Assemblages, my rusty bucket collection

I must have mentioned my flirtation with assemblage. Since reading "The Secret of Rusty Things" by Michael de Meng, I have been collecting bits and pieces which I may be able to use for such a project. Mostly things from around the house mostly, but I have been keeping them in an old bucket in the garden ( plus a little bleach for good measure) to get them good and rusty. It is cooking nicely! Thought that you might like to see a photo or two.

an overall view

some drawer runners from the old kitchen units to use as structural elements in any larger assemblages

old taps, springs and brackets

some of the smaller, deliciously rusted items; note the bits of conifer tree which found their way in the wind into my bucket

not quite sure what I will be doing with the scissors but I will use them I am sure

bits of plumbing, an old plane and a couple of cake slicers

 the top of a throw-away barbecue, more taps and a sardine tin ( will find another use for this one)

old salad servers and an empty sealant tube. If you have read MdeM's book you will know how useful an empty sealant tube can be.

Now you will probably be thinking, "He's lost his marbles". But I honestly felt inspired by this book and just wish I had access to the sort of scrap available in the book. If I find that I enjoy making assemblages as much as I think I will, I shall be visiting the local scrap yards - if I can talk my wife into letting me have a part of the garden to keep piles of rusty old metal parts. It's difficult enough to convince her that my paper scraps etc, are the price of my chosen art media.

And one interesting thing he was originally a painter, and found his way into assemblages, the story of my life (sorry art) so there is a precedent to my art direction.

A display holder for little "row houses"

Wow, it seems to have been such a long time since I posted on this blog. I have been so busy putting together a consignment of paintings for a new craft/art shop, Fair Wind Studio. My good friend Nancy is opening a small studio in a recently re-opened mall in Ohio and I was invited to send a consignment of artworks for sale in the studio. You can see a few of the aceo paintings I have done recently especially to go in the initial consignment in my blog painting with John. Best of luck to you Nancy, I hope all goes well.

In the meantime I have not been doing much in the crafting line, but I did make one of these; a display holder for some of the row houses which I have been swapping.

These photos show the end results , you can see one of the sides of the accordian folded holder have pockets for the inchie row houses and the other side has pockets for a larger set of row houses. A tutorial for the construction of this display holder can be seen on PDA. this very closely follows an original tutorial from Kim Newberg who runs PDA.

I am very much hoping to try another very shortly in which I can display atc's. The pockets are not transparent because many of the row houses have lots of very tactile embellishments and it is all about being able to handle the displayed items. thanks for looking.