Blast from the Past


Today I was browsing through my old computer and found my art portfolio from my senior year! I did an independent art study where I decorated  home goods (from Goodwill of course) using up-cycled materials. I can't believe how quickly time has gone by and now I am going to be a senior in college.


For several years I had been collecting bottle caps after being obsessed with a bottle cap belt Buckle had at the time.
Soda Bottle Cap Belt
My mom wouldn't buy it for me so I guess my plan was to make my own...but that never happened. Since I had so very many bottle caps I thought why not use bottle caps in my artwork? All three of my frames used bottle caps in some fashion or another. The blue frame called "Space Junk" was a trial and error.... Only error isn't fixable when we're talking hot glue on wood but I HAD to salvage the frame (even if it was $2 at Goodwill). I decided to paint the hot glue remnants gold and "Space Junk" looked like, well, space junk. On my next attempt I decided it would work best to flatten the bottle caps before painting and affixing them to the frame. I put each bottle cap on top of a magazine and hammered down the edges. Between the cap's sharp edges and the force of hammering I had perfect  little pre-cut circles of magazine, which led to frame number three, the decoupage frame. I incorporated a couple of left over bottle caps into the "Blue Face" painting as well.

The decoupage technique worked out so nicely I decided to try it on the ceramic cat I bought. My mom loves cats and Christmas was right around the corner. I thought it would a nice obscure piece to add to her collection.

The Adirondack chair was not from Goodwill but rather Ace Hardware. Yep, I put that whole thing together from a kit and then I painted it. Although, it would have made more sense to paint it and then put it together but I had the chair put together before the class started.

Did you know those cool record bowls stores sell aren't produce-able by normal human beings?
http://timelife.com/products/vinyl-record-bowl?utm_source=google&utm_medium=search-pla&utm_campaign=Y11GGSBGTL&utm_term=%7Bkeyword%7D
No, they are not a DIY project, it is physically impossible to get a circle into a bowl shape. They come out with folds. This was a learning experience. I gave a couple of the painted bowls away and I am pretty sure at least my sister threw hers away because I haven't seen it anywhere in her house. I came across this crafty gal who glued jute rope around the record and it looks pretty cool.

Photos in slide show courtesy of C. Scharton. The additional photos are not my own. Please click to be redirected to a site where you may purchase the products.

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