Testing the Laundry: An assemblage

This is an assemblage for my dear friend and neighbor, Sally, whose birthday is tomorrow (the 28th). Now truthfully, my friend Sally doesn't like most of what I make. She doesn't really understand Altered Art. Everything I make for special people is individualized. I try to tailor the piece to their liking, so this was my thought process for this piece.

Last year, I was helping Sally clean her garage, when we ran onto some old blank test forms (she was a school psychologist before she retired). She wanted to pitch them and I begged her for two sheets from each test before she did. I promised she would like what I made her and no one would ever know what tests they were from.

I have a clothes line where I hang my laundry each year once the weather gets nice enough. She thought hanging laundry was "romantic" and she often said she would like a clothes line because it brought back memories of her early married years. I thought this would probably last one or two times, since hanging laundry is not the easiest, especially when you have king sized sheets like she has.

Sally loves flowers, clothes, and primary colors. Her favorite color is green. Knowing all this, I went to the internet and found patterns of blouses and skirts, since I'm not an artist and would never have been able to draw even these simple shapes. I ran the test forms through my printer and cut them out. I added dimensional magic to one of the skirts and painted several of the tiny clothes pins dark green to match the frame, which I also painted, then added gold leaf around the inside. I also used glazes on some of the blouses, since the laundry needed a bit of color diversity.

I dyed the paper towel in blues and greens, then punched out a bunch of flower shapes from the forms. I used raffia for the clothes line and added the blouses and skirts. To round out the "wash," I cut a piece of red felt to symbolize a towel.
I know my camera sucks, but I hope you can get an idea of the piece. Today I finished the piece, which includes finishing the back: adding the title and a hanger. I guess I'll know tomorrow what Sally thinks of the completed piece.