In looking at my past blogs, I am embarrassed at how long it has been since I spent some time to write a new blog. Either I have been sick, feeling good; or I have done too much golf and fishing, unfortunately not enough; or I have been real lazy - BINGO. I have tried to keep involved with creating new stuff, along with my old wood creations. I still love the old, but I have a tendency to get bored and need to try new things. Well, here are some of my new "adventures."
I had some excess pieces of cypress and black walnut. Rather than throwing them away, I said let's try frames. How to do this - bring up uTube tutorials and get advice from my carpenter son Eric. He made me a frame gig and here is what came out of it.
Cypress and reclaimed frames
Black walnut frame for Mark's water color
Pecky cypress frame for Gary's oil painting
Cypress and black walnut frames.
Cypress frame for Mark's rooster water color. Against a pecky cypress kitchen backsplash
Now that I had a garage full of frames, that fortunately got sold off, what could we conjure up next? Summer of 2014 when in MN, I was doing crafts with my granddaughter Sophia and grandson Nick. Sia has a rock tumbler and Nick suggested we tumble broken glass and make something. Well, we started breaking heavy glass obtained from friends and rummage sales and putting them in the rock tumbler. The result was a surprise. The broken edges were smooth and could definitely be made into something. Then I left for Florida and the kids to school. I showed this glass to my creative Destin buddy Mark. We bought a large rock tumbler and started tumbling broken liquor bottle glass for longer periods. BINGO again. They turned into replicas of etched sea glass. Now we have a bunch of Miramar faux sea glass. What to do? Let's go into the jewelry business. Bring up uTube again. Then I had my good artist friend Velda paint Chinese life symbols on the sea glass. I made the silver connections and bought some chain from China. BINGO - Sea Glass necklaces.
Mark and Gabby with "high production" rock tumbler
New batch of Miramar Sea Glass
Sea glass necklaces made for a friend's family with FRIENDSHIP symbol
Various necklace colors with Chinese life symbols and silver chain
Painted sea glass ready for silver chains
Miramar sea glass, hand made silver connector, symbol of LOVE.
OK, now with a garage full of frames and sea glass, there is still room for something else before getting back into the wood creations. The doc said I needed a hip replacement before lifting more cypress. I know - big woosy. So, back to a little jewelry making. Silk ribbon is not too heavy to lift. A friend showed me some dyed silk ribbon she bought in Maui for necklaces. I love the colors and casualness of using them as a necklace cord or bracelet wrap. So, I picked up some silver beads, went onto uTube again, and the result is dyed silk ribbon wrap bracelets with silver beads. What a fun thing and the ribbons come in many colors. Can even use thinner Christmas wrapping ribbon - you know the stuff sitting in that box in the attic from previous Christmases that never got used.
Different color hand dyed silk ribbons
Silk ribbon necklace with sea glass pendant
Leather wrap bracelet
Multi colored silk ribbon wrap bracelet with silver beads
Multi color silk ribbon wrap bracelet with silver beads.
OK, I did do a little cypress work, making some tables and these lazy susans.
Me and a couple of 16" lazy susans
Pecky cypress lazy susans - 14" diameter with turntable.
So, as you can see, I have somehow kept busy creating stuff. I have found it to be very interesting - once a person starts being creative with the blinders off, real new possibilities seem to pop up. Not all are realistic or sane,but the creative juices are flowing. Just around the corner might be a new idea and adventure. Go for it.
Have fun creating. Never say NO it can't be done. If Edison believed this, we would still be using candles.
"When I meet a dreamer with calluses, I try to sit up and listen."
John "Gabby" Gabrielson
johngabrielson5@gmail.com
Natural Creations.
www.naturalcreations.me
612-816-5378
