New treasury inclusions!

Thank you to everyone who included my work in their Etsy treasuries in the last couple of weeks! I was amazed to see that I had FIFTY folks to thank (yes, 50!) for featuring my work.

-Time To Call and Get a Date

-Come Sunday Shopping

-Envy, Absinthe, and Poison

-Toxic

-Earthly Crafter Series 3

-From Our Hands

-In Dreams…I Dream of You

-Deep Blue Sea

-Queueless Saturday Shopping

-Curious Creatures and Curiousities

-I Could Haunt All Day

-Escape and Explore

-Percy Bysshe Shelley

-Love In The Time of Cholera

-Do You Know Who Did It?

-The Situation is Grave

-Warm Autumn Glow

-Shades of Mocha

-Deep Inside Dracula Land

-Mustard and Plum

-There is Always A Silver Lining

-It’s a Beautiful Life

-Starting To Look Like Fall on Etsy

-Blood, Death, and Tears

-Parlez-Vous Francais

-Ablaze

-Around The World In Sixteen Squares

-Dreaming of Fall

-When Colors Fade

-The Pearl of Great Price

-Tattoo Inspired

-The Rustic Beauty of Lacwe

-Arsenic and Old Lace

-My Future Unknown Love

-Seeking the Shade

-Join Me For A Drink?

-All Handmade

-Elegantly Undead

-Black Black Planet

-Haunting and Lovely

-An Altered State of Love

-Aged to Perfection

-OOOOOOOOOOO Pretty

-My Kind of Town

-Defying Gravity

-Deep Channels

-Etsy Dark Team

-Inspiration Tree

-Trust Me, I’m A Doctor

-Evolution of Medicine

Behold…The RENEWED REVITALIZED REPURPOSED Girl! (All Thanks to The Splendiferous Wonders of Snake Oil…)

A few weeks ago, I was taking my trash out before I headed to the office, when I spotted the below forlorn figure in the dumpster. One of the rear corners of her base had broken off, possibly from having been tossed in the dumpster, and (though it’s hard to really tell in the picture) she was sponge painted which made her look less “antiqued” and more “afflicted with an uncomfortable skin disorder”. Otherwise, she was in pretty good shape and solid plaster. I figured that she’d make a great addition to my jewelry display fixtures for shows and other events, so I decided to rescue her from her landfill fate.

Rather than simply paint the figure (the surface was a bit too uneven, even if I had primed it), I decided to cover her in a collage. Initially, I had thought about images and text reproduced from vintage medical books or corset advertisements. Instead, I decided to use 19^th century-early 20^th century era patent medicine/snake oil/quack cure advertisements.* I printed the images right on plain old recycled bond copy paper since I knew it would stand up to the “aging process” well.

After I had cut out all of the images, I dipped the paper scraps in a mixture of a leftover pot of coffee (recycling, yo!) in which I had steeped a few bags of black tea and added a couple of drops of yellow food coloring. After dipping the papers, I laid them out on a foil lined cookie sheet (and sprinkled them with a bit more of the coffee/tea mix to try to mimic the foxing of old paper) and baked them for 15 minutes at 200 degrees to dry them thoroughly.

I used plain old Modge Podge gloss to adhere the scraps to the plaster body. Since the surface was a bit rough, I didn’t need to prime it and since the figure (theoretically) isn’t likely to get wet, I figured a water-based adhesive would do the duty. I gave her one more all over coat of MP when I was finished, just to make sure the edges were all secure, then gave her a coat of clear spray enamel for good measure.

I think the old gal looks great after her makeover. She's now awaiting her grand debut at my fall shows, where she'll be modeling shinies.

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*This led to a whole lot of gleefully geeky research and bizarre fact gleaning. I also now have HUNDREDS of more images than I could have ever used on this project (both coffee/tea stained as above and sitting on my hard drive). I’m thinking about starting a tumblr account just to share a “quackery of the day”

More treasuries

I'm so very flattered when fellow Etsyians put my work in their treasuries. Many-many-many thanks to everyone who put my shinies in the below treasuries in the last two weeks.

Please, dear readers, click and explore!

-Fit Every Occasion
-Swimmingly Beautiful
-Wishing You Peace
-Where The Heart Is
-Almost Green
-Grape Expectations
-Cherry Bomb
-Splash of Autumn
-Formaldehyde
-The Endless Heat of Summer
-Mystery Novel
-A Little Walk In Wonderland
-Pretty In Purple
-Nikola Tesla Birthday
-Pretty In Pink
-Metropolis
-The Right Dose
-Oh Bite Me
-In For The Kill
-Absinthe Amour
-Clickity Clickity Click
-The Sideshow
-Ahh The Magic of Venice
-Dead Men Don't Drink Rum
-Tea Time For Alice
-Keys To The Small and Big Secrets
-Daring

OW!

I've been MIA for a couple of weeks between the busy season at work and a horrid bout of migraines. I'm better now, though.

Today, I'm off on a grand adventure that includes an opportunity to see actual Victorian era steam machinery in action (private event) and Art Venture night in Racine. Wheee!

This week in treasuries...

Many thanks to the lovely Etsyians who included my work in the following treasuries this week:

G is For Green, B is for Brown

Things That Go Bump

Nerds Collect Cool Stuff

Low Key Black and White

Out West

Just a Bite

Queer Without The Rainbow

Nowhere Better Than This Place

My Hearts

Pink...Pay It Forward Team Challenge

Celebrate Nature

Focus Mode

Spread Your Wings And Let The Fairy In You Fly

Sweet Whimsy

Beautiful Misfits

Summer Road Trip

Summer Dreams

Fun and Unique

Beat The Heat...Get In The Water!

When You Got The Blues

The Dark Side of Celt

Return of The Dead

Would You Like Some Absinthe Darling

Dark Elegance

Wood and Rubies

Elkhorn Antique Flea Market

For non-locals (or for locals not in the know), Elkhorn Antique Flea Market is a HUGE antiques market held four times a year in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. This past Sunday was the second show of the year (with two more held in August and September).

It's a reasonable day trip from Milwaukee or Chicago and absolutely worth the trek. They're not kidding when they say 500+ dealers. Get there early when the gates open and wear comfortable shoes, because you're in for a LOT of walking. I've never managed to see the whole market by the end of day because there's so much to cover.

While I brought my camera, I was too distracted to take many pictures, but here are a couple from the market (as well as a few shots of some of our finds):


I'm not sure precisely what this is and the vendor was busy with actual buyers, so I didn't want to interupt him to ask. I'm calling it the Malevolent Professor Eddingsworth's Amazing Death Ray.



Whatever that is in the previous picture, someone seems a bit worried about it.




I had initially looked at this Mah Jongg set wondering if (in the case that it was incomplete) it might be a good prospect to be repurposed for jewelry components. It was A) not incomplete (and I wouldn't want to break up a complete set) B) from 1923 and C) quickly snagged by my partner for actual play.



I nabbed this vintage tea tin for buck. It's destined to be a part of my display at shows...likely filled with rice and used to contain hair sticks.





Speaking of display doo-dads...check this rotating condiment rack out (Wheel! Of! Olives!). It'll make an interesting fixture for exhibiting trays of earring cards at shows.



I used to have this edition of the Ouija board, but it...er...went elsewhere, so I was happy to snag this one for $2. (I've seen enough horror movies to know the folly of purchasing previously owned devices such as this, but I did it anyway). The lass to the left isn't from this shopping trip. She was found in a shop in Waukesha, but she was already in the space where I wanted to take the picture, so I let her stay in the shot.

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There are several more wonderous finds from Sunday, but most are bits and bobs for projects and you'll see those soon enough!

Fun Shopping!

I've been chosen as one of the Fun Shops of The Day for today.

Here are some nifty items from the other fun shops chosen today:



From Naama Taubenfeld Designs



From Adornments by Amber



From Hypnoteyezed



From 1000 Miles