Art in the Park, July 17, 2017

 I told Tom about the ten food trucks being set up for the Art in the Park, hoping to entice him into coming with me to this first annual Art in the Park being sponsored by the Tipp City Area Arts Council.  We went, either because of the food trucks or because he wanted to please me...maybe both.

The food trucks were parked on the outer side of the circular drive in the park.  The art booths were set up on the inner side.  People sat around in the center area and listened to music. Seating was either in lawn chairs people brought with them or on the ground.

The community band was playing when we arrived.

We were pleased we came.  The gyros from the food truck were the best I have had in a while.

Later, we stopped at the high school music boosters booth for homemade ice cream.  They told us they are returned from band camp very late last night so they were feeling a bit groggy.  Band camp is held at Rio Grande which is in the far southeastern part of the state.

By the time we finished talking about band camp, the community band had packed up and a local group was setting up.

As we walked about we met friends we hadn't seen for a while.  It is always nice to catch up on the news.  

I was especially happy to see Lilian.  She has been teaching people how to manipulate polymer clay for many years.  I have taken lots of classes from her but she has been having family and health issues this summer so she hasn't been teaching.  I was glad to hear things are going better for her and her family and she is planning to resume teaching.

(We are in the process of reconfiguring our computer so I don't have access to softwear to give you a closer look at the jewelry.  I will add some closeups as soon as I can.)

Since I have a friend who makes "altered books" I was interested in this booth.

The artist cut books in shapes of letters and then decorated them to illustrate the word she created.  Notice the word, TRAVEL, in the background.  I asked her where she found so many books the same size and thickness. She said she recently inherited a huge collection of romance novels.  She wasn't interested in reading them but she does like art, especially mixed media. I wish I had asked her what she used to cut the books.  Do you suppose she used a scroll saw?  What else would do the job?

Chair for Take a Seat Auction Completed

The chair is finished and delivered.  I took this photo with the freezer door in the background in hopes that the cream color of the chair would be more noticeable.  The color is called Golden Mushroom.  The paint is Semi-gloss Latex.

Here is the original chair.  In 1963, Tom and I bought it from a couple who had recently celebrated their fiftieth anniversary and were in the process of downsizing.  At the time, Tom and I had been married a little over a year and were furnishing our first house.  Now we have passed fifty years of marriage so the chair is probably over a hundred years old.

Tom reglued a couple joints, rubbed it down with a deglosser, and applied two coats of spray primer.

Then I took over.  At this point I wrote a blog about the project.  FarSideofFifty suggested cream and deep red.  I had been thinking about using pale turquoise but when I went to the fabric store I kept returning to the two fabrics below.

I decided if I were decorating the chair for our living room, these colors would be my preference.  Thank you, Far Side.  I used the deep red to reupholster the seat pad and used the colors in the pattern as I created my design.

My original thought was to paint a causal design up the back and across the top.

I drew a lot of flower sketches from photographs Tom and I had taken.  I ran off copies in several sizes using the computer.  After trying a variety of designs, I decided that I preferred to have the design only across the top.

I also chose only two of the sketches that I had drawn.

Bleeding Hearts which I drew using this photo for ideas.

This photo is of one of the Asian Lilies in the driveway flowerbed.

The first time I put them together, I came up with this.

But this is the design on the chair.

These are my painting supplies.  When I bought the fabrics, I bought craft paints in what I thought were the "right" colors.  However when I began painting, I did a lot of mixing.  The various mixes are in the small covered plastic containers.  That's being a fussy artist.  The color can't be almost right, it has to be right.

The resulting chair is one that I would be willing to use in my house and that was my goal.

The chairs will be on display in various shops in downtown Tipp City in June and July.  In August, the chairs will be taken down.  They will be auctioned off on August 23.  The money raised will be divided between Tipp-Monroe Community Services and The Tipp City Area Arts Council.

Projects to Finish, No. 2...Take a Seat Chair

Tom and I bought two chairs in 1963, shortly after we bought our first house.  This is one of them.  The chair was already fifty years old.  We bought it from a couple who had been married fifty years and were moving to a smaller home.

We have used both chairs a lot over the years.  They are a bit more narrow than a standard chair so they are useful if one more chair needs to be added to a crowded table.

The chairs are sturdy so Tom and I decided one of them would be fine for the Take a Seat Auction planned as a fund raiser by the Tipp City Area Arts Council.  I agreed to donate a chair last spring and  now it is due by March 1.

However, the finished chairs are to be creations...creative, whimsical, unique, fun.  They can be "functional and for display" or "for display only".  They also are to be designated "outdoor use" or "indoor use".

Tom has done his part, rubbed the chair down with a liquid that acts like sanding to remove the gloss and then given the chair two coats of spray primer.

Now it's my turn.  The thinking process has begun.

Number 1...The background color.  White?  Turquoise?

  Something paler?

I am using Jasc Shop Pro 8.  to make my thumbnail sketches.  This is old software, no longer available but it works fine.

Easy Folded Paper Houses

The Tipp City Area Arts Council sponsored Children's Art Adventures the first Saturday morning in August.  The site was adjacent to the Saturday Morning Farmers' Market.  Early in the morning the rain poured down but by the time people began setting up the day was clearing.  There were about twenty different booths where children  could make art projects. The activities were planned for ages three to thirteen  Tote bags were provided for them to carry their finished projects.  The cost was five dollars to help defray the cost of the supplies.

Most of the booths were on the lawn of the Crossroads Community Church.  Four booths, including mine, were in the all purpose room.  Four helpers and I helped  the children make Folded Paper Houses.

I have no idea where my son and I found this project forty-five years ago.  He had a lot of fun making these little houses.  When I taught first grade, we made them as a class.

The houses are a good project for a wide range of age groups. The basic house can be folded by six year old children but the refinements are endless.  One of my helpers was in junior high and another one was going into high school.  They came up with a variety of ideas as they worked with the young children.

The third helper was a middle-aged man.  He contributed the flower shop as well as the beginnings of a strip mall.   I made Tom's Auto Repair which is a variation of the house.

Helper number four was a grandmother, like me, and helped the very young artists find the roof so they could color it.  Once the preschooler had colored the roof and added doors and windows, she put the houses together for him or her.

Here is the sample house that I taped to the How to Make It poster.  In the background behind the orange truck is another variation of the house.  It is a box store which is a  common type of store today.

This is the How to Make It Poster.

The sample house is in the bottom row, the last sample with a rolled piece of tape and a sample chimney beyond it.

Here is a copy of the directions page  I sent home with the children so they could make more houses at home.  If you click on the picture, it will enlarge enough so you can read the directions.

These little houses are substantial enough for even young children to play with for a day or two if the ends are stapled together.  Taping does not make as sturdy a house. Older children can keep and play with their buildings much longer.  Many of them figured out ways to make 3-D chimneys for their houses.  One taped his house to another square of paper and added a garage and driveway beside his house.  

To make the box store, follow the directions until you get to number nine.  The box store requires only four cuts, the upper cut and the lower cut on each side.

A few houses and little vehicles are shown in the village below.  I made the village streets by attaching black duct tape to a round fabric-backed vinyl  tablecloth.  This makes an almost indestructible  road grid that can be folded and packed away between uses.  This village turned out to be useful . The two year old children played with the cars on the roads while the parents helped the children who were a bit older to complete their houses.

Tipp City Area Arts Council Booth

Last Saturday I manned the Tipp City Arts Council booth at the Farmers' Market. There were fresh produce booths,and also booths where creative people were selling specialty items such as maple syrup and herbs, fresh baked goods, cut flowers, potted plants, jewelry, jams and jellies. One little girl was selling lemonade and her sister was selling seed bead jewelry that she had made.

I saw old friends and met new people.

Tom helped set up my display, then went off shopping. Today we had a stir fry for supper with the summer squash and green beans he bought. Sunday morning he fried French toast using the cinnamon swirl bread he bought and on Saturday for supper we had fresh sweet corn on the cob.