Friday, April 10, 2015

Recycled wood art, but first Week 114's Friday Smiles


I'm once again joining Annie at A Stitch in Time for Friday Smiles.  I have a LOT to be smiling about this week.  Nothing funny like last week, like when Squiggles met his doppelganger, but a few smiles, regardless.

After being peppered two days in a row with hail and 70-80 mph winds (equivalent to an F1 tornado), my hyacinths are still alive, and one even has new growth.  As an aside, there were over 1000 homes that had no electricity for several days because the winds blew electrical poles over in one part of town.  After seeing the devastation on TV, it reminded me of the domino effect.

Perhaps the biggest smile is because not only is Kathy's Kings and Queens altered book finished, I have also scanned each of the nearly 200 decorated pages.  You can see the non-shrinkable plastic I tried to spray paint using some of my crowns for masks.  For this page, I used two buttons from my stash, and a bit of baker's twine I found at the dollar store (3 rolls for $1.00 USD)

Lady Jane Gray, AKA the Nine Day Queen, may never have worn the crown of England, but she got one from me.  I honored her with one of my shrink plastic crowns.

The only page I added that had not been "gifted" me (an oxymoron, I fear) by Kathy when she dumped this project in my lap after announcing whatever I didn't want, just pitch it in the trash, was from a 1937 Encyclopedia.  You can see George, Elizabeth's father is wearing the crown I gave him after his brother Edward abdicated.  The crown looks a bit worse for wear, though, since it looks rather "smeared" in the scan.

Now please join Annie for even more smiles this week.  All I can say is, I'm smiling because I'm glad my Kings and Queens project is finished.  I'll have it on my blog soon I hope.

Now it's time to do a bit of recycling.

Back in my basement studio, I got out my dedicated beeswax crock pot, plugged it in, then waited.   While I waited, I did a load of laundry and hung it on the line.  Yes, it takes that long for this crock pot to melt the beeswax.

I'm not sure why I have no step-out photos of this, because I had a ton of time.  Instead, I concentrated on this project and forgot to take photos.  The piece of wood on the left began with a few leaves I had pressed from the previous year.  I adhered the leaves and flowers using the beeswax.  I then adhered some of my glittery tissue paper also applying it using beeswax.

The wood on the right was left over from when I attempted to repair a strip of wood outside my back patio.  I had already painted it, and it was screaming for me to not throw it away.  Instead, I added three leaves that I had pressed the previous autumn using beeswax in lieu of glue.

I was hoping for a better view of this one,

and a better view of the two together.

Even though I adore my camera (yes, I realize it's not "new" in the true sense of the word, but it's new relative to the previous seven years worth of lousy photos on my blog), there is only so much I can do

in the poor lighting I must contend with in the basement studio.  Although these are not finished pieces, they are started and that was all the time I could spend on this project today.  

Thanks as usual for joining me on this journey.  Your comments mean the world to me.

Today is Day 10 of 22 in which I altered two pieces of scrap wood using beeswax to adhere pressed leaves and flowers.  I also shared three pages in Kathy's Kings and Queens altered book I will give her next week.  And please don't forget to start your weekend off right by visiting Annie for a few Friday Smiles.

20 thoughtful remarks:

Helen said...

I've been struggling to keep up with your frequent posts lately, sorry I haven't managed to comment individually! Glad you've finished the Kings and Queens book, that was quite a challenge.

Annie said...

I sense your relief on finishing your Kings and Queens book....well done you. I love what you've done with the wax and leaves....fab effect.
Have a great weekend.
Hugs,
Annie x

Robyn Oliver said...

Afternoon Elizabeth and happy Friday Smiles... yeah for you having finished the K&Qs project, fabulous effort. Cool idea with the wax, very interesting. Have a wonderful weekend Robyn

pearshapedcrafting said...

Smiles all round.! So glad you have finished Kathy's book(not as happy as you are of course!)These pages look good and love how you used your plastic! Glad to see the hyacinths survived the hailstorms! Best of all your beeswax pieces - they look fabulous and not only that you have reminded me just how much I love the effect it gives! Have a great day! Chrisx

tilly said...

a treasure of a book and all that scanning!
love the wood and leaves, looks great
Tilly

JoZart Designs said...

I bet the Kings & Queens book is really interesting. Thanks for your comment and it was a super week end with Dolores at Donna's "doo". We stayed far out in countryside in the coach house of an old manor house
http://www.wychnorpark.co.uk
parts of it dates to 1500.
Good to see them all and Donna has bought a place to renovate into a home and gites to rent. Lots of work for them but it will be great.
Jo x

froebelsternchen said...

Wow.. you finished that gorgeous project! Congrats! And what fab wax art with the organic feeling!
Fabulous!
Gosh! Such stormy weather?!
Yes we had storms the last time as well .. today I saw that an old nearly 12 meter high tree was completely knocked over togehther with it's roots-
Happy weekend Elizabeth!

johanna said...

love the look of the small banner in the altered book with the crowns on it... and what a good idea to use beeswax as a medium to embed the leaves! gorgeous! i always have a hard time conserving them without breaking them... this is a great solution!

~*~Patty S said...

Beeswax is so much fun and combining it with leaves and wood and paper is a great result E!
We watched reports on the damaging hail storms...looked pretty scary...glad all is well for you now and your blooms made it thru too.
I hear trumpets saluting you on finishing THE royal book!!!
Well done...you are unstoppable and put so much into it. The painted plastic banner looks super as do all of your crowning glories that you've added.
Happy beginning of the weekend.
oxo

~*~Patty S said...

oh and to answer your question about the tea cup and the ocean photo...we had to clean out the ink jets on our Epson printer so I ended up with a couple of images. I layered them just for fun for the photo :-)
Thank you for your visit to my Magpie's Nest and for your always kind words ♥
oxo

Craftymoose Crafts said...

Congrats on finishing the Kings and Queens book! Deadlines can be very helpful! I love the danglies and all the other embellishments you added to the pages!

Glad you didn't have any lasting damage from those storms.

Halle said...

I love the look beeswax gives. Scary about your storms but you do live in Kansas after all. Hang on Toto.
Amazing job with Kathy's book.

Divers and Sundry said...

We had storms/tornadoes/wind predicted for last night, but it all somehow passed us by. And I don't have any blooming plants to protect! I'm glad yours survived their trial-by-weather :)

It's all I can do to make progress in my photo project. You have so much going on. When do you rest! lol

Anonymous said...

200 pages. What a monumental gift. Your friend will LOVE you. Sorry about the wind but happy about the resilience of your plants. xox

505whimsygirl said...

Hi Elizabeth,

It looks like your flowers are bouncing back after a terrible ordeal of wind, rain and hail. I'm itching to plant but they say don't stick anything in the ground until after Mother's Day.

Congrats on getting 200 pages done!! The only crafting I've been doing lately is knitting -- and frogging even more.

Happy Friday Smiles and have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs,
Kay

Krisha said...

"WELL DONE" on finishing Kathy's altered book. It looks fantastic.

I adore the wood pieces with the leaves on them. I've not got into the wax thing............not since making candles years ago, but now you have once again peeked my interest!

I haven't been blogging much over the past week or so. Busy doing "things", but I do need to get caught up on some posts. This week has been crazy and I missed T-day :( there goes my perfect attendance....LOL

Nancy said...

Speaking of kings and queens, you are the queen of altered! I knew your book was a big project, but 200 pages- wow. Well done. And I like your altered wood projects, too. The glitter tissue adds a nice accent.

mamapez5 said...

Your little hyacinths are like the little birds in my post today, much stronger than we give them credit for. I hope you didn´t sustain any real damage in the storm.
I have to confess that your altered books don´t touch me very much, but you obviously really enjoy working with them, so that is something to smile about.
The leaf projects are very interesting. I like the addition of the glitter tissue. I have never worked with beeswax, but I wouldn´t have expected it to take so long to melt! Kate x

massofhair said...

congratulations on completing such a mammoth task Elizabeth, i bet Sally will be very happy with her keepsake when she receives it!

Loving the two arty beeswax pieces very much. Hope you are going to hang them somewhere prominently :-) xxx

Elizabeth said...

Oh dear, Elizabeth, your poor hyacinths ... they look so bedraggled. The storm sounds horrendous. Congratulations on finishing the book - it does look like a mammoth task. I like the leaves caught in beeswax - the texture does show up in the photos and it is lovely :) Elizabeth xx