Upcycling

Definition: Upcycling is "The practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value"

We all have had that feeling while getting ready to throw something out that "Gee, maybe I could use it for something....?"  Yet it gets thrown in the trash.

Well, it is our job as artists and pickers to see the possibilities and produce the vision. It is a mission I embrace with open arms.

At times it's just a matter of taking a neglected, abused and beaten item and bringing it back to it's rightful place in the world, and other times we bring things back to serve another purpose. We are doing the earth and humanity a great service.  And having a dang good time doing it. :)

Old Costco step stool ladder in sad sad shape until I re-painted the metal and cushions. Candle sticks all saved from a boring existence and given a fresh, fun look.

Snow White was heading for the dumpster in the sky until I rescued her and made her into a chalk board ~ fun for little kids and big kids.

Antique stained glass window made into a coat, hat, purse rack with old door knobs I have found.

So next time you go to throw something away stop and think "Gee, someone can make something out of this!"  and donate it or put it to the curb.  We'll find it.

Peggy ~ Goodgosh

All from a block of wood

    My dad started wood carving back in 1976 when he broke his leg in three places and was rather laid up. His first carving was a relief of an eagle done in mahogany.  This first carving came out pretty good and he enjoyed it so much he continued to carve. He did a few more reliefs and then decided to try some figures. One of my favorites (and one that he carved especially for me) was from the book of “Gnomes”.

He traveled around the country working at trade shows and would take a block or two of wood with him and his knives. He would sit on the plane (yes, on the plane!) carving away during his flight.  He most likely would have been locked away if he tried that these days!

He met a lot of people that were curious as to what he was doing, and always came home with fun stories. Sometimes he would even have people wanting him to carve something for them and he would. He would usually barter with them for payment.

           A little before Christmas he carved his first Santa, which he presented to my mother. After that he started carving a different Santa for my mom each year. Once they were carved he would  paint them with oil paints and then top them with a light finish. 

So many of my mom’s friends loved his Santas and asked him to make them one. He always obliged, but my mom would get the very first one. He would pick a Santa from a different country, style or color and adapt it to his carving. Sometimes he would just make his own (like the barefoot sleeping Santa) He also had fun making small ones and could whip them out pretty quickly. He almost always added some little toys to the bags if they were holding one.

His trademark was carving the feet on his Santas. I think he enjoyed when people would look at them and see the soles of their boots, with little stitches and all. He would sign and date them there also.

 

              One of the last Santas he made was a Russian Santa all in white. 

Over the years my mom has given me and my sister some of his Santas for Christmas. This is something that we both treasure.   

I hope you enjoy seeing a few of his carvings, and for anyone that knew him if you notice a slight resemblance to him in his Santas, well, that may have been intentional…

(jj)

Yes, You Can Do It!

Have you ever wondered how something is created? I discovered a new technique while on a trip and decided to try my hand at it, and take pictures of the steps as I went along. Here are the results.

Step One: I selected the background paper from my stash of scrapbook paper (don't use card stock) and a 3" X 3" square, stretched canvas. Measure the canvas and around the edges allowing enough scrapbook paper to cover completely. ( A 3 X 3 stretched canvas took a 5 X 5 piece of paper.)

Step Two: Spray the background paper with two coats of matte finish. This protects the paper and gives a good painting surface.

Step Three: Center and base coat your design. If you don't feel comfortable painting freehand, tracing is a great option. TIP: I cut out a second square the size of my paper, centered the canvas and traced around it, then cut out the center square. Put this on top of your background paper and you will be able to easily center your design.

Step Four: Apply shading and details to your painting. When the painting is complete and dry, spray with another coat of matte finish.

Step Five: Apply your words. These can be free hand, rub-ons, or stamped. Which ever works for you. Remember to add your signature. Spray with another coat of matte finish. I let this dry overnight to make sure it was completely dry and cured.

Step Six: To center the painting on the canvas I layed my cut out paper down first, placed my canvas over the cut out section, then placed my painting on top of this. Because the cut out and the background paper are the same size, if you line up the sides, your design will be centered.

To glue the background paper/painting to the canvas I used Liquitex Matte Gel (Medium) and applied it to the back of the paper and the canvas and let it dry. I think white glue would work fine. Let this dry. Fold the sides over and glue using the same method. Let this dry.

Step Seven: The final step is to cover the entire piece (top and sides) with either a glazing medium or a liquid poly finish. I used two coats of glazing medium, just because I like the depth of color it gives. I would think you could use a spray gloss or satin gloss also.

I hope you have fun with this. It really comes together quickly, the only waiting is for the piece to dry between steps.

pepper

STUFF AND NONSENSE

I know that people think if you live in Southern California, in a city close to  Los Angeles, you never see anything but concrete and tall buildings  (that shake sometimes).

Welcome to our backyard.... I would like to introduce you to some of our frequent visitors.
   
Lots of squirrels....when the walnut tree is empty they can get a wee bit demanding…..

OPEN THE PEANUT CAN NOW!!!

 














We have  a family of raccoons living in a neighbors tree and one of the young ones tried to “run away” 
                                                 
                                                     UP A TELEPHONE POLE WITH NOWHERE TO GO..

   

 A police officer, an animal control officer plus 2 employees of the electric

company (on overtime) and several hours later….he is safely back with his family in the tree you see behind him!


 Hawks?

Never expected to see hawks in our back yard….did you know they lay flat on the grass with their wings stretched out to rest?  Or perch on the frame of a hammock and calmly gaze around?  Really, who was going to challenge them???

Of course they also hunt but we won’t go into details about that….

OH OH!!!!

This we found peering from a fence post….

do you think aliens are real?

¡ʍouʞ ɹǝʌǝu llıʍ ǝʍ ssǝnƃ ı

 VE

Make Someone Happy!

It's tough enough getting a sale these days on Etsy.  Think how it is for new shops, being small fish in a big sea.

I've done a series of treasuries of shops that are still waiting to be discovered.  Stop by and make someone happy, make just one someone happy!

Sewing and Scrapbook:  http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4ca5240d29de6d9115e5dc27/undiscovered-shops-sewing-and-scrapbook

Art and Photography:  http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4ca5d10b44188eeff1ab4655/undiscovered-shops-art-and-photography

Knitting and Jewelry:  http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4ca71762868d6d911348844f/undiscovered-shops-knitting-and-jewelry

Vintage and Misc. items:  http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4ca863ba63448eef874ce1c7/undiscovered-shops-vintage-and-misc

Simply click on the links above to see some amazing new shops on Etsy!  And don't forget to leave comments on the treasuries!

Pez Collecting!

 

Yep, I'm a Pezhead!  Have been for a long time now.  I'm not sure "normal" people realize how big Pez collecting is! 

 

There's conventions all across the U.S. and around the World.  Three days of nutty stuff for Pez collectors.  Room hopping, where dealers open their rooms for sales to anyone that wanders in, Bingo on Friday night for some super awesome prizes and seminars throughout the day for information and then on Saturday, the main ballroom is opened up for the public for more sales and is usually followed by an auction to raise money for a charity.  There's a lot more going on depending on which convention you attend!

 

For the history of Pez, click on this link to be taken directly to the Pez web site:  http://www.pez.com/index.php

 

It all started in the United States with dispensers like these:

This is just a very small sample of them, there's hundreds of variations!  They were headless and used to discourage smoking, eat Pez "mints" instead type of thing!

 

When character heads were introduced, they were packaged in clear cellophane bags like these:

Somewhat boring, huh?  Packaging has evolved into a huge collectible in itself.  One of my favorite type of packaging is called a Halo card.  These are striped cards with a white cloud around the word PEZ on the package.  Here's just a few of my halo card collection:

Some more of my favorite packaging are the boxes that came out of Europe.

 Box cars that have two different characters in them and they look like they are sitting inside a car.

 

Holiday boxes where you can see the dispensers through windows in the boxes.    

 

These next dispensers are known as Cocoa Marsh dispensers because they were premiums from Cocoa Marsh and Cocoa Marsh is printed on the stems.  These are special to me because they are one of those times that collectors live for!  I found these at a flea market and paid $2.50 each, they are valued around $100 each!  I was lucky to find them!

Here's just a few of my favorite dispensers in my collection.

Doctor and nurse

psychedelic eye

The ringmaster

Some people take the stems from real dispensers and make them into what is known as custom or fantasy dispensers.  A friend of mine sent me this one that he made:

It's special!  It even lights up.

 

Pez makes all kinds of items!  These are known as Pez accessories.  Two of my favorites:

Vintage lunch box

Peter Pez cookie jar  

I could seriously go on for pages and pages!  Instead, I'll include some links and let you decide if you want to continue on or not.  My own Pez collection is shown here:  www.ThePezt.zoomshare.com   It's not my entire collection, but there's over 1300 Pez photos!  It shows my custom license plate, ThePezt.

 

My friend, Rob's web site, he's huge into collecting!  http://www.pezcandydispenser.com/  He helps with one of the larger conventions which is held in Long Beach, CA. and is one of the top collectors in the United States.

 

There's so much involved in Pez collecting, like footed or non-footed dispensers, learning about the patent numbers, variations and so much more.  If you are interested in starting a collection, I suggest you do a lot of online research, attend a convention or two and join the Pezhead mailing list!

Bet the next time you see these dispensers in the grocery store, you'll think of me!

 

ThePezt

"A Day in the Life" with Marlene

        

We are beginning a new segment here called “A Day in the Life” where I will be featuring a shop owner that I’m sure you will enjoy visiting.  So grab your cup-o-joe, get comfy and let’s take a journey to:

"A Day in the Life with Marlene, owner of 

Country Soaps By Marlene"

   

Duuuuuude:  How long have you been creating soaps?

Lots of Fragrances

Marlene:  I've been making soap for almost 8 years and I've been selling for 4 years. I still clearly remember my first batch...it was horrible, it didn't even make good laundry soap. :) I'm a self taught soaper and it took me almost a year before I tried it again. My first soaps were all unscented. Until I had the recipe down I didn't want to try fragrances. Now I have a whole kitchen cabinet just for fragrance oils and essential oils. 

           

Duuuuuude:  What made you get into making homemade goats milk soap?

Marlene:  My kids...I had some daughters that took piano lessons on a farm that raised goats. They were sent home some billy goats as pets and I brought up to them about saving their money to buy a nanny or 2. Billy goats really don't do much except stink. :) So they bought 2 nanny goats....we are up to 7 right now. We tried making cheese, yogurt...anything with goats milk. The last thing on the list was soap. 
              

Duuuuuude:  Tell us a little bit about your process for creating

Marlene:  It started off with our daughters hand milking the goats twice a day. They bring it in and it gets strained through a coffee filter to remove any debris like hair and hay. Then we measure it out and freeze it. I have to start off with frozen goats milk to keep my temperature below 100 degrees for cold process soap making. Once it is froze I can then make soap. The first part of soap making is keeping the oils from the milk mixture. You add the lye to the milk and keep stirring it.

Liquid Soap

 So as the milk melts you don't scorch it. Meanwhile, I'm melting the oils. Once everything is melted you wait until it cools to put the 2 together...remember, I have to keep everything below 100 degrees. When you are to the point of mixing, I pour the lye/milk mixture into the oils and use my stick blender. It's really fun watching as the 2 become 1. 

Lemon Poppy Seed Soap

When I see that everything has come together that's when I'll add the fragrance or oatmeal depending on what kind of soap I'm making. At this point it's called trace...the soap looks like thick milk or pudding.  When everything is added and mixed you can now pour it into the mold(s), wait at least 24 hours and then I cut it into bars. 

Curing Soap Closet

Now you sit and wait for 4-6 weeks before you can sell it. What is going on through this time is the PH is slowly going down to be able to safely use. 

Duuuuuude:  Where do you typically get your supplies? (handmade, online, craft shops, etc.)

Marlene:  I buy some of my supplies on line and some from a local Amish store. My oils come in 50# pails. I watch for pre-buys and sales to get the best possible price on fragrance oils. The lye is what can cause some problems. With meth labs around the world they have really clamped down and added aluminum crystals to drain cleaners. Those are the little blue specks in your drain cleaner. I can't use drain cleaners it has to be pure sodium hydroxide (lye). Aluminum is a big no-no when making soap. I use all stainless steel pots, bowls and spoons. Yes, I accidentally used aluminum and ended up with a mess. I thought the pan was SS but quickly found out that it wasn't.
Duuuuuude:  Where do you get your ideas for your items? 

Kitchen at Christmastime

Marlene:  I get a few ideas from things around me or pictures I see but many of my ideas will come from customers. They will message me with concerns, ideas and thoughts...I take every word to heart to create for them. I know what works by how quickly it sells. I recently had a potential customer message me about unscented soaps. It made me realize the need for more or at least more of a variety. So my latest batches were unscented. 
             

Duuuuuude:  Where do you sell your items?

MarIene:  I sell on Etsy at CountrySoapsByMarlen and I sell on hyena cart at CountrySoapsByMarlene.  I'm also at our local farmers market in Waupun on Thursday afternoons. Recently I've been added to a consignment shop in Watertown, WI called Josephine's. Now until Christmas I'll be at craft shows on Saturdays. And of course, out of my home. 

Duuuuuude:  Anything else you'd like us to know?

Marlene:  I'm married to a great guy, Mark, for 27 years in December. We have 11 children, 6 of which are still at home and 1 daughter in law. We homeschool them on our southern WI dairy farm. We are the third generation raising the fourth and it will soon be a century farm. (A farm that has been in the family for 100 years) This is one of the few family farms still left, we aren't a mega farm. I enjoy canning and freezing from our garden, sewing, crocheting and knitting. The kids and I enjoy scrapbooking together and playing Wii. :) 

I hope you enjoyed getting to know Marlene a little more.  I know I did.  And don’t forget to check out her shops.  : )