#vintage repurposed

[singsthesparrow]

Ready for the day with my zipper pouch in upcycled vintage floral canvas and vegan leather! Get this and other one-of-a-kind items at singsthesparrow.etsy.com 🌟🌟🌟

[singsthesparrow]

Casual Friday with my thrifted T-shirt, high waist vintage denim (thanks @poshmark !), my necklace from @_harpermade , and my trifold clutch wallet (upcycled from a vintage plaid wool skirt)! Shop small and upcycle often!

[ephemeraobscura]

“DUTCH GIRL IN WOODEN SHOES” - This shadow box in inspired by a photo of an albumen photo of a woman in traditional Dutch costume and wooden shoes.The silvering of the old photo makes her look wonderfully ghostly. A family of wooden shoes under her portrait and thread spindle stalagmites and stalctites on either side, a lace "garland across the top, buttons at the corners and a 1910s Italian newspaper wrapped around the box.

[ephemeraobscura]

“GHOST TOWN” - an assemblage art box inspired by the abandoned mines and ghost towns of the Rocky Mountains.

[ephemeraobscura]

“TREATMENT 33″ - A haunted hospital assemblage. An Edwardian era nurse sits in a bottle lined hospital pharmacy. The treatment administered for this case was #33 the number on the spike stopping the bottle on the far right. This medicine has a curious side affect, it causes patients to glow. (The Frozen Charlotte doll and leg glow in the dark)

[ephemeraobscura]

“SPIDERWEBS” - I found a bag of old spools of thread at the thrift store and immediately wanted to do something spider themed. I spent the day listening to “The Astonishing Legends Podcast” and making this little shadow box. The box is half a repurposed watch box. Frozen Charlotte dolls wrapped in thread are a spider’s captured prey. The back has a scrap from a vintage Vampirella comic book.

[ephemeraobscura]

“HUSH OF MOONLESS NIGHTS” - I had all these ideas but I hadn’t done anything creative in a few days so I sat down in my office to make something. I was listening to some Bowie and trying to think of what to work on but I couldn’t remember any of the projects I had thought of the last time. Then I realized it was because I had cleaned my office. I had put away all the piles of paper, boxes of junk and antique debris that accumulates during art projects. I just needed to make a mess and something would come to me. 

Sure enough today’s mixed media collage was inspired by a damaged portrait of a little girl in a ruffled organza dress, ringlets and hair bow. I knew she needed something on her head to cover up a hole in the portrait. A bit of old lace made the perfect crown so I decided she would be a fairy princess. Her scepter is an old sewing pin, her wings are a shred of marbled book paper and lace scraps. Her “bug” eyes are button snaps that hide more damage. The background is made of a canvas and pressed leather book cover and a page from a Victorian photo album. The poem fragments are from a typed poem I found tucked inside an old book in my collection. “Light and swift in our airy flights~ In the hush of the moonless nights”

[ephemeraobscura]

“WE MUMBLED THE BONES” - this one almost created itself, it fell together so effortlessly. Three Edwardian children wearing bone button masks atop a marbled page from the front of a very old address book. The golden frame comes from a damaged postcard. The background is the cover of a children’s health book. A bit of leather string that used to hold together a photo album at either side. The bit of typing is on tissue paper and are scraps of a poem I found tucked inside an old book in my collection. 

“AND BREATH BY BREATH

         AND DEATH BY DEATH

                          WE FOLLOWED

THE NIGHT FELL AND THE MOON HUNG RED

               WE MUMBLED THE BONES”