Made It: Experimentals & Flower Clocks

I've been tinkering around with many different materials the last couple weeks.  First, let's see some new desk clocks:

California Poppy

Field Daisy

Partridge-Peas

Thistle

Mayflower

I found a 1964 field guide to North America's wild flowers, and the images are just the perfect size to fit my mini table top clocks.  They're listed on Etsy.  I want to make a gazillion more, but I also want to make a different line of work that is categorized as "non-clock" and I'm really trying to actually plan this stuff out.  So I've been having fun playing around.

Here's some of the prototypes:

Large painted nails and string from the barn, leftover wood for the frame,
and salvaged painted wood as the backer.

8 x 10 matboard, early 1900s booklet pages, paint, vinyl.

5 x 7 matboard, painted hymnal page, vinyl.

5 x 7 matboard, 1970s seed catalog page, paint, vinyl.

I don't know quite where I'm going yet with the nail things, but I'm ruminating...I really like the TV and the skeletons, which will fit in with my small anatomical hearts...

But here's a biggie!
10 x 12 including frame; found wood, paint, "fabric paper," vinyl

I have many more painted papers to play with, so watch out!

I'm getting ready for a yard sale this weekend--my first ever!  There are two or three bins of old art I'm going to try to unload and maybe some clocks that just never sold but are fine otherwise.  If you're in KC, check out the Hyde Park Neighborhood Yard Sale on Saturday, June 14th (my half-birthday, BTW, in case you want to drop by some cupcakes or half of a whole cake).  Hopefully it won't be sweltering and/or raining...?

February Happened!

This little month has flown by!  Between working on new clocks, creating work with new materials and techniques, fighting through the winter doldrums, and taking a few days out to work my old post at a flower shop over Valentine's week, well, it's almost March already.  So I'm just going to do a  little updating and dump February right in your lap.

My main focus  has been playing with texture, color, and graphics.  I'd like to get more involved designs going, but...baby steps.

5 x 8 fabric paper on matboard

6 x 12 fabric paper on painted MDF with vinyl

6 x 12 fabric paper on painted MDF with vinyl

Four 3.5 x 5 fabric paper and vinyl on painted wood

3.5 x 5 fabric paper and vinyl on painted wood

2.5 x 12 fabric paper, found letter, and vinyl on MDF

12 x 15 fabric paper and vinyl on painted MDF

10 x 10 fabric paper and vinyl on MDF

4 x 10 found and fabric paper with vinyl on MDF

3.5 x 5 fabric paper and vinyl on painted wood

4 x 5 fabric paper and vinyl on matboard

 And now the clocks!  There are more, which you can see on my Etsy site, but here's a peek:

5 x 5 vinyl orzo burst on sanded aluminum

5 x 5 black and white vinyl on aluminum

5 x 5 black chains on blue

5 x 5 yellow and brown Dachshund clock

5 x 5 black and grey orzos on reflective silver vinyl background

5 x 5 Earth tone elephant clock

5 x 5 muted burst clock on aluminum

8 x 8 yellow and white orzo pattern clock on aluminum

I've had a few orders during the cold months online, even one from Australia (which is super hot right now, but I'll take it)!  I'm working on scheduling shows and building inventory.  I'm excited about the new work I'm tinkering with and haven't even scratched the surface of possibilities!  Not enough hours in the day!

Cannibalizing a Clock

Sometimes I make work that just doesn't sell.  Not only does it not sell, nobody comments on it while in my booth.  And I kind of don't love the thing, either.  That's what happened with this little guy:

Goodbye, tiger-like experiment.  I didn't even sign you!

So I decided to do what any heartless creator would do: cannibalize that thing!  It's really more of a transformation, caterpillar to butterfly, if you will.  Instead of just flipping it over and using the back (why didn't I do that this time? I could have!), I decided to document the destruction and rebirth of a 5 x 5 clock.

Behold:

Gutted.

I had to work way too hard to get enough material up on the corner to
actually pull with my fingers, but I managed.  I nibbled away with my X-Acto knife.

Pull it!  (The opposite of what Salt n Pepa did.)

One little bit almost always hangs on at the end.  Jerk.

I then let some rubbing alcohol soak on any left over sticky residue from
the pulled vinyl and buff it with a very special piece of cloth (a paper towel).

New identity!  I went with my most popular design because I had all the parts
close by and some poppies already cut.  Efficient!

Ahh...That's better.  It's poppy time! 

So, if you ever see one of my clocks with stuff on the back, don't be surprised.  It's my way of recycling and learning from my mistakes.  Sometimes the vinyl doesn't come off that easily, or at all, but I got lucky this time. 

I just put clocks and frameables up at my favorite Kansas City ice cream shop, Miami Ice!  It's the fourth time I've had work there, and dare I say that my clocks go PERFECTLY with sugary-sweet desserts.  If you're a Kansas Citian, check it out at W 39th Street and Genessee.  (They sell Lawrence's wonderful Sylas & Maddy's ice cream there!)

I'll have the poppy clock at my next show in Ottawa, Kansas, on Nov. 9th. 

Made It: Poppy Clocks

I've always been a fan of The Poppy.  Even before it was cool, you guys.  My grandpa (I think? That's how it is in my head and I'm not changing it.) planted a little poppy patch way before I was around next to the garden out on the farm.  Those two weeks a year they bloom is a magical time that I never really appreciated until I moved away and went to school.  You can't pick a poppy and keep it inside because it goes straight to Wilty Town.  I think that's why the image of the poppy has gotten to be so popular--as a great philosopher once said, "Take a picture--it'll last longer!"

I ended up making the simplest poppy form for my clocks, and they were a hit!  Everyone knew exactly what they were, except, ironically, the owner of the flower shop where I worked.  ("I like the tulip clock."  ....uh.)  Also, I can make them short or tall, and use up my multitude of scrap vinyl, which is kind of the point anyway.



6 x 18 inch poppy clocks



12 x 6 inch poppy clocks



6 x 30 inch poppy clocks



Even though I have used this design for years and I'm kind of addicted to the Orzo technique right now, I think I'll always come back to this simple, happy flower.  It reminds me of Grandpa, Kansas, and the land I love.