Something fun, funky and Steampunk

Have you heard of animusic? I hadn't until today and I think it's very Steampunk and fascinating. Here are just a few examples for you to experience.









Enjoy!


Best... Canace

Wow... my name in lights!

Okay, not just my name and not necessarily in lights but it's the next best thing.

Seth Apter of 'The Altered Page' is including me in tomorrow's post (February 25th) of 'Master Class' along with other artists who were asked the question:

'If you could take a class from one artist from anytime in history, including the present, who would it be and why?'

This has been a fun road to follow with all of the poignant questions as well as the opportunity to learn about other artists and their work. Thanks for the opportunity Seth!

I hope you'll pop on over to The Altered Page to view the post.

And don't forget that Seth's solo exhibition and book release reception is March 26th! The details are on his blog.


Best... Canace

Grungy Old Barn Pics

 I mentioned in the previous post that I had acquired the neat old cupboard while taking photographs of an old 1700's house and barn. I thought I'd share some of the pics with you, so put on your play clothes and come walk through the barn with me.

Old whitewashed door

Water paddle for the cows

 I have a few of these paddles waiting for inspiration. Any ideas?

Stairs going to the hay loft

Cobwebs

 There were cobwebs dripping off of everything. It's been so many years since the barn was in use.

Cracked plaster

Doorknob

Door slider

 I totally covet this slider. Hmm... midnight acquisition?  Nahh... too old to sleep in a jail cell.

More texture

Fan with vines

 I think it would be fun to turn the fan on.... no?

Hand hewn beams

 This was the view looking up into the loft. The wood is in pristine condition. What a beautiful house you could design around this lumber!

Hinge

Sign painted over

Up the inside of the silo

 Very echo'y inside the silo. It went up about 60 feet and down another 15. Lots of little doors open into the silo to check on the grain at any level necessary.

 I hope you enjoyed your walk through the barn. Now scrape the cobwebs out of your hair and start thinking of what you might do with these pictures. Personally I took the majority of them for use as textures and backgrounds. Do whatever you like with them. You have my full permission to use them for personal or profit.  Just click on the picture and a larger version will open.

Enjoy!

Best... Canace

Oh my... I've done it again....

Disclaimer: This was totally not my fault.

Here's the story....

A friend of mine invited me to photograph his 1700's house and barns last week. It was great fun rummaging through the barns and through the house. It's a rental property now and is currently empty because of flooding last summer. As a result there was extensive damage to the lower level of the house. Mainly the cellar which had a massive walk-in fireplace. If those walls could talk!

Anyhow....  while exploring the cellar we saw this poor old cupboard up-ended and laying on its side. I suggested he take it home for his wife as it was a sweet old thing. Long story short... he offered it to me as it would only be left there to rot. Well.........  I couldn't possibly let that happen! So, once again, here I am with a new/old cupboard in serious need of help.

Break out the sandpaper!

Poor old  thing... it needed a home

Look at the great crackling!

Ohhh.. and look at that heavy rust!

So here are some picture of the process over the course of 3 days.... 

First a major scrub-down, minor scraping and primer

..didn't want to lose the authentic crackle

 

 

 

Some nice clean white paint

I saw this lovely French advertising graphic on the Graphics Fairy site (Thank you Karen) that needed to be on the front of the door, so I printed it out on 8 sheets of paper and traced it onto the door. This was no easy feat as the wood was very bumpy and crackled.







Here I am painstakingly painting in each and every letter and scroll. (I must be insane)

The #$@! lettering is done!

The hinges are all cleaned and ready to fit

Tons of scraping/sanding/adjusting to get the hinges to fit properly (still insane)

And....



wait for it..............





Tah dah!

I'm really very happy with the results. I sanded the edges and around the handles to give it some age, the door fits beautifully, the drawer slides nicely.. and it's ready to be put in place. (What place?!) Hmmm... that one could take longer than the whole restoration!

Hope you enjoyed the process of yet another rescue.

My name is Canace and I'm addicted to neat old cabinets...

Have a great week!

All best,
Canace

Okay... so I lied....

I had the best possible intentions and truly meant it when I said "I will not bring another cabinet into the studio."

Well..........

Now tell me, who can possibly resist a printers cabinet with 30... count 'em.... THIRTY drawers?! I think part of it is I just love 'rescuing' things... things that other people might consider junk. I love the challenge of cleaning it all up and giving it a new life. So I think under those circumstances it's justifiable .... don't you? Of course I could blame it on the Biff (Janet) who went along with me to look at it. She just kept saying "You've got to get it!" until I weakened and gave in.

It's funny, my husband never says a word (maybe he's scared of me?) when I bring home something that looks like it's definitely had a better day. He just totes it in the house and asks where I want it. 

So here is the new/old printers cabinet that I rescued this past weekend.

During the big clean-up

It was so filthy.. I think with about 60 or 70 years worth of dust... that every single drawer had to be dry mopped outside in the wind, brought in and vacuumed, scrubbed with oil soap and lined with new paper. If you notice, there are very cool little porcelain buttons going down the left side numbering all of the drawers. Love!

Of course my favorite is #3

I can't even begin to tell you how many times I dumped the dirty water and started over.

Ughhh

 

Here I have scraped off all the paper labels. I tried to salvage what I could. One of the drawers was actually labeled 'NY Giants'. I would imagine they did their printing and kept their type separate.

The handles are all original and rather rusty, so I'm one at a time taking them off and dremmeling them clean.

A full day's work and now the 30 drawer baby is in place and getting full. I thought I would stage art projects in the higher drawers and store finished pieces in the lower ones. Can you spot the only 2 handles that I've done so far?

I'm lovin' it!

My name is Canace and I'm addicted to neat old cabinets...