A collection of twenty-nine vintage cement lawn turtles with shells of grouted beach glass retrieved from Glass Beach in Kauai. Glass Beach is the site of a very old community dump that was active from the late 1800s to the 1960s when it was shut down. Because it was the site of a dump, unusual beach glass treasures can be found there including ceramic sockets, antique Clorox bottles, pieces of old glass fishing floats, porcelain doll parts, resistors, spark plugs, antique pottery, china, and glass.
The turtles range in size from 33” x 22” x 16” (largest) to 5” x 3.5” x 2” (smallest).
Comic book hero, Flash Gordon’s 1930s toy wagon, wooden rabbit, vintage tin toy driver, metal steampunk egg, old jewelry chains and an antique heart shaped clock weight.
15” x 3” x 7”
Recording Academy membership card (given to me by family friend, Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills and Nash), Graham Nash’s personalized guitar picks, an antique Nipper the Dog RCA bank, a vintage folk art box, with letters applied in ink from an antique printing kit.
5.5“ x 4“ x 9“
1950s tin doll house parts applied with brass brads to an old garage cabinet, Dayton brass letters from 1910, antique zinc letters, paint stir stick and tassels
When we cleaned out my parents’ house, I found my childhood dollhouse in the basement. The floor was completely rusty but I wanted to preserve it. I used three additional dollhouses in the piece. Each panel illustrates a lyric from the song, “Our House”, that relates to the dollhouse parts. For example, “I’ll light the fire…” has fireplaces from the dollhouses. The composer of the song, Graham Nash is a family friend. He gave me the zinc letters, and the stir stick was used when they were painting their house. I found it on Christmas Eve when we were visiting and the tassel was from their Christmas gift to us. So that little side art piece is called “Not a Creature Was Stirring.”
36”x 24” x 29
Our house is a very very very fine house.
“I'll light the fire, while you place the flowers in the vase that you bought today.”
“Come to me now and rest your head for just five minutes, everything is good.
Such a cozy room,
The windows are illuminated by the evening sunshine through them,
Fiery gems for you, only for you.”
Hotel key cards, 1950s plastic letters for personalizing handbags, backstage laminate/passes from Crosby, Stills, and Nash concerts, hotel room keys, Graham Nash’s personal guitar picks, address label, and Graham Nash signature.
Graham gave me the hotel keys/backstage passes from a road tour and challenged me to make something out of them. The first thing that came to mind was a “House of Cards” and then because the group was on the road, I thought of “Road House”.
4” x 2” x 9”
Hand painted signs and birdhouse from Banana Joe’s fruit stand in Kauai, 1940s folk art mermaid and Hawaiian girl plaque, vintage copper banana handles and hardware on a handmade redwood cabinet with words impressed from a set of antique letter punches.
38“ x 22 “ x 96“
When we visit Kauai, we often stop at Banana Joe’s, a great local fruit stand, to get strawberry papaya, apple bananas, and other yummy tropical fruits. One day I noticed one of Joe’s handmade signs laying on the ground broken in half. I asked him if I could buy it for an art project. He said he had some around the back that he would sell me. So I bought these signs for $5 each, as well as, the birdhouse that was starting to come apart. My nephew, Jay Ratcliff, and I built the cupboard. I was amazed to find banana door pulls at a designer’s yard sale in West Hollywood. The 1940s cabinet hardware is from Liz’s Antique Hardware, and I made the words with a set of antique metal punch letters.
Vintage and contemporary pencils, old advertising yardsticks, wooden spools, and carpenter pencils applied to a custom made dresser that was an end of school year gift from my students, class of 2002.
I read a book about museum quality Adirondack twig furniture. I loved the designs that were made with twigs of contrasting colors. Panels in the furniture featured stars, hearts, flower baskets and traditional quilt designs. I started searching for straight twigs so I could make my own piece. There must be a certain kind of willow that is used for furniture because after searching for quite some time, I never found any straight twigs. One day at school, I noticed pencils in the trash that had been thrown away because the erasers were gone. I realized that they were the same size as the twigs and could be used to make my furniture piece. Even better, they came in colors and had logos that made them a kind of time capsule of the pop culture of the period. So, I put a “recycle pencil box” in every classroom in the lower school. One of my room moms asked me what I was going to do with the pencils, and I told here I wanted to make a dresser for my bedroom. When school ended that year, she had arranged with the class to have a furniture maker build a custom dresser for the project as a surprise gift.
34” x 18” x 49”
Vintage “shop art” made in garages and industrial arts classes in the 1930s-1950s (including door stops, bookends, toys, games, smoking stands, match holders, yard art, key holders, and folk art sculptures), and recycled vintage broom handles applied to a wooden frame.
92” x 62” x 92”
Chalkware head from the 1930s, doll wardrobe from the 1950s, Dayton brass letters from 1910, vintage rhinestones, and gold leaf.
6” x 4” x 10”
Vintage, chalkware Kewpie doll bank, 1927 salesman sample hat from Frank H. Lee Company, antique folk art spool box, inked letters using vintage printer’s kit.
13” x 8” x 19”
Vintage copper heating shell from the 1940s, turn of the century German Minerva tin doll head, vintage rhinestone jewelry, wooden folk art wings, and brass Dayton letters from 1910.
10“ x 6“ x 13“
Antique wooden sculpture, vintage checkerboard, folk art hand-carved cabinet, found objects, and personal family treasures. This piece is a sort of scrapbook of the memories of my life. For example, my grandma’s necklace with charms for each grandchild is hanging from the skirt, as is the nameplate from my college dorm room, and a comb from my uncle’s barbershop. I keep adding meaningful objects as I find them so I don’t think this piece will ever be finished.
17’ x 17” x 65”
Antique egg crate/cardboard liner, vintage Minnie Mouse egg cup from the 1930s, and an antique glass egg that was once placed in the nesting box by chicken farmers to induce the hens to lay eggs.
6.5” x 3” x 8.5”
Wooden clock case, articulated wooden art doll by dollmaker Robert Raikes, rhinestone jewelry, beaded Ramo ribbon (my nickname), Dayton Company brass letters from 1910, art related charms and doodads.
11” x 6” x 23”
Gilded and vintage wooden Catholic shrine, statues, charms, and symbols from all the major religions of the world, and Dayton brass letters from 1910.
21” x 4.5” x 21”
Vintage hula girl lamp from the home of Susan and Graham Nash (It had been knocked over and was broken.) and 1940s/1950s sterling silver charms and charm bracelet chains with a Hawaiian theme.
7” x 7” x 17”
Grouted vintage china applied to a cement lawn dog. Much of the blue and white china is from a pattern called Liberty Blue. It was given away in grocery stores as a premium during the bicentennial year, l976. The scenes depict famous events in American history like Betsy Ross making the flag, Washington crossing the Delaware, and Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride. The dog’s nose is the top knob of the sugar bowl from the set. The eagle on the base is a vintage handmade tile. The stars and stripes around the base were from dinner plates that I found at a yard sale. White figurines include a colonial gentleman and two angel dogs. The name of the piece is inspired by the Lobo song “Me and You and a Dog Named Boo” and the country songs about bluetick coonhound dogs popular in the southern US. A popular name for this breed of dog is ”Blue”.
20” x 11” x 29”