Found Objects – Ornamento

Resource and Treasures

By: ornamento.blog January 12, 2017January 8, 2017

Art, art from recycled materials, art, creativity, crafts, inspiration, dumpster diving, Found Objects, Green Decorating, phladelphiaArt, green grafting, Music, recycling, repurposing, resource exchange philadelphia2 Comments

I am so cold today! Yesterday I had to go out in a whirling snowstorm to deliver a sick portable hard drive to the computer hospital. Today, the computer doctor called me with the happy news that the files on the drive would live. I feel like I dodged a bullet. Fortunately, I already had the pictures for this blog post ready to go.

Which brings me to the Resource Exchange. I heard about this wonderful place a couple of years ago as a space where film and play companies deposited their leftover props and set equipment when production was finished. Then I leaned that the collection of leftovers had grown to any kind of material that could be used to make art. Which includes everything when you think of it but we won’t go there, will we?

No, the Resource Exchange offers all kinds of reclaimed arts and craft supplies that you can mention in polite company AND use to make art. These supplies would otherwise end up in the trash. The Resource Exchange gives them new life. Let’s see, conservation, art, creative reuse-looks like a win/win situation to me.

And if you have a bunch of discarded art supplies, builder supplies, tools, and old sewing machine, a stuffed animal, a bolt of cloth a case of paper clips, bring them to the Resource Exchange. Someone, somewhere will want them.

On my trip to the Resource Exchange, I found some bead storage boxes, jute webbing that I used to Boris-proof my foot stools, gold thread, giant wooden beads, and some more things that I can’t remember-all cheap and in good condition.

Beading Yoda was thrilled because now she has a place to bring all her Strawbridge and Clothier Bags because the people at the Resource Exchange know the difference between trash and vintage.

Be sure to check out the Resource Exchange’s web page and follow them on Facebook. In the meantime, here are some enticing pictures.

Cheap and Easy (Drill Bit Storage That Is!)

By: ornamento.blog February 28, 2013February 26, 2013

Found Objects, Hand Made, Personal History, problem solving, recycling, repurposing, Tool Making, ToolsArt, creativity, inspiration, Jewelry Tools, repurposing2 Comments

I was trolling that delightful time sucker Pinterest a few months ago when I saw an awesome bur holder sold on the Stuller website. It looked like it would hold hundreds of burs and drill bits in a compact space and could sit right on the top of my jewelry bench. Did I mention that I wanted one right then and there? I’m not given to impulse purchases, however, so I tucked it into the back of my mind. Then one trash day, I found a wooden thing with four sides that spins. I think it’s a mug tree and kitchen utensil holder. I took it home and studied it. Then I realized that it was a drill bit and bur holder waiting for me to liberate it from its former job as a kitchen caddy. It now sits proudly atop my jewelry bench enjoying its new role.

To make the transition from the kitchen to the jewelry bench, I first marked where the holes would go and then I drilled pilot holes with an electric drill and a 1/8 inch drill bit. Then I went back and drilled the holes at an angle so the burs and drill buts would slip in and stay put.

The wood caddy is hollow in the middle (probably meant for spoon storage) so I took care to drill a number of holes only partially through so the bits without a brush, polisher or wheel on the top would not fall through. If I want, I can drill more holes on the top lip for more storage.

This project was easy and cheap since I found the wooden caddy. It would probably be easy to make one of these with scrap wood and a lazy susan base. Unless you can build something yourself, however, it probably wouldn’t pay to buy an item similar to the one I used to convert to a drill bit holder. But keep your eyes open at house sales and flea markets. And on trash day.

Now Playing on My Computer Screen

By: ornamento.blog April 26, 2012May 18, 2012

Art, beading, beads, blogging, Budget Decorating, Found Objects, Hand Made, inspiration, Instructables, MaterialsArt, Blogs, Domino Magazine, inspiration1 Comment

Now and then I like to share the blogs and web sites that are current addictions or on my must check out list. Here’s what’s currently playing my computer screen:

fauna is my latest addiction. Blogger Paxon is a naturalist and writes mostly about zoology and biology. His creative prose and acerbic wit make these subjects even more fascinating (I know-your high school science teacher murdered them forcing you to major in the humanities.) Paxon can be flip (don’t read this post if you are easily offended) but he is hooked on fauna (sorry- but I couldn’t be the first. . .) He even invites questions (with a few conditions). You will learn and be endlessly amused. Your high school biology teacher should thank him.

If you are the artsy type and think you are not interested in science, the pictures alone justify a look at fauna. Besides, nature is the most elegant and economical designer. And it’s all connected.

“the things that live in the ocean never cease to amaze me :3“

Here’s more!

Graftgawker Crafty projects from blogs all over the Internet

Inspirational Beading is chock full of beading tutorials.

Brandigirl Blog A Life Inspired by Color – another great beading blog

Linda Peterson Designs – Polymer clay, mixed media, news and tutorials

Barbe Saint John -Saint John is a mixed media artist who writes for Belle Armoire Jewelry , and is a member of Susan Lenart Kazmer’s creative team for Objects and Elements .

Object Fetish – Look at jewelry until your eyes go blurry

Top Ten DIY Fashion Blogs – Stripes and Sequin’s picks for 2012. Something is sure to interest you here.

For those of you who loved Domino Magazine, check out Lonny Magazine. But wait! A special edition of Domino, Quick Fixes, hits the news stands on April 17!

Finally, here’s a picture of my contribution to the Philadelphia Area Polymer Clay Guild’s Spring Fundraiser. I made the bezel (for the bezel challenged) and the cabochon. I hope someone likes it enough to buy it.

Ten Years On

By: ornamento.blog September 8, 2011September 9, 2011

2011, Art, Flight 93, Found Objects, history, Memory, Monument, Pentagon, Urban, Urban ArtifactsArt, inspirationLeave a Comment

A couple of years ago my husband and I visited friends in Montclair New Jersey. On a Saturday they took us to see the September 11 Memorial at Eagle Rock Reservation. There’s a cliff in the park on the side of a mountain and from there you can see the Manhattan skyline. It was there that one of our friends witnessed the attack on the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001.

As we walked around the memorial and looked at the names of people who died engraved in the granite wall, our friends’ six-year-old son took his father’s hand and gazed up at him with a concerned look on his face. “Why is this here, Dad?” he asked,”did something happen?” Only then did it occur to me that the attacks took place before he was born. I remembered my parents telling me about events from World War II and how I could never quite get my young mind around them. I could get a good grade on a history test but how could I comprehend the emotions my parents felt witnessing those historical events? Words were not enough for me.

View of Lower Manhattan From Eagle Rock Reservation 1999

Memorial at Eagle Rock

There are many monuments commemorating the events of September 11, 2001. But why do we create monuments? A monument memorializes an important person or event. A monument is supposed to have meaning. A well executed monument gives us an emotional connection to the person or event it is intended to commemorate. We also make monuments from sites or locations that have meaning because of a natural or historical significance. That is why feelings swept over me that were so powerful they made my knees buckle when I walked across Dealy Plaza in Dallas. The Memorial at Eagle Rock was likely the start of a little boy’s emotional connection to the events his mother witnessed from that spot before he was born, because it spoke to him like words never could.

But monuments are not the only way we hold important people and events in our memories. Ordinary things can take on significance too. The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is hosting an exhibit titled Excavating Ground Zero: Fragments from 9/11 that consists of 15 items salvaged from the site: a melted computer keyboard, eyeglasses, visitors passes; mundane objects that have achieved significance because of their connection to a tragic historical event. They give a human face to the events of that day because they are things that we all use and never think about. The objects in the exhibit could have belonged to any one of us. I had a friend who was chronically late, and as he made his way into Manhattan on the morning of September 11, he and thousands of other people were turned back at the George Washington Bridge. He had been on his way to a meeting in one of the twin towers. It might have been his glasses in the exhibit.

Another friend was working on the roof of a Washington, D.C. apartment building when he heard a loud noise. He turned to look and saw smoke billowing from the Pentagon.

These items belonged to a reporter who died covering the attack

More wreckage

2966 civilians including fire fighters, police, the passengers on Flight 93 plus 55 military personnel died on that day. It is estimated that at least 200 people died jumping from the twin towers. People unfortunate enough to have personally witnessed the horrible events of that day carry sounds and images with them the likes of which I pray I will never see or hear. That is my prayer for everyone. I know it will not be answered but I make it nonetheless.

People will continue to commemorate the events of that day for a long time to come. Commemoration can be a way of holding onto the past, of freezing a moment in time and trying to give some kind of meaning to events that seem senseless; it can be a way of trying to gain some illusion of control. We humans tend to want to fill in the blanks whether they are in optical illusions or in cruelly random events in our lives.

But keeping memories of the past alive is key to people understanding their history and themselves. This is so important. The hope is that by remembering, such things will not be repeated. This is a huge yet noble goal. There can be another result, however, that is so subtle you will never read it in the headlines: perhaps memorializing those events will help us to become better people. Maybe. If you can’t change the world, you can tend your own garden. That counts too.

Here are some links to art inspired by the events of September 11, 2011. There is much more out there and more waiting to be created.

The Twin Towers and the City

911 Memorial Quilt

Charting Ground Zero: Ten Years After (Scientific Exhibit)

Rescue Me (Television Show)

Dolores Poacelli: No Relationship without Tension

By: ornamento.blog June 30, 2011July 1, 2011

Art, art from recycled materials, Art in the Open, art, creativity, crafts, inspiration, Dolores Poacelli, Found Objects, Metal Working, Philadelphia, recycling, repurposingArt, creativity, inspiration, mixed media, PhiladelphiaLeave a Comment

I was at Art in the Open walking by the Schuylkill toward the Waterworks when I saw a woman working on this interesting piece

“How cool,” I thought. I went to get a closer look. . .

and met the artist, Dolores Poacelli. She told me the piece was composed of discarded aluminum printers plates she found in the trash. “I’m a dumpster diver,” she said, ” and my studio is in the Italian Market.” That’s all I had to hear to feel a connection. But there was something else that attracted me to her work. What?

Dolores on the right explains her process to Jeri

The unifying factor in her body of work is an ongoing exploration of the relationship between color, shape, texture, space and tension. Her exploration of these elements, while subtle and nuanced, animates the monochromatic piece and makes it interesting. Want to see more? Her web site is full of compositions where she studies these relationships in metal, paper, collage, paint and mixed media. Take a look! Press here to see more of Poacelli’s work.

Wooden Sculpture by Dolores Poacelli on the banks of the Schuylkill

The Fabric Workshop: A Philadelphia Treasure

I recently had the opportunity to see an exhibit at the new home of the Fabric Workshop and Museum . It’s a roomy, comfortable space that takes up several buildings on Arch Street in Philadelphia. You no longer have to climb flights of stairs to get to the exhibits and it’s conveniently located on across the street from the Philadelphia Convention Center.

The current exhibit, New American Voices II showcases the work of four invitational artists-in-residence: Bill Smith, Jiha Moon, Robert Pruitt and Jim Drain. New American Voices II was definitely not the visual version of a string quartet; it was the work of four soloists, each of whom chose different media and themes to express a unique point of view. The FMW tries to showcase artists from across the United States with varied backgrounds and perspectives and encourages them to work with materials they might not have used before. From what I saw the FMW accomplished its mission and it looks like the artists enjoyed the process. The exhibition had so much to offer that I can only hit the highlights in this post. To get the full flavor, you must see it for yourself.

South Korean-born Jiha Moon’s mixed media wall pieces combine collage, sewing, painting, and screen printing with an Asian color aesthetic. She makes plentiful use of Asian and American popular culture symbols and much of her work reminds me of traditional Asian embroidery, not because of any needlework she might usem, but because the designs are expansive and flowing. Much of her work consists of fanciful pieces that incorporate images from folklore and advertising , but she showed her serious side in a work that appeared to explore the tensions between North and South Korea. The piece below, which is a little different from the others, features pin cushions, ribbons and beads.

Jiha Moon

Jim Drain’s huge (and I mean XXXXXL) colorful machine-knitted dolmen sleeve sweaters remind me of the big suit David Byrne wears in Stop Making Sense, and fantastic Noh costumes. I suppose they could be worn, but they were displayed on stands that let the viewer examine every nuance of the designs. A two-dimensional picture cannot convey the surprises that jump out as you circle the sweaters. The colors shift and there are lots of subtle details and embellishments. At first, the color choices appear to be mostly random but on further examination, you realize that every skein and thread works with everything else in the sweater. Nothing is there that doesn’t belong.

Jim Drain

What fascinated me most about Robert Pruitt’s work was his use of period cameras to photograph members of a fictional African-American family to depict ancestors from years past like you’d see in a family album. Now that’s attention to detail and real dedication. For me the most powerful photograph was one of a young woman wearing a grass skirt and what appears to be a European colonial officer’s dress uniform jacket. The golden shoulder cord is replaced by rope that appeared to be a noose. Pruitt also uses traditional African symbols and imagery pulled from contemporary urban America. I found his work disturbing and compelling.

Robert Pruitt

Bill Smith’s mechanical sculptures meld engineering and art in a way that any fan of Jules Verne or Nicola Tesla would admire, but his inclusion of organic objects like Emu eggs and feathers along with organic looking plastic forms that resemble jellyfish or brain synapses takes his work out of the realm of Steampunk into another world that seems really strange (or is it strangely real?) Along with Emu eggs, he takes water, magnets, quirky copper wire, electronics and computers to fashion several interactive contraptions that manage to look organic, old-fashioned and futuristic all at once. When walked up to one sculpture, the Emu egg started to spin, the wires started to sway and the room filled with a low humming sound. Then projectors started flashing images onto the white walls of the gallery. Amazing. Here’s a video of a similar device he designed and built.

New American Voices II runs until the Spring. Admission is only $3.00 but you can donate more if you like. Treat yourself to this exhibit and the ones planned for the future. We are so lucky to have a venue like the FMW in Philadelphia. Let’s support it.

For more pictures of the artists’ work, press here, here, here, and here.

Mixing It Up

This year, I’ve gone from a metal and soldering frenzy to a lamp working frenzy, to a glass and ceramics tumbling frenzy, to a glass fusing frenzy, to a felting frenzy. Every so often, I get in the torch enameling. And there are always the seed beading designs I’m working on. Did I mention that I ruin a lot of stuff? But some of the metal can be recycled and most of it started out as recycled anyway. (I used to have a lovely let of brass charger plates.) The fused glass can be cut up and refused. The lamp working failures can be turned into frit or become elements in fused pieces so long as you keep the COE straight. And you can use an ugly felted bead as a base for another bead.

I decided to combine the polymer beads and lamp work into a necklace and make a clasp. The polymer beads are interspersed with the lamp worked beads. Many of the lamp worked beads are fumed with silver and the focal bead is hollow . For for the clasp. I made jump rings and soldered them to copper washers from Harbor Freight that I textured with my home made texturing hammers. I’m not sure if I am happy with all of the polymer beads; I might make some new polymer beads at Clayathon . But here’s what I have so far.

Jewels from the Sidewalk

I walk to and from work every day and I constantly scan the sidewalk for treasures I can use to make something. Trash day is the best day of the week!!!

Awhile ago, I wrote about making lampworked beads from glass I found on the sidewalk. Now I have added brown beer bottles to my cobalt blue wine and aqua Bombay Gin bottles. And a co worker contributed too! She had a beautiful yellow glass vessel sink in her powder room and when it cracked and she had to have it replaced, she gave me the broken glass.

The pictures below show each kind of glass, plain, fumed and fumed with stringers on top.

Since I don’t know the COE of the glass, I don’t mix the colors. I cut the glass as best I can and hold it in the flame with a long hemostat. It’s loads of fun and you never know what you’re going to get.