Sunday, May 21, 2006
Seashells by the seashore
I started a craft project when I moved. Over time, I have acquired several printer's drawers. These are wide shallow drawers that hold small slugs of alphabet type used for printing. Generally, each drawer only contains the type sets used for a single style (courier, italic, bold, etc.). Each drawers is sectioned into many small squares to hold type by alphabet letter. A bigger divided section for the "e's" and for the "a's" and smaller squares to hold the "z's".
I had an idea from something I had seen in the movie Goodbye Girl. They had decorated the wall behind a double bed with about 40 of these drawers mounted flat on the wall. This provide about 40,000 small squares to display many small things -- thimbles, doll furniture, miniture books and vases.
My daughter Janel insists putting things into these squares on the wall is a 'control freak' thing for me to do, but I envisioned a wall covered in these drawers displaying a seashell collection. So, I found the drawers, collected the shells and mounted the drawers on the wall, carefully balancing each shell in their appropriately sized square on the wall.
Over time, as each time one of the mounted shadow box like drawers was bumped, a shell would fly to the floor. The fallen shells accumulated under the dressers and into the corners of the bathroom dressing area where I had chosen to mount the drawers on the wall.
When I moved, I carefully packed up all the shells, and their accompanying dust bunnies.
I decided I would finally do this display thing right. I got some wood stain and glossy lacquer finish and stained the drawers and finished them. Then I took a glue gun and piece-by-piece glued each shell into its appropriately sized square. There are about 250 squares for each drawer and I did three drawers this way.
Yesterday, with Michael's help, we mounted these printer's drawers on the bisque colored wall in my bathroom. The drawers are dark cherry with the light colored white-pink shells filling up most of each square. I placed them on the wall right angled to the large dressing mirror. When you stand at the door of the small bathroom, the wall of shells is reflected in the mirror, giving you double the effect.
The seashell is the theme of the space -- on this display wall, in the shelves on the back of the toilet, on the white shower curtin. The black tile floor is covered in salmon-coral-pink rugs and reflects the salmon-coral-pink wall color of the adjoining bedroom. This is the same salmon-coral-pink that is found on some of the inside surfaces of my seashells.
Somehow, looking at a thousand real seashells on my wall is comforting and satisfying to me.
I hope I am not becoming like my mother-in-law who covered (and I DO mean covered) her walls with twig bird nests and perched little paper birds in them.
We also mounted one of my last art pictures -- the teal and white, frosty New England seaside village vista that used to hang over my mother's fireplace.
Now my bedroom walls have --
The small 8"x12" sized iconic "Baptism of Clovis" bathtub baptism that Brendan brought me back from one of his science conference trips. This hangs below my replica of Regulator school pentulum clock.
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?41324+0+0+gg41a
The large 5'x3' victorian picture of the Lady of Shallot hearing the mirror crack of fate as she floats in her rug-covered gondola. She is romantic and has a hint of elfin fantasy about her. She was the favorite of my friend Art (my King Arthur?). He memorized her poem as a child. She reminds me of him.
And now hanging below the Lady is the frosty, crisp New England village of my mother picture. It is low enough on the wall so that small children can see the picture of the village houses and the stark winter tree as they enter my room. My mother did not see creativity in me until one day, she came into my 3rd grade classroom on Parent's Night and saw displayed in pride-of-place, a large colored chalk drawing I had done of a stark tree on a snowy field in winter.
It seems I have no place to hang my large Georgia O'Keeffe Light Iris framed poster, so it leans against the wall in my walk-in closet. I may hang it in there (sigh).
The Rembrandt 3'x5' print is hanging on the only wall space in the living room area, next the the window. She is the Young Girl at Open Half Door, and her sideways look seems to fit the space. All the other walls in that area are covered in books. She looks like she is looking around to see if it is safe to push open the lower door half and come into the living room with us.
I have my Blue Mountain pottery (BMP) collection on top of the bookshelves in my bedroom. The theme of this collection is 'things having to do with water'. I have 4 large trout, 4 dolphins, 2 turtles, 1 frog, 1 deer (water?) and 4 pitchers (ewers?), and 3 spitoon-sort-of-shaped vases. The canadian factory that produced these ceramics has gone out of business so they are collectable and ebay has a pretty good selection. I have all the larger pieces and I don't much care for the small pieces in the collection, so I have avoided acquiring them.
The four fish are striped bass (morone saxatilis). These type of fish are special to me as they were the indicator fish we used for the 316(b) Clean Water Act compliance reports that I worked on for four years at Pacific Gas and Electric research center in San Ramon. We measured entrainment, impingment and fertility for these fish all over the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento River areas. Once these fish were in the pottery collection, the other pieces were picked to fit around them.
My bedroom is painted salmon-coral-pink and these unusally dripped glazed green-teal-dark brown/black ceramics show well in contrast.
So there is my color palette -- coral, teal, navy, bisque. The theme is water and seashells -- baptism, cypress over the bay, lady floating in creek, a village by the sea, fish, turtles and a frog. Each piece has meaning for me.
I had an idea from something I had seen in the movie Goodbye Girl. They had decorated the wall behind a double bed with about 40 of these drawers mounted flat on the wall. This provide about 40,000 small squares to display many small things -- thimbles, doll furniture, miniture books and vases.
My daughter Janel insists putting things into these squares on the wall is a 'control freak' thing for me to do, but I envisioned a wall covered in these drawers displaying a seashell collection. So, I found the drawers, collected the shells and mounted the drawers on the wall, carefully balancing each shell in their appropriately sized square on the wall.
Over time, as each time one of the mounted shadow box like drawers was bumped, a shell would fly to the floor. The fallen shells accumulated under the dressers and into the corners of the bathroom dressing area where I had chosen to mount the drawers on the wall.
When I moved, I carefully packed up all the shells, and their accompanying dust bunnies.
I decided I would finally do this display thing right. I got some wood stain and glossy lacquer finish and stained the drawers and finished them. Then I took a glue gun and piece-by-piece glued each shell into its appropriately sized square. There are about 250 squares for each drawer and I did three drawers this way.
Yesterday, with Michael's help, we mounted these printer's drawers on the bisque colored wall in my bathroom. The drawers are dark cherry with the light colored white-pink shells filling up most of each square. I placed them on the wall right angled to the large dressing mirror. When you stand at the door of the small bathroom, the wall of shells is reflected in the mirror, giving you double the effect.
The seashell is the theme of the space -- on this display wall, in the shelves on the back of the toilet, on the white shower curtin. The black tile floor is covered in salmon-coral-pink rugs and reflects the salmon-coral-pink wall color of the adjoining bedroom. This is the same salmon-coral-pink that is found on some of the inside surfaces of my seashells.
Somehow, looking at a thousand real seashells on my wall is comforting and satisfying to me.
I hope I am not becoming like my mother-in-law who covered (and I DO mean covered) her walls with twig bird nests and perched little paper birds in them.
We also mounted one of my last art pictures -- the teal and white, frosty New England seaside village vista that used to hang over my mother's fireplace.
Now my bedroom walls have --
The small 8"x12" sized iconic "Baptism of Clovis" bathtub baptism that Brendan brought me back from one of his science conference trips. This hangs below my replica of Regulator school pentulum clock.
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?41324+0+0+gg41a
These two things are on the wall beside the 5'x8' mirror that hangs over my bed as a sort of headboard.
Brenden said he picked this picture for me because it depicted a totally naked King Clovis standing in the baptismal font in front of about 100 courtiers and the presiding pontif. Brendan said he thought I was one of those people who could stand in front of a crowd totally naked and carry it off in both a regal and humble manner. He said I was the sort person who never could hide or keep a secret. He thought it represented me as a person 'starting off', unknowing but trying to understand, with inherent power to lead and persuade. Perhaps he was right. Clovis was the first Christian king of France. (the original is National Gallery of Art by the Master of St. Giles)
The large 3'x5' impressionistic lavendar cypress wind swept above the fog bound west coast bay. This used to hang over my desk in my office in Pleasanton. This now hangs over one of my dark cherry dressers on the wall space between the closet and bathroom doors. This is a glimpse of a coastal bay as the fog lifts. The tree stands as a sentinal, deeply rooted, self sufficient, strong but airy and high on the cliff vista, impervious to any foul weather.
The large 5'x3' victorian picture of the Lady of Shallot hearing the mirror crack of fate as she floats in her rug-covered gondola. She is romantic and has a hint of elfin fantasy about her. She was the favorite of my friend Art (my King Arthur?). He memorized her poem as a child. She reminds me of him.
And now hanging below the Lady is the frosty, crisp New England village of my mother picture. It is low enough on the wall so that small children can see the picture of the village houses and the stark winter tree as they enter my room. My mother did not see creativity in me until one day, she came into my 3rd grade classroom on Parent's Night and saw displayed in pride-of-place, a large colored chalk drawing I had done of a stark tree on a snowy field in winter.
It was a stunning, well-balance picture of a tree standing in a field near a wooden shed wall. She took it home and framed it. It hung in the hall of our house for many years. It is lost now in the dust of time.
When my mother went to France to tour, she brought back four Parisian watercolor drawings that she had matted and framed. These four hung over her fireplace and round the rest of the wall in her living room. My younger sister had room to take only three of these pictures when we broke up my mother's house after my step-father died. I took this one because it reminded me of my drawing as I am sure it also did for my mother.
Hiding behind the dresser, waiting for kitchen unpacking, are two of the three japanese-style precise bird portraits, matted to perfection in salmon-coral-pink and bisque. The third picture of the set is hiding in a kitchen box and has a frame that is broken that I must get repaired to finish off my final art hangings.
When my mother went to France to tour, she brought back four Parisian watercolor drawings that she had matted and framed. These four hung over her fireplace and round the rest of the wall in her living room. My younger sister had room to take only three of these pictures when we broke up my mother's house after my step-father died. I took this one because it reminded me of my drawing as I am sure it also did for my mother.
Hiding behind the dresser, waiting for kitchen unpacking, are two of the three japanese-style precise bird portraits, matted to perfection in salmon-coral-pink and bisque. The third picture of the set is hiding in a kitchen box and has a frame that is broken that I must get repaired to finish off my final art hangings.
It seems I have no place to hang my large Georgia O'Keeffe Light Iris framed poster, so it leans against the wall in my walk-in closet. I may hang it in there (sigh).
The Rembrandt 3'x5' print is hanging on the only wall space in the living room area, next the the window. She is the Young Girl at Open Half Door, and her sideways look seems to fit the space. All the other walls in that area are covered in books. She looks like she is looking around to see if it is safe to push open the lower door half and come into the living room with us.
I have my Blue Mountain pottery (BMP) collection on top of the bookshelves in my bedroom. The theme of this collection is 'things having to do with water'. I have 4 large trout, 4 dolphins, 2 turtles, 1 frog, 1 deer (water?) and 4 pitchers (ewers?), and 3 spitoon-sort-of-shaped vases. The canadian factory that produced these ceramics has gone out of business so they are collectable and ebay has a pretty good selection. I have all the larger pieces and I don't much care for the small pieces in the collection, so I have avoided acquiring them.
The four fish are striped bass (morone saxatilis). These type of fish are special to me as they were the indicator fish we used for the 316(b) Clean Water Act compliance reports that I worked on for four years at Pacific Gas and Electric research center in San Ramon. We measured entrainment, impingment and fertility for these fish all over the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento River areas. Once these fish were in the pottery collection, the other pieces were picked to fit around them.
My bedroom is painted salmon-coral-pink and these unusally dripped glazed green-teal-dark brown/black ceramics show well in contrast.
So there is my color palette -- coral, teal, navy, bisque. The theme is water and seashells -- baptism, cypress over the bay, lady floating in creek, a village by the sea, fish, turtles and a frog. Each piece has meaning for me.
Now when you visit me, perhaps you will understand why I collected them?
# posted by Dornar @ 3:16 PM 
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I would love to see a picture of the seashell project you did. I have a large seashell collection - much of it from my grandmother - that I am now working through and thinking of ways to display. I will place some of the large seashells on a high alcove, but your drawer on the wall idea sounds great.
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