Capturing the Ocean’s Spell… in an Altoids Tin

When I’m on the beach, anything feels possible. There’s something about all that vast expanse of open space and air, the  bright light and the shifting shades of blue that seems to open the heart and the mind to life. We humans are drawn to the ocean and we seek to represent its beauty and rekindle the feelings of wonder and expansiveness it evokes in our art and decor. This is part of the appeal of shells and shellwork — they’re lovely little objects on their own, and they can’t help but remind us of the ocean’s magic.

Idea Debt

Every time I pick up a pretty bit from the beach, I have a project in mind. And here’s where I run into a problem — I have a lot of shells which means I have a lot of undone projects drifting around in my head. Have you ever heard of “idea debt”? I first came across the concept in the book Growing Gills by Jessica Abel. Jesica explains how having a whole bunch of ideas “swimming around in the brain” can cause an undercurrent of anxiety because at all times, some part of the brain has to be devoted to processing them.

I have shelves full of idea debt. For the past decade (?) inspiration has haunted me and I’ve been gathering up the things she points out on the beach, at antique malls, from paper stores, etc. and stuffing them in cardboard garden-center plant trays. As I said in the January newsletter, my mission in 2020 is to work through, theme by theme, some of the deepest piles of idea debt. Which brings us back to the “Sanibel Collection”. These are the projects I’m currently working on, the plan is to have them done sometime in February.

I’m not even sure when I started these small assemblages made from Altoids tins. The “Neptune’s Castle” picture was part of an advent calendar, and the tiny vintage postcard print? I’m not really sure where I got that. I was intrigued by jewelry made with an image encased in resin and I had the idea to set the resin-covered images among shellwork. At one point I think I was calling them “Mermaid Windows”, but I don’t think I’ll stick with that title. They’re meant to go under a glass cloche, or they could stand on their own. I came so close to completing them! I’m not sure why I shelved them, but the only things left to do are to finish the shell frames around the mouths of the tin and mount them on a shell and rock base. It may be that last step that side-tracked me, not sure exactly how that’s going to happen.

Finishing the shell frames will be easy; here’s a tip on gluing shells to a base:

I think I need a new glue gun.

Prepped substrates and a “practice” watercolor

Next up: lettering, watercolor and shells. There are so many fantastic sayings about the sea. Even a single word — I once did a lovely little shadowbox that featured the word “Persevere”, can be evocative when placed among shells. (No picture of that piece, unfortunately.) There are two, possibly three, quotes that I want to place on a watercolor background set among shells. I have the bases ready and painted, from a while ago. At the time I painted the substrates, I also tried a watercolor with lettering (in photo to right) but was not happy with the results. The project went back on the shelf. This time I’m going to try a slightly different format for the quotes but still surround them with shells.

Here are two techniques for filling in a large area with shells:

I used Artisan Enhancements Pearl Plaster

I’m also working on some beach-themed art cards. I’m (going to be) painting small, almost abstract watercolors of the water. The paintings will be paired with a strip of fabric collage suggesting the beach.

I save ziplock bags full of bits and scraps of lace and fabric just for collage. The fabric collage strips are in progress, as shown in the photo of my worktable on the left. I love to work on cards because they’re small and quickly completed, allowing for lots of experimentation with techniques and mediums.

One last project to share, and this one is actually completed. It simply required several coats of varnish, and a label and hanging mechanism on the back, and it was done. Sunshine State doesn’t include shellwork but it is all about the beach. I had an incentive to finish this one — it’s headed to Florida to be in the silent auction at the Rotary Sanibel Arts and Crafts fair over President’s Day weekend.

I hope it reminds someone of exactly what they love about the beach.

Sunshine State, mixed media collage on 12x12 wood artist’s panel

A Very Custom Gallery Wall: The Laundry Room

When we remodeled and enlarged our house two years ago we added a laundry room. Previously — in our circa 1970 house, the laundry had been in the garage. A lot of thought went into planning this space because it needed to have multiple functions. It’s for the laundry, but also acts as a butler’s pantry and extension of the adjacent studio space. I wanted a large table in the center, a stainless steel sink and lots of cabinetry. (I may have overcompensated slightly for having done laundry in the garage for a decade, but it’s now one of the most useful spaces in the house.)

I also had an aesthetic feel in mind for this space. I’ve always loved 1920’s and 30’s style, particularly the kitchens, but the look is very different from what’s going on in the rest of our house. So this space would be dedicated to that era’s style (if not appliances.) There are some very distinctive blues that appear in illustrations and decor from that time, a robin’s egg blue but also a darker shade — maybe you would call it a “Dutch” blue. I had the cabinet maker paint the cabinets in a custom blended color reminiscent of that darker blue. I left some of the shelves open to display glass jars, vintage ceramics and tins. I knew that I would frame and hang pages from a 1920’s Royal Baking Company recipe booklet that belonged to my grandmother in a gallery wall, but there are two large wall spaces that needed art.

Laundry Day by J.C. Spock

Scrolling through Instagram early last spring I saw that mixed media artist J.C. Spock had posted a new series of collages called Life in the 30’s. Her work features a washed out mostly monochromatic palette often with swatches of faded sky blues. I immediately fell in love a collage featuring a black and white photograph of women hanging out laundry. What could be more perfect for my laundry room? But a 6x6 panel could not carry an entire wall, so I had the pleasure of creating a small collection of pieces to complete the grouping.

Elements for Housekeeping2: The Oak Park

I have a Dover reproduction of a Sears Roebuck House catalog and had wanted to create a collage based around one of the illustrations for a long time, the housekeeping theme I was working with provided the perfect opportunity. Silhouettes of a maid from an advertisement in an old Ladies Home Journal magazine, a dollhouse broom and dustpan set, a bit of a hand-stitched linen napkin, a button card with just one precious mother of pear diamond button remaining and other small pieces of ephemera completed the piece. The elements are blended into a cohesive whole with washes of milk and mineral paints that with their mat and somewhat granular consistency suggest old plaster.

Next up, a tiny toy iron I picked up on an antiquing excursion. In kind of rough shape, it seems to have been well loved and pairs nicely with a black and white photo of little girls ironing doll clothes. Another silhouette ties this piece to the first collage and looms like a shadow of the mother the girls are imitating and a roll they will most likely fill in adulthood. I used a small wood tray picked up at a local thrift shop as the substrate for this shadowbox.

Laundry Day by J.C. Spock, Housekeeping 1:The Oak Park, collage on basswood panel and Housekeeping 2: Ironing, shadowbox assemblage

Elements for A Chicken Story

These two pieces with the JC Spock collage made a complete but small grouping that really only filled one side of the wall. Time for some chicken art! I had an old children’s book illustration that I’d been saving for just the right piece. The colors leant themselves to a painted blue frame; and since keeping chickens was common in early 20th century households, the subject complimented my period “homemaking” theme. I paired the illustration with a happy chicken family (from my stash of vintage figurines) on the inside of a basswood artist panel. As a companion to this shadowbox-type assemblage, I created a collage inspired by JC Spock. I made a semi-transparent transfer of an old photograph as the central image, and added bits of period textiles and text and illustrations from a children’s dictionary and old agricultural magazines. This piece is on a stretched canvas panel.

A Chicken Story, shadowbox assemblage and Girl with Chicken, collage on canvas

In the center of the this wall is a built-in, fold-down ironing board. which was also a common feature in early 20th century homes in the kitchen. It makes the board easily accessible but out of the way — very convenient.

And that completes one wall. I was going to include the second gallery wall in this post — the one inspired by my grandmother’s 1920’s promotional recipe booklet, but this post has already gotten kind of long. So I’ll save that for another time. The takeaway?

One personally significant piece can be the jumping off point for an entire room full of art.

And it doesn’t have to be “art” — it could be a framed book page, a shadowbox created from a favorite object, or a photograph. Let the subject matter, colors or time period guide you toward a theme. Once you have your theme, type it into Google, Etsy, or Pinterest for items to buy or ideas for pieces to hunt for or create yourself.

(In future posts I’ll go step by step through some simple projects for doing it yourself.)

Our girls, the feathered ones anyway