Closet Woes

I have a weirdly-shaped closet. It has a bulkhead containing ductwork that juts into what would be a typical 57 x 24" reach-in closet, eliminating more than 12 cubic feet of usable space. Bummer. Worse, it leaves such a narrow space that it seems suitable only for stacking shoeboxes up the bulkhead wall... except I don't have all the boxes for the shoes I do have, and not enough shoes to really utilize the space. SO! what to do?

See? What the heck is that stupid space good for?!

I got to thinking; what if I used the 4.75" return wall and made angled shelves that fit into that weird corner? I want to use the space to potentially eliminate a few small jewelry boxes and make it easier to find what I want, without digging in all of them. I already found a memo board that had hooks on it for keys, and thought I could add more hooks to hang necklaces from at the bottom, and pushpins to hold more.

Repainted memo board. It was missing one hook, so I'll replace them all and maybe add more (at the bottom). Above (the green) is a small shelf. The pink is corkboard.

I already figured what my maximum comfortable reach is, so I know where on the wall the memo board needs to hang so it's usable, and with hooks on the bottom, I know I need to leave plenty of clearance below for necklaces.

This is my not-quite-perfectly scaled "blueprint" for the space. (The side of the bulkhead wall is way off scale, but the rest is pretty good.)

Basically, I'll start 8 inches off the floor and put in an angled shelf, using quarter rounds on the wall for cleats. The cleats will be along three walls, and I'll nail the shelves in place, so they should be plenty secure for no more weight that will be on them. I'll make the second shelf 8 inches above that one, but one inch shorter on the bulkhead side, and the one above that another inch shorter, etc., so that they are stepped slightly and not completely concealing the lower shelves. Why? Because of how I plan to use the space in a decoratively AND functionally.

So imagine the white paper is my shelf, the lowest one. The pretty mismatched china and glass bowls (glued together for stability) will hold earrings, bracelets, rings, what-have-yous, in a pretty and functional way.

I've been staring at my plans, sketching and re-sketching, looking at the space, measuring... and I think this will be a good solution. It should let me put pieces I love on display so I can use them easily, plus make a pretty display in the closet in otherwise unusable space.

Current Obssession

I have a great affection for glass. Clear, colored, leaded, pressed, blown, cut... Some women go for glitter or diamonds, I like sparkly glass.

I had the nifty idea to use orphaned china saucers married with glass bowls to serve as whatnot dishes. I have a couple in my bathroom holding lipsticks and hairpins, but they could hold change, bracelets, sweetener packets, etc. I saw the idea for reducing clutter functionally in a magazine: You collect pretty cups and saucers, but have nowhere to display them, so put them in a dressing table drawer and use them to hold jewelry. That's all fine and good, but I don't collect teacups, and I don't have a dressing table. Also, the tiled-surface bathroom (where I put mine) seemed like a good way to shatter the pieces, so I used E6000 to glue them together, making it less likely that I'd tip the bowl off the saucer, making the assemblage more stable, reducing the risk that I'd end up with glass in my foot.

The center two are in the bathroom, holding hairpins and ponytail elastics, and lipsticks, respectively.

I was in Goodwill scrounging the pieces, and spent ridiculous amounts of time finding the right glass piece to go with the saucers I'd chosen. The base of the glass dish needed to fit in the depression that was for the teacup, and I wanted the look of the glass to compliment the saucer. For instance, the top right pair both have a swirled texture - hard to see from the picture, but the lip of the saucer has the same kind of texture as the little bowl.

So that's where my lunacy started. Then I looked at the piece of garden art my mom got me for my birthday: a "flower" of stacked glass (plate, bowl, vase, nested together and displayed on edge, perched on Rebar), and started looking online for other examples of repurposed glass. I found more flowers (most of them not as skillfully made as the one Mom got from a central Illinois artist), and I found "garden totems." Garden totems must be the official garden sculptures for the Royal Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things. Basically: vase, plate, vase, bowl, plate, vase. They can be perched on poles or set directly on the ground. (Here's a link for pics and how-tos.)

It seems simple enough, until you hit the thrift store and start trying the pieces together. It's a little tricky to get scale, color (if you're using colored glassware), shape and fit just right. Like my saucer/bowl pieces, I want the various pieces to fit together well, so that the fit will help the glue do its job - if the bowl on top of the vase is too small, it will be harder to get the pieces to glue perfectly vertically; if too large, it might make the overall piece tippy even on a stake, and might lead to breakage.

Since I wasn't sure what I wanted, exactly, I might have gotten a little carried away...

Goodwill haul after hitting three different locations.

Most of the pieces I picked up were 99¢ though some were more, some less; they average at about a buck a piece. Colored glass was much harder to find and some of the glass is painted not colored itself. The orange vase is painted, so it may not weather well, but it was so pretty I decided to take a chance.

Isn't that orange spectacular?!

I'll pair that orange vase with some amber glass, and a small ruby bowl, and get a warm little tower for my garden. The green pieces might seem crazy... green glass in a (hopefully!) green garden might be lost. But perennials are expensive, and I'm far too lazy a gardener to mess with annuals every year, so my garden art will serve as pretty little bits of color until the beds fill in.

Sparkly!

Making clear glass sculpture will be a cinch! Tons and tons of candle holders, vases, bowls, plates - some leaded glass piece, even. I'm looking forward to playing with this, and looking forward to spring, and making my flower beds look a little less sad...

Conversations with My Dad

Dad and I are a lot alike, much to my mother's chagrin. They were up for Christmas this past weekend, and Dad (being Dad) made a pretty snarky comment about my admittedly poor housekeeping. (I've been hearing it for years; he can say all he wants, but nothing is going to make me love doing dishes, running the vacuum or washing clothes. Since we are a lot alike, comments like that roll right off.) He said maybe if I painted a rainbow on the vacuum, or in the laundry room, I'd spend more time on those activities. (Not.) However, it did make me think... what if I DID paint a rainbow in there? It's in a rarely-seen corner -- you'd only witness my insanity if you used the powder room (or the washer/dryer), even coming in the back door, because of the way the door swings, you might not see it. Hmmmm...

My love of color and creative side comes from Mom. (Weird combo, huh? "Piss off" attitude in a Rainbow Brite package.) The other thing I've been contemplating recently is a large art piece using broken tempered glass, a technique I saw on Color Splash with David Bromstad. I had to scan through a full 3 seasons, and 2 episodes of season 4 before I found it to refresh my memory and learn what he used for adhesive. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my "canvas" (he often uses plywood, as he did with this piece), only that I wanted to do something incorporating broken safety glass that I was lucky enough to save from a dumpster (before it went in the trash). Then I knew what I wanted to do.

Incorporating both ideas, the rainbow in the laundry room, the art-with-glass... And now I'm so damn excited, I can hardly wait to get started. It's going to be Big -- taking up a large portion of the wall above the shelf over the washer/dryer. It's also going to be heavy, so I may need my husband to rout out "keyholes" on the back of my substrate to hang it on the wall, using heavy screws in the studs. Details, details... don't trouble me with those little things, I have a mess to make!

Wearable Audacity

Once upon a time, as a teenager shopping with my mom on a summer vacation trip in Mississippi, we happened upon a boutique that had a denim skirt and jacket. The pieces were sold separately, but were meant to be worn together. Both were elaborately embellished. Both were outrageous and funky. Both were fabulously expensive. I wanted them desperately, but even a self-centered teen is capable of understanding ZOMG-that's-expensive! Mom apologized, said she'd get it for me if she could, but it was just too expensive. And it was - the pieces were really the first time I remember seeing something that could be labelled "wearable art." They were not overpriced, just beyond what the budget could bear. She told me that we could make it ourselves - maybe not the same thing, but we could alter a jacket and skirt and make something similar. We gathered a few supplies, but quickly realized that just buying the embellishments added up fast. The project never made it off the ground.

Fast forward about 26 years. I'm coming into my own as an artist. I'm learning to sew and am good at reverse engineering. I have developed an adventurous spirit when it comes to trying something new. I can barely recall what that original skirt and jacket looked like - it's been more than half my life since I saw it! And I know now that the skirt wouldn't suit me now, and it would fit anyway. And as a teen, wearing it would have gotten more ridicule than admiration. Now, I simply don't give a damn what people think! (Back then I had chutzpah in the traditional sense: insolence, arrogance and audacity* - I brazened my way out of high school trying to survive. Now, it's more disdain.)

I know when I'm wearing something that suits me because I'm comfortable. I know when I look awkward, when something isn't "me" - my challenge for the new year will be to find the right jacket, the right jeans to alter into a skirt, and recreate that wearable art set that has percolated in the back of my head, O these many years. I have another jacket project I want to get back to, as well. And some purses I want to play with. Will I find what I want? Create the nebulous vision? WHO KNOWS! It's a whole new year and anything could happen.

Update: I also want to do a pair of Converse Chuck Taylors to go with them. I really need to start some design sketches....

* I've always loved the word audacity. Most people regard it as a pejorative. Not me. "Boldness or daring, especially with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions." I am arrogant. It's not one of my nicer qualities, but it's there. I am an audacious person. Maybe it's time to stop trying to be something I'm not, and embrace the core of who I am. Look out, world, this is your only warning!

Miniature Recipe Box

I wanted to make recipe box ornaments, but I knew a full-size box would be too big and heavy. Using a metal box as my guide, I made a template that can be printed out on 8.5 x 11" paper. If you print the template directly onto the paper/cardstock you're using, be sure to print it on the BACK side of the paper, so the lines won't show. Or you can print it on heavy cardstock and use the template to trace the lines onto your paper.

The finished box is about 2 7/8 inches wide, 1 7/8 inches tall and 1 3/4 inches deep.

Cut out your paper. On the template, the dashed lines are folding guides; solid lines are to be cut. If you fold all of the pieces before you start to assemble it, your life will be much easier!

I used double-sided tape, but you could use a glue stick if you hold until it sets. Fold in the top flaps (shown above), taping them to the sides of the lid.

This shows the top flaps folded and taped to the lid sides, forming a boxy shape.

Fold in the flaps on the three sides of the lid.

Finished lid

Tape (or glue) the smaller back flaps to the sides of the base, then fold in the larger flaps.

Back flaps are in place; folding up the larger flaps, roughing in the bottom of the box.

Once you have your sides in place, fold in the small flaps (taping or gluing them down), just as with the lid. 

The box doesn't close very well since it's not hinged like the metal recipe box I used for inspiration, but I'll leave that up to your creativity - tie it closed with a ribbon, use a brad and string, leave it open... so many ways to play with this little box!

Download the template here. You are free to use it and share it, with attribution please (I worked hard on it, getting credit is a small thing to ask), but you may not sell the template or include it with other works for sale - it isn't yours to sell.

A Million Ways to Procrastinate

I signed up at Pinterest in June as part of 30 Days of Creativity, but didn't really do much with it after the month was done. A friend of mine started using it, which made me take a second look at the site. And I have been using it to daydream about new projects ever since...

Ever since I got over my initial horror of destroying books, working on my own altered book, I've been looking at them with new eyes. So many books are discarded! I would never destroy something valuable (collectible, rare, etc.), but there's an awful lot of books that don't fall into that category. If you just look at the people who've tagged recycled books on Pinterest, there's tons of amazing, creative and fun projects. There's Christmas ornaments in particular I am dying to make. Currently, my vintage aluminum tree is set up in the library... but wouldn't it be awesome to have a book-themed tree?

We're working on finishing up our unpacking and organizing (we moved in last July) in the basement, where a lot of boxes ended up, yet to be unpacked. I know how I want to decorate that space, and Pinterest is giving me a lot of inspiration there, too.

Whatever you can think of, there's probably someone at Pinterest who's thought of it, too. And you will find a million ways to procrastinate.

Hydrangea Topiary

This is super-easy to make. I used a 4" styrofoam ball, 2 large silk hydrangeas, a 4" clay pot (painted),  1/4" dowel (14" long), dried moss, florist foam, ribbon, hot glue, wire, and a toothpick.

Cut all the florets off the flowers and press the stems into the ball. I used a toothpick to make a "pilot hole". Start at the top and work your way down, spacing them so that they're bunched together and look full. Leave space at the bottom to insert the dowel. If you have any florets left over, carefully look at your ball and see if there are any places that look spare, and fill in. You can also rearrange the orientation of the 4-petaled florets to cover any thin places.

I happened to have a 14-inch piece of 1/4" dowel on hand, so that's what I used. Paint the dowel (I used a mossy green), let dry, and carefully insert into the ball, being careful to keep it vertical. If you don't, it will go in crooked and your topiary will look lopsided.

Paint your pot, if desired, and let dry. Trim a piece of florist foam (I had some on hand; you could also use styrofoam) so that it fits into the pot very snugly. Mark the center of the foam and insert the dowel - again being careful to keep it vertical.

Attach dried moss to the top of the foam with hot glue. Gather several loops of ribbon with a small piece of wire and twist the wire to hold the ribbon loops in place. Wrap the wire ends tightly around your toothpick and insert the pick into the base of your foam ball, near the dowel. Done!

 The eggplant and mulberry colors in my topiary are inspired from the shower curtain, which has dusty mauve, plum and moss, on an off-white background. You don't have to use hydrangeas, of course, small rosebuds work for this beautifully, but you need a ton of them. The most tedious and time-consuming part is putting the flowers in the styrofoam. I think I spent over an hour doing it - on a 4-inch ball! (Finished ball is about 6 inches across.)