Circadian

As promised in the last post, I’m continuing with artwork created on old LP’s.  Today’s piece began as all the others shown here, stacked and waiting for some creativity to find them. It is actually the one on the top of the pile, that’s been spray painted with hammered metal color paint.

Different from the last post, there are no magazine pages. Instead,  I began by outlining the record onto a piece of watercolor paper and drawing a mandala with that circle. On one side was the drawing, on the other side I had fun with some abstract painting of watercolors.

Once the paint was dry I began the tedious task of cutting out tiny areas of the mandala so that, once attached, the record would show through.  Yes, these images show some pink & brown instead. That’s my pretty cutting board and my work table. 🙂

After all the cutting was done the paper was attached to the record and extra drawing, ink and glass pieces were added to it for some dimension.

The final step creating “Circadian” was to add the mechanism and hands to transform it into a work clock. Viola!

“Circadian” © Lynne Medsker

Hmmmm. I wonder what the next piece will look like? You’ll find out in a few days!

Lynne

 

Conversion

“Conversion” mixed media (repurposed metal on wood) © Lynne Medsker

During the next few blog posts I’ll be sharing artwork created from reclaimed metal from a large file cabinet that had been discarded. The first step was to cut apart the cabinet into managable pieces! Once that was done then I drew the design and cut out each of the smaller pieces with a plasma cutter.

Shapes, cut & numbered

Laid out for painting

Spray paint applied

Hammered metal spray paint

After cleaning them up a bit they were spray painted in various colors and then re-assembled & glued onto wood panels.  Decorative nails were used to help secure the piece and add extra detail.

Glue & Nails

Almost finished!

The three circles were mounted on different thicknesses of wood pieces to add depth to the overall image. This piece and the upcoming “Pathway” are both the same size piece, approximately 12 x 36″ each. Currently they are on display at Artistic Designs Gallery in Brownsburg, Indiana.

Something fishy

Back in the fall, during my unintentional blog hiatus, I created several new pieces of whimsical art using scrap wood pieces, old dictionary pages and ink. They were fun! I have ideas for more pieces in this style once I get back into the studio. Today I’m sharing one of my favorite pieces from the batch I created.  It began with one of these pieces of wood, the backgrounds painted with acrylic:

Add some torn paper shapes:

 

Then lots of ink details and DONE!

Fishy © Lynne Medsker

Just for fun I left some of the paper un-attached to the surface to make the pieces more dimensional, in this instance the fin on his side!

Lynne

P.S. If you’d like to see this, and other creations, in person they are located at ProArt Gallery in Greenwood, Indiana!

LAST CHANCE SALE!

Special pricing on these beautiful wall sculptures and metal art pieces. I really hate to part with some of these – a few are even hanging in my living room. BUT, moving them would be hard work too so you get to take advantage with these prices at are 75% off!! There are over a dozen beautiful pieces show on the sale page of my website –  here are a few samples!

Was $795, now 195!

Was $695, now 150

Was $345, now 85

All the details on how to purchase these (and other) pieces are on the website, click the link above to go directly to that page.

Happy Shopping!
Lynne

Keep on Rollin’

Many hours of April and May have been spent rolling up magazine pages in varieous shapes and sizes for upcycled artwork. When I’ve been busy working on other projects I’ve had others helping with this project as well.  I’ll never look at magazines the same!

When I began in April the bulk of what I worked on were paper beads…

I’ve had to abandon that project for now but at least have a good “stash” started. When I begin to show images of the work created for the upcoming show look for these magazine pages to show up frequently!

Exploring: Fun

The last two posts have been about the wonderful “IDEA Store” in Champaign, Illinois. Today I will share the original reason for my trip there – a workshop! Presented by artist Michelle Stitzlein, aimed at those who create art with children, we re-purposed plastic lids into creative works of art.

plastic lid assortment

Each person was given a 24×24″ piece of plywood to work on, which we first painted with a layer of paint as we pleased. Since we’d be working with round shapes there would be areas of the background that would probably peek through so this made a much better background than just plain wood. Once the paint dried then we began to arrange the lids into whatever pattern we desired. Look at the assortment of lids we had to choose from:

I think I started and stopped arranging at least three times before mine finally began to take shape like I wanted it to!

After it was  arranged then the hard work started: DRILLING. It was about this time I realized that larger caps equaled less drilling, but it was a bit too late. Good information for future projects though! 🙂 Needless to say, I did NOT get everything drilled to the board before time ran out.

Progress made before class finished

I’m pretty sure my design changed between removing it for transport and re-assembling it when I got back to the studio.

“Fun” 24×24″ mixed media art on wood © 2013, Lynne Medsker

But that’s okay, I like the way it turned out! I think this would be a really fun piece to hang in a kids room or at a daycare, peditricians office, etc. Bright, cheerful and eco-friendly! Here’s a detail shot:

detail from “Fun” © Lynne Medsker

It really gave me lots of ideas for future projects and other materials that could be used to create with. Fun, indeed!

Lynne

New Treasures

In my last post I told you I would share images of some of the fun treasures I acquired at The IDEA Store in Champaign, Illinois. Today’s the day!

Magazines sold by the pound

Upolstery sample book – 75 cents!

Maps, pages, lettering by the pound

In additional to fun things to use for art projects they also had functional items like these:

CD covers, stencils, small storage bottles

Then there were just so many odds & ends, old & new, to sort through!

old stamps, old watch piece, old compasses

electronic parts, assorted metal pieces

old wood (perhaps from disassembled desks?), old clothes pins, rust metal pieces

Slides, various dominoes, beads from jewelry, tacks, metal buttons, alphabet tags, glass tiles

I’m sure five artists could visit there and come away with five entirely different bags full of things.

So, who wants to go there for a field trip?

Lynne

Exploring: The Idea Store

Earlier this month I took a trip over to Champaign, Illinois to visit “The Idea Store” and attend a workshop.

Oh. My. Goodness. It was a repurposing/upcycling/treasure paradise! I’m already plotting on another trip to forage for goodies. Rows and rows full of tubs, barrels, baskets and shelves holding an array of goodies the likes of which I’ve never seen. I’m sure I stood there with my mouth gapping open!

Items were priced either by the piece or by the pound, depending on what they were.  I really couldn’t gauge how it all would work out but I ended up spending a lot less than I anticipated. That’s always a nice surprise! After almost three hours of foraging I left with two bags full of fun stuff.

bags full o’ goodies

I’m saving images of my treasures for the next post. I’ll also share a post soon of the fun upcycled project that we worked on at the workshop!

Stay tuned,

Lynne

March Open Studio!

Collage, 4.25 x 5.5″ from magazine pages

Just a reminder that this Saturday, March 9th, is the next Second Saturday Open Studio date! The doors are open and I’ll be waiting to see you between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. that afternoon. As with the last two months I’ll have a special “make & take” project for visitors of all ages to participate in. For March I’ll have a station set up for creating collages from magazine pages. I spend some time Monday afternoon making the sample piece, above, to share with you. Here are the step-by-step images of the collage piece being made:

base pieces for collage

sketch of possible shapes

beginning to add magazine pages

more magazine pages added

all pages glued down waiting to dry before adding marker & embellishments

The other even for Saturday is a “Share & Win” contest for all the visitors. I am focusing more & more on creating art from used materials and could use your help with some projects I am working on. Bring a donation of one (or more) item listed below and you will be entered to win a piece of art created specifically for you!

Plastic lids, any shape/size (think milk carton, pop and drink caps – screw on lids from peanut butter or other jars – plastic lids from butter tubs, cans of nuts, etc. – lids from hairspray, deodorant, laundry soap, etc.)

assorted plastic lids

Cardboard or “chipboard” (cereal boxes, etc.) unwanted magazines or books, sheet music, gift wrap, maps

Old games, game boards or pieces, playing cards

Earrings with no matches, broken jewelry (especially if it has beads!), broken watches or clocks

Leftover materials from do-it-yourself projects – Nails, screws, pieces, parts, washers, etc.

Larger items: Scraps of plywood (or other wood), unwanted metal shelving or file cabinets

I’m sure there are many things I didn’t even think to list so if you’ve got something cool to share, bring it!

Can’t wait to see you Saturday!

Lynne

Upcycled/Recycled

Not long ago I blogged about trying to help the “green” effort with materials in my studio and hinted that I’d been getting creative with some of those materials. Today I’m going to show you some of the items I’ve created and what they are made of!

aluminum covered shipping envelope material with copper nuggets attached, $15 © Lynne Medsker

finished pieces, ready to assemble

I love to explore something new and this idea had been bouncing around in my head a while until I couldn’t contain it any more.

Earrings created from plastic drink bottle, old necklace parts and red stones, $15 pair © Lynne Medsker

Earrings from recycled/upcycled materials? Oh, yeah. I made a few pair from plastic drinking bottles to see if it would work (and it did!) and the rest of this initial group were made by covering old packaging/shipping envelops with aluminum.

shapes cut from packing envelope, ready to be covered with aluminum and colored

Earrings from packaging envelopes and old book pages, SOLD © Lynne Medsker

Since that time I am looking at every container that comes through the house as potential supplies. 🙂

materials waiting to be transformed

I’ve got a nice pile of “almost ready” pieces for the next batch of earrings, including these painted book pages that are sandwiched between pieces of packaging plastic.

I’ve been wearing one pair and they are fabulously lightweight, which I love! And the compliments aren’t bad either. I’m thinking this may be a potential new class for me to teach, anyone interested?

Lynne