#purplethistle42

[purplethistle42]

Some more hooks I've made!

[bookshelfdreams]

@jamdoughnutmagician taggede for this - thank you darling <3

it took me a great long while, but here we go (got a bingo, hah!)

I'm tagging @fearlessinger @purplethistle42 @purple-fox-for-luck @emilhe @shakespearerants @soryualeksi @itsyveinthesky @eolewyn1010 @lichtbeidernacht @awordwasthebeginning @9thbutterfly @swords-n-spindles @feanna

(and if anyone else wants to do it, feel free 💜💜)

[bookshelfdreams]

@purplethistle42 this is what I meant the other day. almost everything abt my life would be strange and incomprehensible to my distant ancestors but I bake bread like they did. I spin yarn like they did. i walk the same earth, the same rain falls on me. I see the same rabbit in the moon and the first spring flowers fill me with the same joy.

many things change, but if I met someone who lived thousands of years ago, across language barriers we would still find things we have in common. because we were always people. and always will be.

thinking about how in ancient times, at least people knew that the lives their children would lead would….vaguely resemble their own???

People have always fondly reminisced about The Good Old Days and complained about Kids These Days, of course. But—and I cannot stress this enough—when my mom was born the Internet did not exist.

[purplethistle42]

This is a project I made years ago. It's a set that my wife and I wear instead of rings. It needed a clean so I decided to photograph it. The pattern is mine but It's mostly just Byzantine chainmail in half hard stainless steel. The lock is also stainless steel off Etsy. I can't remember the designer but if anyone is looking for a lock and key that hold up to 24/7/365 wear I can look it up. Chainmail links and the solid heart are from theringlord.com. I have had nothing but great experiences with their products.

[purplethistle42]

Finally finished a handbag for myself! I did wood burning and staining front and back with rainbow crochet between the wood and the rainbow zipper. The inside has some green leather that I acquired by chopping up a secondhand skirt. It's far from perfect but man am I over joyed that I can put my phone, wallet, and pen in something uniquely mine.

[purplethistle42]

Been finding some calm in the daily storm beading on my DIY loom. I feel really great about both the bead work and the quick loom build. I have dreams of building a fancier travel loom for myself someday.

[purplethistle42]

I think making a handbag should totally count at mix media art. From making the pattern shape, to creating the embroidery pattern. Stitching, adding beads, resolving the handle issue... Which I don't totally love but, it's good enough to let it sit till I become inspired again.

[purplethistle42]

Solving the issue of where to put the keys. I built a key board. It has magnets imbedded behind a piece of wood veneer I burnt a design onto. I think it's my favorite piece of my work to date.

[purplethistle42]

Projects from a life time ago. They are dragon scale bags I made while traveling for months. I wish I could find a picture of them all finished... But they have long since been given away to friends and family.

[purplethistle42]

A bracelet I made for my sister-in-law for the Halloween season.

[purplethistle42]

This is one of my older projects before I got my better wood burning tool. Just a box to hold a few MtG cards. Love the quote.

[purplethistle42]

Sometimes you take a beautiful thing and make it your own, adding to magic that was already left by the first craftsman that made the object... And sometimes you pull your car over, pick through someone's discarded trash, and decide you're going to save an item that doesn't just need a face lift, but also a major organ replacement...

(( disclaimer: this post is longish and written in the middle of the night while I can't sleep. Basically I made (am making) a thing, it's weird and awesome))

Introducing my current project!

I found this jewelry cabinet, it wasn't actually in the trash... But it should have been... I actually paid a little money for it... Still not sure how I feel about that, mostly ok, but It really should have been in the trash pile. It was, and still is, in horrible shape. the doors on the front didn't open or close right, they have been removed completely. Also, at some point it got knocked and broken enough that all the shelves don't sit on their runners correctly, they fall off, a lot... But it fixable, at least enough for my purposes... Then there is the smell. I'm pretty sure this baby lived in someone's chain-smoking great grandmother's house because every time I touched it that first day it tried to sell me cigarettes and kiss me on the cheek.

However, This trash bit, for all her smelly history and issues she has stolen my heart, just like a chain-smoking grandma who tells awkward, inappropriately timed storys, my life is more fulfilled now that I can interact with her. she ( the jewelry cabinet, not the hypothetical gramma) was destined to live a second life in my workshop, being touched every day with sawdust covered hands, to assist me in my making by holding my sandpaper, my drill bits, my wood lathe tools...

I'm not done with her. In truth, I just got her Saturday.but some projects are exciting and you just have to share as you go... Saturday, I lugged her outside and she slept on the porch in hopes the air would curb the smell... It was a nice dream, she came back in yesterday the same 6 pack a day smoker I took outside... I wish I had taken a picture of the rag I used to wash the fake wood with... That rag just got thrown away...

However, after her bath and in true American style, since there are both major foundational issues and cosmetic issues, I spent all of yesterday puting on her lipstick. I mean who actually need shelves that work right if it's pretty😍. The structural fixes will happen this week when I drag her out to my actual shop.

I had 0 plans... I mean, I knew that it was really bad and that I didn't really want to look at the super sad thing I had spent money on as it was and feels that empty void of despair... But beyond that this project was sooo outside my normal art zone because it's some weird fake veener with mdf board inside... The shit that's basically saw dust, glue and prayer, that stuff that when you get it wet it swells... Yea, it's been a while since I put my hands on anything that's going to swell if I sweat too hard near it...

So, I said what the hell and went back to the tried and true idea of everything is better with more glue on it. Glue will stabilize it, seal it from additional moisture damage and I haven't decoupage in ages so why the hell not!

So out came the drawers, and in came the gallon of mod podge I had sitting around... Cause who doesn't have a gallon of that shit just hanging out... Am I right... Or is that just me... Someone? Anyone? This is normal right...

Then came the issue of what I was going to glue onto the sucker... Cause again I have 0 good ideas or a plan... But one of my kids said I should go mermaid with it because the base and doors had shell patterns... And that was a good an idea as any so I spent like an hour looking at mermaid art and scales, then more time cutting circles from tissue paper... To not use the idea at all.. cause that's how I roll. But I did end up using the tissue paper and the trash bits from where I cut out the mermaid circles to make some bright late 80 early 90s pop of color piece.

And it's at this point that the magic has starts flowing... That energy that builds when you're deep into the primal feeling of being a kid with your fingers covered in glue just making for the hell of it, without purpose or goal, just to feel and be one with the mess...

And drawers

Even my cat got into the flow and battled back the bits of stray paper that dared to land on her floor

And it's at this point that I know where I want to go with it... And I find some artwork and print it out, splice it together, cover it with more technicolored tissue paper,

then pull out my markers and redraw the artwork. I didn't really take pictures of that process, I was in the zone, my inner kid was fully engaged with sticky fingers and sharpy markers. Here's, what she looked like after the added color

And the "finished product"

There is going to be a part two, of this great adventure... One where I actually make her stable, add holders for drill bits and Dremel and sand paper... But that will be next week... Maybe... Life and things... But when I can I will take shots of her in her new home next to my wood lathe... Thanks for coming with me through this adventure!

[purplethistle42]

Also, unrelated to the woodworking I've been up to lately, I had to make some hat soup for Halloween. We ordered a hat, but it didn't make it, and Luigi is just not a complete costume without a hat!

[purplethistle42]

I send out hundreds of pieces of mail each week so I made my opened envelopes and stamps home.

By PurpleThistle42