Moving my Blog

Do I have any faithful readers left? It's been so long since I posted here  that I doubt it. But in the event that I do, I am posting regularly on my Facebook page www.facebook.com/rustybuttonstudio. I post regular updates on the progress of my work, photos of works in progress, festival schedules and show dates on my page. So if all of that interests you, go to my page, like it, and receive regular updates. Hope to see you all there!

Step Right Up!

 

 

Step Right Up! Re-Vamped (a little)

 

I added the seal "poster" on the left.

 

 

And I painted the pig, at the request of my Baby-Girl. She was right!!

 

 



Inner Works

Here's a new piece I created a couple of weeks ago. It depicts the inner workings of our mind. (Or maybe just mine...)

I covered the box  and doll head with an old mechanical drawing printed on tissue paper I found at an estate sale.

Midnight in the Garden

This work was totally unplanned. Infact, I was working on something else. I was looking for something for the other piece when I found the rusted "wing-thing" (a Christmas gift from my brother). I laid the charlotte on it, and kept right on going...

My studio threw up in my work space

AAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Downstairs Upstairs and Two Jacks

Went downstairs today and made a Jack-in-the-Box.

 

 

 

 Then I went upstairs and created a pumpkin-head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack-in-the-box and Jack-O-Lantern

creative in other ways

 

I'm feeling a little "saturated" today. I should be working in my studio, getting work done for my last show of the season. (Rochester Museum & Science Center Holiday Bazaar) But I wasn't feeling "it" this morning. I've been working on these little date magnets for my Advent calendars for the last 4 days now and I'm getting a little burned out. Or saturated.

 

 

So I went out to mow the lawn. Then I broke the mower.

Now what??

On my way back into the house to figure out what to do next, I passed my wagon full of ripening tomatoes plucked from the garden just before the last frost and suddenly knew what I was going to do next!

I would cook up the ripe tomatoes, along with some peppers, including some habeneros I bought last weekend at the farmer's market and then freeze it to use as a chili or soup base. And just like my artwork, this idea evolved.

It tasted wonderful and had quite a spicy kick to it! I only used 1 habenero, but I also used some fresh jalepenos and a tiny hungarian pepper from the garden. I decided instead, to make some black bean dip.

 

After simmering the tomatoes in olive oil with onions and fresh garlic, I added sea salt, some pickled jalepeno juice, and (yes) cinnamon and sugar. Added to that, 3 cans of black beans.

 



 

This delicious concoction is now simmering to perfection and I feel as if I created something today ~in my kitchen, if not in my studio.

 

Now I need to go get some tortilla chips!

 

 

 

 

 



ARTBreast Exhibition at Impact Artists' Gallery

Sat Sept 22nd 7-10pm Bidders’ Live Auction of 24 ARTbreasts

There is a great buzz around town regarding 81 amazing ARTbreasts (created from display mannequins) at Impact Artists Gallery’s exhibition Altered Perceptions: A JOURNEY OF STRENGTH AND COURAGE. On Saturday September 22nd 7-10pm we offer oncology doctors, gynecology doctors, mammogram centers, MRI clinics and any hospital facility an opportunity to own and display an amazing ARTbreast for their reception rooms and personal offices. We urge the public to bid and donate an ARTbreast to a favorite medical facility “ in the honor of or memory of” a loved one who fought or is fighting a personal battle against breast cancer. Join us for the fun at our Bidders’ Live Auction, at which 24 ARTbreasts will be available to bid on. For this fundraiser tickets are $25 each, 2 for $40 and can be reserved early by calling the gallery. Lastly the remaining balance of ARTbreasts will be auctioned thru ‘BiddingforGood.com’ online in October, which should draw national attention. We invite you to join us for a great evening of fun including the excitement of bidding, music by Geno McManus, auctioneer Richard Bronstein, food served by the Professional Culinary Institute students, basket and 50/50 raffles. !

This ARTbreast Exhibition is a co-partnered fundraising endeavor by Impact Artists Gallery and Breast Cancer Network of WNY designed to attract awareness, create dialog and self-accountability. More info on Breast Cancer Network of WNY is available at www.bcnwny.org or contact info@bcnwny.org or 716-706-0060

All events held at Impact Artists Gallery, Tri-Main Center, Suite 545, 2495 Main St, Buffalo, NY 14214 716.835.6817 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 716.835.6817, check out impactartist.wordpress.com, like us on Facebook. The 12 public-voted favorite ARTbreasts at the Artists’ Opening Reception are intended for a 2013 calendar if sponsorship funds continue. Contact Susan Marie Borden, Exh Chair re: sponsorship on prcontact.impactartistgallery@gmail.com or 716-578-7746 

BCA Project Update

Yikes! Now I'm stymied!! I am suffering from artist's block, probably brought on by the deadline for this project being August 15th if I want it photographed.
Well, this is what I completed 2 days ago. I added a vintage faux pearl choker to which I added a vintage trim of glass beads, probably from a Flapper's dress!
I affixed a stone heart to a rusty metal heart and stuck that on with some glue and some rusty wire. Vintage lace was added to the bottom and a mix of different shades of pink and white sequins were glued to the breasts.

Hopefully, I'll get an idea or 2 today. I guess if I didn't get any more ideas and didn't do anything else to it, it could be done. But in my mind, it is not completed.

Breast Cancer Awareness Project

These next couple of blog entries will document my progress with the Impact Artists Gallery Altered Perceptions: A Journey of Strength and Courage project. 80 artists were asked to donate their creative imagination with recycled PVC mannequins. These mannequins will then be exhibited, juried, with the 30 best printed on a poster for sale, and finally, put up for bid in a bidders' live auction.

First, I made a plaster cast of the PVC mannequin. The top is then decoupaged with dress pattern tissue paper. The bodice is painted with pink, acrylic paint.

So far, I've glued tiny, square glass and stone tiles left over from one of my husband's construction projects across the top of the bodice. I affixed the stone heart to a rusty metal heart and affixed both with wire and glue to the form. 2 vintage drapery tie back tacks have been added to the center of each breast and a line of m.o.p. buttons embellished with rusty wire has been created down the center of the bodice.

That's all for now!

Childish Dreams

I have two more antique clock cases

which is awesome

'cause now I don't want to sell this one!



Much Better Pictures!

Here they are! I retook the pics of my latest assemblages and these turned out much better.

The longer I look at the one with the rust frame, the more I think I might change the small pin of the woman to a tiny face made of clay. We shall see...

Sidetracked

I thought this blog would be titled, "Two Done", but on Monday, when I was downstairs in my studio working on yet another "Alice in Wonderland" inspired piece.(which is another 'story' in itself) I got distracted. I was looking for something to help complete the piece when I found a little altered doll head I'd made some time last year. (Ooh! Something shiny!)
I pulled it out and then went to find a piece if wood from my collection of Cape Cod beach finds to mount it on (because that was the idea I had for this head). I pulled out the wood, placed the tiny head in it and determined it wasn't going to work the way I thought it would.

From there I grabbed a small Victorian Era photo pin back of a woman, stuck that to the small piece of drift woodand just kept on going with it. Eventually, I had something and decided it was going to look best in a shallow black box. Ooh! And so would this other idea that just popped into my head, so why don't I paint two boxes black as long as I'm getting the black paint out...By the time the afternoon was over and it was time to get the kids off the bus, I had completed two really cool pieces of artwork. Except the one I was trying to complete is still downstairs, unfinished, and awaiting my undivided attention. Maybe tomorrow...

(Wow! After I published this blog, I saw how awful these pictures are! They are so grainy! And not by design. : (   

I'll have to retake them and repost them another time. I'm not Blog Savvy enough to know how to remove them.)

One Done

One of the two WIPs I had going is now complete!

I call it "Birth of a Song"



The egg, covered in music notes, is the idea, the inspiration, coming from the head.

Below the head, where the heart would be, is the innards of a music box, on display in a glass sided box, for all the world to see (and hear)

Can you hear the music?

Two Works In Progress

There are 2 works in progress here. I am so excited to finish them, but right now I have to get to my kids school to help hang their art show!

So just a glimpse for now...

I traded for these doll heads at a flea market last month!

New work, no title

New artwork, but I don't have a name for it. Any ideas?

New Stuff!

 I've been wanting to make these assemblage necklaces for some time. I finally got up the courage to start one and then couldn't stop. So here she is. I haven't named her yet. She looks so sad...

 This is a close up of the center thingy, a washer thing wrapped with wire and beads with antique prism hung in the center.

I strung a mixture of vintage beads, new beads and goldstone beads and combined them with two sizes of copper linked chain. (yeah, that's my 46 yr. old neck)

I punched holes in the tin type and then looped wire and beads thru the holes. I am incredibly happy with this! More to come, but they'll probably just show up in my Etsy shop, Rusty Button Studio.

Coming soon to www.RustyButton.etsy.com

Charlotte's House

Love Art

Devil's Purse