Smashy Smashy Bang Bang!

That's me photobombing my own creation.. Round 2 of mosaicing the tree! I had so much fun smashing all those plates! Thank goodness that I work at a facility that not only breaks its share of plates in the moving part of the job, but receives a great deal of already cracked, chipped and busted crockery. The pile I have at home is being sorted...
There are so many small details that accompany this project: assemble all tools, turn on the hose, smash plates (yes, wearing eye protection and gloves and covering plate to be deconstructed with a piece of cloth), sort plates into color coded piles, etc etc. I'm learning so much as I go, too, like smaller bits work much better. On the flat surface of the walk way, larger pieces were possible as they didn't have to defy gravity. going up the side of the tree- and around the curved surface!- presents a whole slew of logistical issues. I'm having fun!

Here's a closer read of the color. As noted previously, this particular tree will be in the reds/oranges/pinks range. The yellow above is actually gold from the rims of some really nice dishes- extra glittery! Trying to keep the integrity of the plate design has proven challenging. I'm happy with the abstracted quality as I'm not looking to be pictorial but some of the plates seem to expand on application and the image gets a bit diffuse. Luckily, my early efforts are at the base of the tree and will be semi-obscured buy the asters that grow in this particular garden area. But it all looks pretty great!
For those additionally interested in my inspirations, you only have to look up Antoni Gaudi, Park Guell, Watts Towers, Maison Picassiette, or Le Palais Ideal. Amazing!!

Now What Are They Making!?!??!!?

Well, true to my threats and promises, I started makin' mosaic on one of the dead trees. Here is an underpinning... sort of a cross between armor and lingerie. Tree looks sexy: all silvery and sinuous and shiny!

My hands and arms don't, though. Despite wearing gloves and a long sleeved sweat shirt, the metal lathing (that I had to apply in order to give a surface for the cement to stick to) is very sharp and scratched the hell out of me. It was fun anyway, learning to use a new material and solve problems along the way. First I tried wiring the pieces together but that didn't work. Then I discovered that fencing nails (the ones bent like "U" shapes) worked, as did the big-headed nails that Bob gave me. (Bob was busy repairing his studio roof line... there's always something to do around here!) I bashed my thumb and swore up a storm but it was exciting and challenging.
Several experts suggested that I reinforce the base of the tree with rebar* but I- maybe impetuous!- declined, thinking that the dead tree, once it's housed in a sheath of concrete, will stand longer than I will. Besides, if it falls over, we'll gave spectacular ruins and it will still be a romantic mess! O Ozymandias!!

My assembled tools; not sure if you can see the cache of band-aids in the corner of the wheel barrow!
It will be interesting to see how far I get with all the broken crockery I have assembled. When we did the walkway, I thought we'd have tons and tons of material but it got used up quickly and I had to go to a second hand store and purchase an entire snow-flake themed set of dinnerware. If the walkway was predominately blue and white (it borders the Blue Garden), I am feeling this trunk will be corseted in more reds and oranges. I have some right purty coppery/autumnal platters to smash!

As my riding lesson was cancelled today due to high winds and a chance of rain, I may be able to start the cement stage of the proceedings. I learned from our adventures on the walk way that planning a design a head of time- and preparing the pieces- makes the job easier.

*Hey! The experts who work in rebar were unavailable due to scheduling (and other) conflicts. this meant I either had to wait (until god knows when) or never begin this project. The clematis that I planted on this very same tree skeleton was growing fast!!

Barring Natural Disasters...

So many projects, so little time! I've wanted to re-paint the upstairs for over a year now but last spring's tornado put the kibosh on getting much of anything done besides activities involving giant heaps of wood and brush. This year I vow will be different!
So the twisted stalk above suggests the illusive color I am seeking for the walls- a greenish/bluish/bit of purple... is this possible? Maybe I'll have to paint veils of color over color? Maybe I'll have to lose my mind trying to capture that subtle shade? Maybe I'll just paint the damned walls white again! (But what shade of white?!??!?) Anyway, I can't do that until warm weather and the possibility of open windows return. Hurry Spring! (And minus the tornadoes, please!)

These samples have been hanging out for quite a while...
What else? Yes, the wall will be built- not THAT wall but the mosaic one behind our Blue Garden. (Getting Mexico to pay for it!! Hahahaha.) I have tons of plates and dishes, all waiting to be smashed and cemented, but this, too requires warm weather. is there anything I can do besides endlessly vacuum the carpet in the meantime? Of course I will confess (and no doubt waggish friends and family will confirm) that I don't spend undo amounts of time cleaning and fussing. Just as well, too! Who wants to be an artist whose tomb stone reads, "Didn't Get Anywhere With Her Art But Boy Was Her House Clean". Not me!
I will admit that a reduced work schedule and the cold weather have driven me further inwards, both physically and psychically and has been good for my "studio practice".  Robin the Good drags me outside to chase her and her beloved soccer ball around but it's cold and I feel like hibernating.
But when I return to the warmth of my studio, ideas flow and pieces are coming together. I am finishing "Only the Oligarchs" and preparing to add the crystals to the edge that will really make that piece sing. I am preparing to sew the backing on "Your Words Have Consequences"; not the most exciting phase but that piece will be complete soon. (Sometimes, art requires a bit of tedium. The sexiest part is mostly the conception.) And "The Stock market is Not the Economy" is finally coming together. i think I have the font right... not sure about the scale of the letters. Some tweaking in process! So I guess I'm busy despite being chilly and awaiting warmer days!

Upcoming Oklahoman Birthday

Doesn't that look like somewhere else... as in, "not Connecticut"? As previously reported, we had the dead and dying trees cut off at around 10 feet as we have a PLAN. (Oh just you wait...) Anyway, I have taken to calling our backyard "Oklahoma" (as in: "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOk-lahoma where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain...") because the ground is flat and parched and there are no trees on the left hand side. I expect to see oil derricks sprouting. It's pretty bleak, especially as  it's been so god-awful hot and dry.
Here's a really hard to decipher close up of the (above) blue walkway:

Those are all ants, swarming on the mosaic. It was kind of gross, but really interesting. I don't know exactly what they were up to, but there is still a good deal of saw dust on the walkway from the tree removal episode so maybe they were eating sawdust. It's hard to describe how many there were.
But returning to the subject of flat, parched, barren landscapes, I am interested to see what happens with all the available space I now have in the backyard. While I was at work on Friday, industrious Bob picked up/rolled off and carted away the remaining giant logs that littered our lawn. There is a clear path through to the horse fence (and large heaps of attendant brush). As mentioned, the upside is more room for planting things! I am contemplating a sort of mini-conifer border. Sort of like this, but on a more modest scale:

A screen shot from the Iseli Nursery website. They're in Oregon and grow some pretty spectacular things. It's the stuff of my dreams...

I should probably make a field trip there some day, like visiting Mecca if you're a believer. Well, I'm a believer in Nature and plants!
So I have been starting my coniferous adventures recently. Here's a "De Groots' Spire" that Bob and I purchased at (of all places) Home Depot. You know how I like those tall pointy things!

This puppy grows only a foot wide but eight feet tall. Ooooooooooooooooh! I like that! We also bought a half-price juniper plumosa aurea in Vermont when we were there last weekend. (I hijacked Bob and made him go to the Home Depot in Bennington. They had a great selection- all 1/2 price! I wish we'd had a trailer!) And a word to all family members who may be getting me "living things" for my rapidly approaching birthday: I did NOT purchase anything on the lists of plants I provided. Rest assured, any and all birthday offerings are welcome!!

Stairway to Heaven

After that last posting, I was ready for a change of pace and attitude! So here's a project with a positive outcome: a brand new stone and mosaic step for my studio. And yes, those are my feet at the bottom of the picture.
Bob had said for quite a while that he had stones picked out with which to construct an official step for my studio. I have been making due with a simple wooden step that was functional but not especially pretty. And instead of one large stone that would have been hard to move up from the stream area and put into place, Bob suggested three large stones with cement and mosaic in between. A great idea!
Bob did his usual magic leveling and arranging the stones and then he helped mix up the cement. I had the fun part of selecting the plates from our vast collection of smashable crockery (cheerfully provided by my place of employment as many dishes come in already cracked, chipped or otherwise defective). I first toyed with the idea of using a slew of green plates, then red plates and finally circled around to choosing blue plates as it references the blue walkway we made through the Blue Garden. It was the right choice as the perfect plates volunteered themselves and I happily bashed away.
It was fun playing with mosaic again; we hadn't done that since the walkway project. I know that making the terrace behind the house was a big inspiration to making the step. And what an important step it is! It leads into (and out of) my studio. There is that inevitable metaphor of crossing a threshold from one reality to another.
Here's a slightly further back view:

Isn't that nice the way the stones and the tile integrate? Plus it's so much larger that Robin and I have a bigger landing pad when we depart on our morning walk. (I don't remember exactly why we always exit through my studio, but we do... ). Bob correctly decided that the shape and color of the mosaic looked like an eye. I showed him a preliminary sketch I did- of an eyeball! I had wanted that as a sort of subtle suggestion, nothing really literal or obvious. Just a suggestion of the internal seeing that goes on when in the studio...

Ketchup

No, despite the title, this is not a posting about tomato based condiments. I meant the title as a catchy alternative to... catching up. Very funny, right? A busy time of year, hence my sloppy blogging habits.
I have been preoccupied with gardening and trying to balance the intense purchasing/planting/starting seeds. As I have previously reported, I initiated a couple of new beds (one for shrubs and one for asters) and also developed a fixation with different types and colors of lilacs. And to boot, I have rekindled a neglected interest in starting seeds of plants not readily available in nurseries (or way to expensive to buy the quantity I long for...)There's always something new in the horticultural world if you're a plant geek!
And studio time... I have two new major pieces going which I will post soon. One has a labor-intensive edge that I had to fabricate and took what seemed like forever but it looks great. The other piece is elaborate and simply requiring amazing amounts of sewing, through thick, shiny white vinyl. And in the midst of trying to get a grasp on studio time, I had to run into New Haven to pick up four pieces from a show that is closing. (I got a good mention in a newspaper review. Yay!)
And then, of course, there was Bob's birthday (which date he shares with the Buddha.) Bob made out like a bandit, getting all kinds of novel and nifty things including new striped shirts, a nesting set of French serving dishes and a smart phone. The phone is proving smarter than us, so it may take a while to unlock all of it's apps and marvels; that's where the plastic pretend phone pictured above comes in handy...

And then we have had to eat. Have you ever been blocked as to what to have for dinner? It's as if you've eaten everything at least five times and there's nothing left to try. And then the food that still exists untried is inedible because it contains hideous amounts of salt, high fructose corn syrup, GMO ingredients or is full of stuff that unpronounceable. (Never a good sign!) But leave it to Bob to explore the enlightened world of creative plate coverage. Just look at what could have been a banal beige meal! He rendered it lovely and delicious... fish sticks with onion rings and braised Brussel sprouts.
I am also on the verge on constructing that mosaic wall I've been threatening to build (I guess I am not the only one with a wall obsession). I think I have a sufficient quantity of busted and shattered dishes plates and platters to commence. I don't want to begin it and change my mind about decoration or pattern; it wouldn't be the easiest thing to amend! The wall will have to wait- much like the terrace project- until the frenzy of Spring has abated.

Bridges to No Where

Next year is already chock-a-block with interesting possible projects and plans. Like our two bridges that cross the stream at the bottom of our property. At present, they are "constructed" of two aluminum ladders with planks on them; serviceable, yes, but hardly interesting or (dare I use the word?) artistic.
They could be so cool! Bob and I are toying with various ideas like rock pilings and then metal understructure with cement covering it... or maybe wood. Don't know but it'll be fun!

This is the second location, a bit further upstream. Actually, they aren't really bridges to nowhere (unless some one wants to fund us!) They do a lovely job of delivering us from one shore to the next. At this time of year, the stream is so low that we could probably safely walk across from rock to rock, that that certainly wouldn't be stylish!

Here's a closer view of the second bridge. isn't that Lobelia next to the bridge lovely? There are loads of wild flower varieties growing nearby! It's a wonderful environment. And will only be lovelier still if we commit to another idea that's hatching...

What's this?!!? A new batch of busted plates! I just started saving more plates because Bob and I had a great idea to make another walkway of mosaic- but on the other side of the stream! It would be narrow and sort of informal and windy and lead from one bridge to the next. Wouldn't that be cool!?!?!? We could cover the whole world in mosaic! WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWhhhhheeeeeeeee!!!!!

Bits and Pieces (Mosaic in Process)

Ah yes, the old cliche about breaking a few eggs to make an omelette! I have been saving blue dishes for almost a year now. It helps to work at an auction house where endless amounts of table top porcelain appears- some of it damaged. The chipped, the cracked, the broken and unwanted all made it home with me, as long as there was some blue pattern or other. (Until about a week ago when three vast stacks of white china with a gold rim were being thrown away. I am so glad I thought to take them home! I would never have had enough blue material and the white set the blue off marvelously!)
In any even, on the eve of actual walkway construction, I made a fast stop off at a local thrift store and secured a large quantity of the above dishware, "Winter Holiday" by name. The nice elderly woman who waited on me kept remarking, "What a lovely pattern this is!" I didn't have the heart to tell her that I was taking it home to smash it all to bits...Bob and I smashed all kinds of dishes, bowls, plates, platters, cups and mugs. Very satisfying. One large bin was mostly blue; the other mostly white. We set to work, mixing manageable batches of concrete: one part Portland cement to three parts sand and enough water to make a loose mix. It took only one mix load to realize the best consistency and then we were in business.

We used plastic garbage can lids as "palettes" to hold our busted bits. We troweled on about 2 inches of concrete over the gravel (which was also about three inches deep). It worked so much easier than I thought. We had debated whether we'd need a edge of metal or wood, but the concrete didn't seem to need it.
Have you gotten the idea that I'm teasing here? I'm disinclined to show the walkway as it really is spectacular and I want to unveil it on our garden tour (the topic for my next posting).
But here's a detail of the mosaic:

We varied the sizes of the pieces to make it a more dynamic pattern, plus the fit together better. I devised a simple to follow pattern, sort of herringbone alternate stripes of blue and white. There's also quite a bit of gold which makes a nice sparkly detail. Again, thank goodness for all those many white with gold rim dishes I took at the last minute! I'd be plumb out of luck if I'd held out for just blue! And really? I think the walkway would be far less interesting...
We finished it! I wasn't sure if we'd get it done in time, but we succeeded and it is so much cooler than I even thought...