My studio caravan!

So I know I’ve posted before about my 17 foot 1970 nomad

named Starla. But since she keeps evolving I thought i’d better post some new pictures!  This morning I hung a curtain

over the doorway.  Its not so much decorative as it is functional, since its primary purpose is to keep the heat (or cool) inside the trailer after marcus or opal open the door to either come in, or go out and bark at something! While they trained themselves how to open the door, try as I might I cannot get them to close it again!

The vintage chest of drawers is new too, and the large beach scene oil painting is waiting for godzilla to be painted in the waves. Its for my brother, he does so love his tacky goodwill paintings.

Anyway, back to work! I’m painting a sign for the paint department at home depot right now!

Starla, my studio trailer!

I have posted about my trailer before, although I believe that it was almost two years ago when I first finished remodelling her insides.  This spring I decided that I would have to tackle her outsides since those outsides had started allowing the weather to leak through to her insides again and well, we just can’t have that now can we?

So I gave her a good scrubbing yesterday with the intention of repainting/sealing her roof and painting her sides. Well, the sides are going t be easy, the roof…. let’s just say I am going to have to build her a roof, since I don’t think the top will stay sealed without it!

Giving up on that for now, I decided to start painting her sides. Visit back to see the rest of the colors starla is going to be, she’s no where near done yet!

Maggie

Sue spargo quilt!

My mother ordered the block of the month quilt from sue spargo last year.  Its beautiful, colorful, folkie, and fun to work on. After getting off to a stellar start, I quickly fell behind my mom in working on it! I guess working on two weddings in the same year will do that to a person .

So now I am back on track! My colors are different from sue’s, but that’s only natural since I’m working with what I’ve got! Mom’s turned out fantastic, all she needs to do is quilt it and she’s afraid to do it cause she thinks she might ruin it. She’s an amazing quilter, so I don’t think that’s possible.

Anyway, I’ll post more as I get more done!

Maggie

Seashell Creations

I have a cold, it started last Thursday. I discovered years ago that if I create art while sick, I make some truly gawd-awful stuff, so I decided that this would be an excellent excuse to break out the seashells and get to craftin‘. After all, if I make awful shell creatures it doesn’t matter cause no one else has to see them, and I’m not selling them, so I’m not ruining potential income! And I’ve been DYING to make some shell stuff for a couple months now…

And well, I was pretty happy with what I came up with! I know, many of you will be rolling your eyes, but I LOVE weird vintage shell art, the stranger the better, and I wanted to make some of my own. I’m picturing someday hosting a party, and the tables are all decorated with shell creatures, and then forcing all the guests to take one home with them when they leave… so much fun.

The above and below pictures are of the most elaborate creation to come from that day, and it actually started out as just the little guy holding the gun, only he was holding a pipe before Jonah got his hands on him. I was showing him what I had made that day (thinking he would only humor me, not actually get into it!), when he started getting all creative. Before I knew it, we had turned the glue gun back on, changed his pipe out for a gun, built him a nemesis to hold up for his brass rocking chairs, and glued “yer mama” to the front of it! Fan-freaking-tastic, I tell you. So much fun. He took it to work the next day to amuse and confuse his co-workers. They enjoyed it.

Some of the other things I made that day: Shell doggies, these came first, when I was just dipping my toe in the creative waters that is gluing seashells together.

And some shell peoples. One has a poodle, don’t know where he found one so tiny.

And the shell monsters! I want to make some huge ones someday! I love all the eyeballs.

So thats it so far! I highly suggest on your next sick day you bust out some shells and hot glue and get to creatin‘!

Dog days of summer

I think this picture says it all: its hot outside in Portland! Opal has dug herself a dirt pit, my to my dismay. I am not a fan of my garden beds being dug up by dogs, but well, Opal has other ideas, and is more stubborn than I am.

This week I hired a couple of nice gentlemen and their log splitter to take care of my gigantic pile of wood. I had about two and a half cords of wood piled up around the house, but it was all to big for me to deal with! Its a big task, and they are almost done with it. I am feeling relieved to have it cut up into manageable pieces long before it gets cold. Late August is usually when I realize that I am NOT prepared for winter. I’m feeling ahead of the game right now!

The turkey and the eating chicken are getting bigger. I had a bit of a surprise, Nellie the red broiler turned out to be Nolan the rooster. And, sadly, he started practicing crowing this morning. I feel his days are numbered in the single digits… The neighbors are pretty tolerant of my farm, but I think a crowing rooster might just push them over the edge.

And a current picture of Starla the Trailer. Shes really no closer to being painted, but I am now rethinking the color scheme, so it may be awhile. Perhaps next spring. I’m currently enjoying her retro colors. But I did have to paint the hitch. I like the red. Someday there will be a whole bunch of flower pots around the front of her! Ann and I are fully moved into the studio, and we just fit. I love it, and I think she does too.

Life is settling in here at my house. Routines are being made, quirks are being discovered, and we are all getting used to each other. Having Ann and Ayla in my house has been really awesome so far. Ayla is constant entertainment to watch and interact with (two year olds make you feel both old and young at the same time I’ve found). Watching her play with my dogs is hilarious. Marcus has infinite patience with her, and Opal finds her confounding. Cassady the cat watches and keeps her distance, even though Ayla REALLY wants to be her friend. Turns out my little house is big enough for three people, as long as one of them is small.

Some studio pictures

I think I may have mentioned being busy moving the studio over to the trailer. And promising pictures. Well, here are some pictures, not many and not very good ones, but here they are! I started moving things in two weeks ago and realized pretty quickly that my plan to just move things in and build shelves later wasn’t going to entirely work. So I moved some stuff, then spent half the next day building in some shelves above the window behind my desk. Below is a picture of that shelf! They turned out nearly level, as well and about eight feet long! Amazing! I get better at this building thing all the time, I swear.

These are some jars of my favorite things: Shells, paper bits, barak obama, plastic charms….

The glue shelf makes me so happy. Nothing quite like being able to see all your glues at once! And check out that view of my garden out the window, freaking awesome. My chair is right there so I can keep an eye on my tomatoes and my chickens.

Part of the pile of stuff I had to move out of my in house studio to the trailer. The other pile is just as big.

Most everthing had a place right away, but there was still five whole boxes of decorations that I had to figure out. Alot of it made it onto the walls, but I had to leave space for Ann to fit in too! We’ll see how that works out, I am crossing my fingers!

That beautiful floor is from IKEA, and has the benifit of hiding all dirt that falls on it. It also hides anything else that might fall on it. Oh well, who cares? If I need it, I can sweep it up!

Now I just have to find the time to work in it. I did spend last friday afternoon working on a rush order and watching Harry Potter 3. It was very enjoyable, I think I may just love working out there….

Starla is Finished!

Sorry for the looooooooong delay in posting pictures of trailer progress! Its been a crazy month of Saturday Market, working for peoples, and pimping my trailer out. Exhausting, but totally worth it. Look at her, shes beautiful! If only I didn’t have to put anything in her….

When I catch my breath I will do a long post devoted to her various stages, of which there were many, and hopefully there are pictures to match. I learned ALOT while working on her: electrical stuff (laying pipe and pulling wires, installing circuit breakers, installing plugs), woodworking (construction, dry rot removal, and paneling), and laying floors. Okay, so I sort of knew this stuff already, but by the time I finished working on Starla I felt so much more comfortable with all of these things. Trailer restoration is an empowering experience!

Thank you so much to my friends who helped me: Senna (sorry I badgered you so much), Val, Bobbie, Wes, Ce’Anne, Bud, Tim (we rock installing sub-floors), Charlie (for the advice and the electrician and his advice), and last but not least Lindsay! I couldn’t have done this without you! And thanks to my parents for the loan and the support!

I know, she’s not quite done yet. The exterior still needs a good cleaning and painting, but that will come in August or September. I’ve already got a professional painter friend lined up to help me figure that out. I love knowing so many construction folks! They rock.

Well, I’m off to start moving my studio out of the house to the trailer! Wish me luck finding places for everything!

Maggie

Organization of the Image Drawer

I’ve been working on a reorganization of my bottlecap images for months now. It involved cutting out all the stuff I didn’t like anymore, and then better organizing the images I did like into pages of similar items. You see, when I did this the first time 3 or so years ago, things were not organized on the pages at all: nerds hung out with cats and bikes, peace and skulls and bug cars all on the same page. It didn’t really bother me, I got used to it, but it drove Brandon CRAZY whenever he was helping me fill an order. So this year when I reworked my catalog, I decided to rework the cabinet too. Heres how it all finally came together:

This is my bottlecap image drawer:

Ohh, here it is open! The files have tabbies now that give you the gist of whats inside. This is a new addition to the filing system! before, only the holidays had tabs, for some reason. Don’t ask me, it might be my system, but I don’t know why that is so.

Oh, and here is a blurry picture of the front of one of the files. This was how they were labeled in the past. The images on the papers inside of the file are shown on the front.

And here are all the different colors the images are printed on! Used to be more, but my most favoritest paper company in the world has succumbed to this economy and is no more. So now I have to find all new paper, and well, the color choices aren’t as yummy. So sad for me. But I’ll make it somehow.

And some bottlecaps all waiting for resin in the cookie sheet. The images get punched out of the above papers and plunked down inside the bottlecap.

And thats how my new improved image drawer is organized! I’m pretty proud of it, and I thought it might give some of you studio organization ideas.

Cheers! Maggie

Bottlecap Christmas Ornaments are here!

There’s my desk covered in Christmas ornaments in various stages of finished. I realized that this week was to be devoted to the making of ornaments last weekend when people started asking for them. For some reason I am surprised every year when customers start asking about them. I seem to forget that I am not the only person who loves these!

I make the ornaments out of a bunch of things. They started as bottlecaps surrounded by German Christmas light reflectors, but they have grown this year into also including fake flowers, snowflakes and small doilies. I have way to much fun listening to Christmas music (yep, i have overturned my previous only after thanksgiving rule) and sticking these together. Cause well, you gotta get into the Christmas mood, and listening to Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, and Johnny Mathis crooning Christmas toons does it for me!

Below are some pics of the ornaments themselves in mostly finished states.

And here are some of my felted birdies all ornamented out with jingle bells, beads, and sequins. Keep an eye out, I am brainstorming some felted Christmas monsters next…

This ones kinda my favorite…

Goodie Box!

Check it out! So today I got a box in the mail from my friend Laurie’s sister, Anne. She’s an amazing junk hunter in Illinois, and she likes to share the weird things she finds (and can’t sell) with her sister. I love seeing the stuff she sends Laurie, I was always kind of envious of her goodie boxes. And now I don’t have to be, I got one of those boxes!

Anne and her family came to visit Laurie in June. While they were here Laurie brought them down to the Saturday Market to visit me (and well, shop). Anne’s daughter found a little trinket in my booth, and I gave it to her if she promised to make sure her mom remembered to send me a bag of skeleton keys she offered me. Well, I promptly forgot all about that promise, because that’s the way I am. She didn’t! But she didn’t just send me the keys, oh no! She went crazy with the goodies! I felt like a kid at Christmas when I started digging my way down that box!

Here’s a picture of ALMOST everything Anne sent me. The cow was immediately put up next to her bovine sister on my shelves, and so I forgot to add her to the picture. You can see there is a wooden boot that holds pencils, a bag of keys (behind the boots), postcards, transfers, ducks, chickens, a shot glass, a man that holds fake flowers, grip-tite coasters, and god only knows what else. Here are some close-ups of some of my favorites:

Freaking adorable hot pink kitty and little yawning chicken!

Here’s the tiny do-dads: doggies, tiny tattoos, gold teeth, bugs, telephone, food, etc.

And last but not least, the chicken bobber thingy. you just hold this by the handle, and the little chickens peck at the flowers. I don’t know what to do with this, but I love the birdies!

So thank you thank you thank you Anne for remembering to send me those keys! They are amazing, and I can’t wait to work with them! And thank you for the awesome goodie box, I will treasure this crazy junk and can’t wait to make something cool out of them!

Maggie