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Mundane Monday::Bread Tabs

March 14, 2011 by Heather Filed Under: Art & Design, Inspiration & Education 4 Comments

To continue my post about collecting and using Mundane items in craft and art I’ll share with you a little project I began earlier this year.

I’m an artist and therefore I’m a collector (I don’t really know any artists who don’t collect SOMETHING odd or beautiful!).

Starting with stickers and stuffed animals in childhood I’ve now elevated some of my collections to things a bit more valuable but sometimes I love to collect the “Mundane”.  These types of collections usually begin with an idea or something that sparks my interest, visually or otherwise and it runs its course, I explore the possiblity and eventually let go of the collection.  Thank goodness for that because I’d probably be considered a “Hoarder” if I held onto everything that ever caught my fancy or sparked a creative idea!

So, I’ve been collecting these little colorful plastic bread tabs (tags, clips, whatever you call them) for about 2 years now, maybe even 3.  My friends and family have also been collecting little stashes of them for me.   They are always asking if I’ve started to use them yet.  “What are you doing with these again?”  “Oh, I’m not sure yet.” I say…”I’ll use them in some art project.”  Well, I finally am!  I was inspired to start playing with them about a month ago.   I love the colors and the shapes and I can’t even tell you where all I’ve found them.  Most recently I found a whole bunch at the county fairgrounds imbedded in the partially frozen gravel and dirt.  No, I didn’t sit there and chip away to get every last one but I got a few.   Like anything, once you begin looking you will see them all around.  I feel I’m picking up the currency of a future piece of artwork when I find one and this series of work is titled “Our Daily Bread”.

Here are a some of the works I’ve created so far.  They are really just studies and play, experimentation with something mundane to see where it will lead.  It may lead to more experimentation and it may lead me to a larger work, design or collection of work.  For now, I’m enjoying the “mundane” possibilities.

I’m very interested in not only exploring the form/shapes and colors but also some more esoteric meaning I’ve begun to associate with these bread tabs.  The title of the series “Our Daily Bread” refers to a Christian passage in the bible (Matthew 6:11) but I’m not really exploring anything associate with religion here.  What I am exploring are the practices of breaking bread, sharing meals and the issues surrounding food and agricultural shortage around the world and found currency.   If you have any thoughts you would like to share or comments about this new project please leave them here!

Do you collect anything “Mundane”?

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Mundane Materials-Rubber Bands

March 7, 2011 by Heather Filed Under: Art, Inspiration & Education 6 Comments

Rubber Bands may be considered by some to be mundane because they are used for all sorts of everyday things.  They stretch, they hold things together, they bunch up, they come in many colors and they can be spotted these days being used in lots of unconventional ways.  Here is a round up of some of the unusual rubber band findings including jewelry, vessels or containers some beautiful artwork!

Painted Desert Ring by Margarita Mileva

Floral Pin by Margarita Mileva

The three pieces above are examples of work by M2-Margarita Mileva of Milev Architects where her work explores “opportunity to experiment with new design challenges, ideas, materials and forms” as seen through the eyes of an architect.  Fabulous, don’t you think?  She is certainly someone who stands out as truly innovative.

Fine Rubber Bands by RuRong

Rong Rubber Band Necklace

The two pieces of Jewelry above are by a former SCAD student who’s work I saw at the ACC show in Baltimore (2010).  I did some research and found out she is a Metals/Jewelry major and is origionally from China.  Her work may or may not be available for sale but you can get in touch with her via her Flickr account.  I love how she uses rubber bands in such an elegant way by combining them with more precious materials.

Red Rubber Band Ring by Colleen Baran

The two rings above are by Jewelry artist and designer Colleen Baran.  She blogs about her Ring A Day project over at her blog SeeSeeBe.  Check it out, she’s got some wacky and cool rings (and other stuff).

Rubber Band Cube by An Pham

Rubber Band Cube by An Pham

These two pieces of artwork are by an artist I came across on Flickr; An Pham.  I don’t really know much more about her work but she explores using other ever day materials in her artwork as well.

Rubber Band Digital Art by Patrick Gunderson

Long Woven Earrings by Amila Hrustic

Woven Earrings by Amila Hrustic

Necklace by Christian Diehl

Each one of these artist works with rubber bands as well as other materials, sometimes digital, sometimes photography, architecture or landscape.  The work they do explores the possibility available to each of us in what we might consider Mundane materials.  Seeing beyond the mundane to the possibilities is what makes these artist work so interesting.

What materials do you consider Mundane but worth exploring? Next week I’ll share with you a new project I’ve begun which explores the use of the “Mundane” plastic bread tabs that comes on our bread bags.

Field Trip Flavors of France

February 11, 2011 by Heather Filed Under: Home, Inspiration & Education, Photography 2 Comments

Since I didn’t get very far last week I’m happy to bring you a bit more of France today sharing, some of the great food experiences we had and saw in Provence.

I was completely in love with the French markets.  It seems like practically every city and town has at least one market a week with a ton of fresh produce, fish, cheese, sausage and other meats, textiles, spices, flowers etc…who needs the regular store when you can get practically anything you need at the open air market.  And Everyone shops at them!  On market day it’s just a part of life to prepare your list, get your basket and bags out and head out to get what you need for the week (or half the week if your lucky enough to live in a larger city that has them twice weekly).  This way of life is so much more connected to agriculture and fresh food, it’s ingrained in the culture and I loved this aspect of the French lifestyle.  Look at all the lovely goodies that I saw at the markets in Orange, Marseilles and Avignon. Flavors of France

To start the trip out hour hostess’s landlady insisted on having us for a very special truffle omelet for dinner.   We were truly lucky to have such and exquisite home made meal in the home of a gracious and fun woman!  The process of preparing for this omelet required buying the fresh eggs and truffles at the weekly market and infusing the eggs with the truffles by some process of keeping the eggs in their shells and allowing the truffle essence to permeate the eggs.  It was divine.  We also had this incredible Spelt (that I have yet to locate in the US) served simply au pistou.  I’m still hoarding one last bag of it that I brought back.  It is much more nutty, sweet and delicate than the spelt whole grain you typically find in the US.   Another truly memorable dining experience (really they all were!) was the fresh daily croissant’s that our hostess went and got for us each morning.  Some days they were chocolate, some day’s almond and some days just plain.  Our typical breakfast was a croissant and plain delicious yogurt.  I can’t believe I didn’t get a photo of that!  Every meal was delicious I think due to the truly fresh ingredients that are standard in Provence.  With the slightly mediteranean climate they have a pretty long growing season with not too many very cold spells.  We even got to experience the Mistral while we were visiting~Woosh!

Dining in Provence

And then of course there were the sweets!  So many delicious sweets, pastries, candies etc. we tried to restrain ourselves within reason but we did a lot of walking so we had a good excuse to indulge.  Probably my favorite though was the combination of chocolate and orange.  In the image below right are some green sugar coated chocolate orange candies that we found in a small Chocolatier in Saint-Tropez.

French Confections

These candies were the inspiration for a cookie recipe I “invented” this week (I’m apparently not the first person to “invent” these but I’d never heard of them and didn’t look up any recipe for them before I concocted my version).

The recipe, below is a French inspired twist on Oatmeal cookies.

Chocolate Orange Oatmeal Cookies

Yields about 3 dozen

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup apple or peach sauce (peach sauce-pureed steamed/canned peaches)
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 1/2 cups cups old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/8 to 1/4 cup chopped candied orange rind (homemade or store bought)
  • 1/2 to 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips or pieces (more chocolate can never be a bad thing)
  • Optional:  1/4 to 1/2 cup walnuts or hazelnuts in to replace some of the chocolate

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with Silpats; set aside.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and apple or peach sauce; mix on high speed to combine.
  3. Combine oats, flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a large bowl. Stir to combine. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and beat on low speed to combine, 10 to 15 seconds. Remove bowl from mixer, and stir in dried fruits and chocolate (and optional nuts).
  4. Using a large metal scoop, drop dough onto prepared sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake until golden and just set, about 15 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheets for about 5 minutes then transfer sheets to wire rack to cool completely.

If you have a favorite Oatmeal recipe you could adjust it to include the chocolate and orange in place of raisins and nuts etc.

Chocolate Orange Oatmeal CookiesBon Appetit!

Related Article Friday Field Trip::France (hkpowerstudio.wordpress.com)

Do what bring JOY!! Everyday…

February 9, 2011 by Heather Filed Under: Inspiration & Education, Photography, Wellness & Mindset 4 Comments

Find the time each day to do what bring JOY!

This is the most fun post in the whole wellness series.  I find joy in so many simple things.

Some of the things that bring me joy are:

Birdwatching; a finch on sunflowers

do what bring JOY

Playing with and petting my cats

Best Friend Kitties

Going for a walk or dance!

walking: tree reflection
Creating my art~!Knitting with sumptuous yarn; here’s a ribbon and mohair chain necklace.

mohair ribbon knit chain

Gardening (in season but even my houseplants bring me joy); this is my salad table on our deck

Garden salad table

Preparing and eating good food; today I baked Orange Chocolate Oatmeal cookies (recipe coming on Friday!) and a Tuna Nicoise Sandwich for lunchTuna Nicoise Sandwich

Flower gazing (do you ever just gaze at the flowers?)

Lemon Geranium detail

…a few more things…

Feeling the sun on my body

Talking to a loved friend

Enjoying a glass of wine

Curling up with a good book

Taking photos

How do you bring Joy into your daily life?

Favorite Fibers Friday Fieldtrip

January 28, 2011 by Heather Filed Under: Art & Design, Handmade, Inspiration & Education 6 Comments

Happy Friday!  This has been a relaxing week and we’ve finally gotten some real snow.  As I sit here writing this there is snow on the ground and more falling.  Due to the snow this week I was unable to get out for my weekly field trip so today I’ll bring you some fibery goodness from around the web.  These are some of my all time favorite fiber artists (not an extensive list though).  I hope I’ve shared a few new artist and designers with you here, or some old favorites.  All photos are courtesy of the individual designers and artist websites and if you click the photo’s you will be directed to their sites.

                          Spirit Cloth Stitched and Quilted Textile

                    Red 2 White Felted Scarf

Alabama Chanin Pillow

                                     Betz White Scarves

Elyse Allen Knit Textiles

Favorite Fibers Friday Fieldtrip

                                          Anne Kyyro Quinn Textile Installations

                       Jeung-Hwa Park Shibori Knits

                             Tinctory Fiber Jewelry

I’m thrilled to have work by 4 of these fiber artists in my personal collection. Do you collect any fiber arts?

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