Framed! An underwater mystery piece

Found!
(the green bucket is for compost)

 Found: small wooden frame for a panorama-style photo print, no markings or brand, glass intact.

Repairs required: only cleaning

<--Before

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  I was excited to find this nifty little wooden frame, but how to freestyle it when I didn't have any prints that I wanted for my wall?  I could have turned it over to Creative Roommate to fill with an original painting, but then a mysterious coincidence came to pass, inspired by a real life underwater mystery... read on for the full story.




One night around dinner time, Creative Roommate made me aware of this video of a mysterious underwater thing.  As I am a fan of all things aquatic, people know I like videos of underwater creatures, the stranger the better! When I saw this, I knew I had to pass it on to other fans of marine mysteries, some of whom just happen to be crafty with the paper/scissors/glue.    
 (Video also available here if the first link doesn't work)

Deepstaria enigmatica I presume....

Inspired by this mysterious underwater creature/object/part-of-creature, I was the recipient of one of life's best free things- a letter from a friend that was also original artwork.

How can I thank Deepstaria enigmatica (what some believe is the name of the jelly shown in the video) for being an artistic inspiration to my friend?  I suppose one small act of thanks is continuing to recycle plastic bags so that they don't end up in the ocean (where they get eaten by turtles who can die from the resulting intestinal blockage).  Jellies might be minimalists, but if they had to pay rent I'm sure they would appreciate free things like the rest of us, especially free artwork.  So I love this letter, and want to have it up where I can see it, but how to best display it?  

Quelle karmic coincidence, this inspired piece fits perfectly into the latest free frame find.

In a new sea of blue

I'm calling this one a freestyle group effort.  It's not every day I get to cite jellyfish as a collaborator.

Baroque and Hungry (for art)

"It's like being inside a dream or something." **

How would you describe the image in this frame (pictured at left)? 

Soft-focus Floridian?  

Dreamy patio?  

Terra-cotta tropicalish?  

Whatever the name, the style is not really in tune with the rest of the random assortment of objects and paint colors that together comprise our 'decor.'  

But how could I resist the lure of a large free frame? 

Black and gold plastic might not sound appealing, but it was lightweight and large enough that I brought it home last year thinking I could use it to frame a large silk scarf.  

Detail of the frame corner

The odd white line of t-shirt material around the edge was part of the scarf-framing effort. That project hung up on the wall for a while, but wasn't quite right in the end. The scarf came out, and the original print was revealed again. Since starting the blog I've become more conscious of the usefulness of photographing things at every stage of the process, so here you have it.  But the question remained, what would look appropriate inside this rather ornately conceived frame?  How about something inspired by a time when ornate abundance was the height of style?  

Enter Caravaggio!

Still Life With Fruit, dated from 1601-1605. Caravaggio.

Creative Roommate was feeling baroque when she used a piece of large paper (part of a stack of art supplies left by a former roommate) to paint this freestyle homage to Caravaggio's Still Life With Fruit.

Fit for a papal palace perhaps, but we have it on the porch.


**For all of you film buffs out there, congratulations if you correctly identified that quote as being from the movie Titanic. The character of Rose (Kate Winslet) says it while looking at some of her impressionist and modern paintings early on in the story.

Freestyle - paying it forward with plants

I like plants. They help with humidity, air quality, and they are good for you.  Exactly why and how plants are good for you is an evolving field of study, but some research is based on ideas such as the biophilia hypothesis (where humans are innately attracted to other living organisms and want to spend time with them).  For a quick, easy to read, run down on why you should get some potted plants, check out this article in Psychology Today on urban mindfulness.

Being a plant fan, I sometimes find myself with an over-abundance of sprouts, shoots, and such.  Along with picture frames I'm always looking for free planters and trays in anticipation of splitting my Sansevieria, giving the new spider plant 'babies' their own place, or sneaking another cutting from my boyfriend's jade plant.  Recently these supplies reached critical mass, we do live in an apartment with limited space and sunlight, so I decided it was time to set up some plantings and let others benefit from my accumulated abundance.  Call it freestyling with botanicals, spreading the plant-love, or just giving the gift of green.  

Check out the schematic below for information on where all the planters came from.

I should note that the spider plant (in upper left corner) is a descendant of a plant given to me from a friend years ago.  This plant is at least the 10th offshoot from the original, I keep giving them away so I've rather lost track.....  As part of some freestyle cycle of karma, that same friend will now be getting a jade plant after she moves into her new place!  Most of these plants have already found their way into new homes, ranging from high-tech offices to the common cubicle.  There they will patiently stand as reminders of the possibilities of freestyle while recycling your old exhalations into fresh air, for free!

Those Gold-Framed Holiday Memories

What to do with those old holiday gifts that don't warrant wall/closet/basement storage space anymore? Recycle, of course. Better yet, freecycle.  Take those old clothes to a charity shop or Goodwill store, they will sort out what can sell, (everything else can still be recycled and shredded for products like carpet padding- but more on that topic in another post).  When it comes to art, tastes change, but a quality metal frame can always be reused.

Thanks for the memories... I'm done with them now.

Found this gold frame at the Cambridge swap shelf, it was rather grimy, but otherwise in perfect shape.  Normally I would include a photo of the front, but since this was a gift that got re-gifted to the recycling powers-that-be, let's just say it was a sepia-toned waterfall scene.  Here is part of the inscription on the back, "Merry Xmas 2005  Taken at [state park name]...."

Hungry for more freestyle.

I seem to be the one in charge of disassembly and cleaning of the stuff we drag home.  Fair enough. It is fun to take things apart and make them shiny again.

After the cleaning we thought about putting an old map inside the frame, but nothing on hand went with the cream colored matting and the gold frame. I turned it over to Creative Roommate to alter as she saw fit. She perhaps found inspiration in the returning sounds of spring, and the birds that have started singing outside our windows.

This once discarded gold frame has now been freestyled to bring this woodland scene, and a lively pop of green, to our kitchen wall.  It is a gift that has kept on giving thanks to you, mystery donor.

Refashioning a fashion illustration

 We'll never know if the ladies pictured in this advertisement preferred milk or sugar in their tea, but I'm sure they would have appreciated finding something for free.  
 

Dis-assembled pieces, drying out.

This page of fashion illustrations is from (or is perhaps a reproduction of) Godey's Lady's Book, a popular magazine of the era.  When found it was in a frame behind glass, but in the midst of being water damaged.  The discoloration on the matting caused by moisture is evident in the picture above.
The fashion page is taped down to some kind of cardboard, which seemed to be in ok shape, but the matting had to go.

Creative Roommate decided to re-assemble the pieces in a quasi-diploma frame style.

On display

  But what free item did she use to hold the illustration against the single front pane of glass?

Closeup of the corner

Chopsticks!

Steampunk Umbrella

all to pieces....

Umbrellas are a funny thing. Expressions of individuality or mass conformity, delicate but protective, valued at times but so often discarded in near-usable form.... enter the freestyler.  In anticipation of an outdoor steampunk festival [wait, What is steampunk? ] I was considering decorating an umbrella to use as a parasol.   Imagine my delight when I found a large red umbrella, or rather, the pieces of it (pictured at right), while out for a walk on a rather gloomy day. Luckily they had been discarded right next to each other in an otherwise empty bin. Yes, that is what I call luck.

Next steps:

1) figure out how to re-attach center handle to fabric part

2) decorate!

How did I accomplished this in freestyle fashion?

Comparing the broken umbrella to some intact, smaller, specimens led me to realize that I had to find some way of securing the center handle to the top white plastic ring of the umbrella (where all the 'ribs' meet). Close inspection revealed a place on the handle, about 4 inches from the pointy end, where there was a small circular hole opposite a longer oblong opening drilled into the handle.   There was also a small, but sturdy, pin sticking through the white ring. I decided to put the pink through the oblong hole and see if that would hold.  It did! This is shown in the picture as the 'tiny pin.' It is hard to see (especially when reaching over an open umbrella top), but I promise you it is there.

When there is a job to be done.....

  Wanting a little extra security for holding the pieces together, I used the handle from a Thai food takeout container to wrap around one 'rib,' through the oblong and round holes on the handle, and then around the opposite 'rib.'  This is labeled in the picture above as 'Free wire'.   These little bits of flexible wire are SUPER useful, so I save them.  Of course I could not have done this without some trusty tools. Curved needle-nosed pliers are pretty awesome at times.

For decoration I used gold fabric paint donated by Creative Roommate (who in turn got it from her mom).

Decorative motifs, from top right: Atlantic long-armed octopus, gears, a feather, random squiggles.

Ya esta! A freestyle steampunk-inspired umbrella, ready to shade one's delicate skin while out for a stroll.

In honor of mother's day this post is dedicated to my mother (who taught me to fix things myself), my godmother (who taught me about saving things in case they are needed in future), and Creative Roommate's mother (an accomplished musician who supports others in their artistic endeavors, no matter what medium). Thanks moms!