, effort, and lots of warm, clean water. I have to get it completely cleaned up before the grout dries or it will be like trying to scrape cement off.

I’ll take pics when the grout is on and the piece cleaned up.

Pepe Le Pew and Penelope

I loved the Pepe Le Pew cartoons, and particularly when his ‘girlfriend cat – Penelope’ was included. I still smile when I see them. This is the back of the mailbox decoration. I tried to blend the horizontal support bar into the figures.

 

Here is the front of the piece. I hope people smile as they pass our driveway.

“Mr. Natural” Mailbox Decoration

“Mr. Natural is a comic book character created and drawn by 1960s counterculture and underground comix artist Robert Crumb” ~ Wikipedia.

This is the back of the piece.

 

And the front.

Mr. Natural was a “white-bearded, diminutive sage-cum-charlatan, ranging from charming, free-wheeling early ’70s stories to the disturbing, controversial stories of the 90s”. He’s one of my husband’s favorite characters due to his controversial nature, fitting my husband’s sense of humor to a “T.”