Time for a Little Rust

It's been awhile since I've featured some lovely rust on the blog, so...

There - didn't that feel good?

'53 Studebaker

Found this delightfully rusted truck in a local parking lot.

Green on the cab and hood,

blue for the bed.

And a lovely patina of delicious rust over all.

I couldn't resist taking the shots!

Rusty Score!

The Score

I've spoken before about the wonderful friends and family members that collect for me.

Thanks Jim!

You know all that lovely, rusty, worn out detritus -
just waiting on the street, at the junkyard and in the parking lot.

Thanks Joen!

Some little things, that will be the perfect touch
for a journal page or small assemblage,

Thanks Chad & Destiny!

And some several feet long -
having lots of fun figuring out what to do with this!!

By the Roadside

For years we've driven passed this old railroad siding alongside Hwy 101 between Salinas and Gilroy. It sports a fascinating crop of graffiti, rust and peeling paint.



I'd always wanted to stop and get pictures of it, but as things like that go, it never happened.


On Margot's last solo trip up that way, she scouted out the nearest exits, and on our trip up the weekend before Christmas, we pulled off the highway onto a small frontage road, parked and got some wonderful shots.


Neither of us can figure out what it was for, years ago when it was still in operation, but what a myriad of interesting shapes and mechanical bits.

Along with the pix, I found three rusty railroad spikes -
a real score!

Score - Thanks Jim!

I am very lucky to have a team of friends that collect for me. Rusty, splintery, vintage, worn, oddball things and old this and that. Jim gave me this lot the other day - just random stuff he found here and there. It's all great, but I especially love the four rusty metal strips in the lower left hand corner and the Egyptian game pieces. Ah, many wonderful assemblages to follow!

Ancient Artifact

My friend Joen is the master enabler! She has found me more wonderful old rusty stuff than the rest of my friends put together. But I think she may have topped herself this time.

It's a tin can, still sealed, top and bottom both intact. What ever was inside has vanished, reduced to a few grains that you can hear if you shake it. It is marvelously rusty and mangled.
I have no idea what I will do with it, but in the meantime it's amazing just to look at it!

Nostalgia in the Key of Rust

This time I used a vintage metal clarinet (lower half) that I found at the local swap meet a year or two ago. The background is marbled paper from Paper Mojo . The deliciously rusted door plate was picked up last February in a wonderful little antique shop near the San Francisco de Assis Church in Taos. An old key, broken pencil and small slab of rusted metal complete the piece.

I love the delicate elegance of the marbled paper in juxtaposition with the rough edges of the rusty bits and broken pencil.

Dividers - Lost & Found

Allegory of Navigation - Dividers

I was lucky enough to pick up these old rusted dividers about a year ago when a garage sale I attended actually included the garage! Well, the contents of the garage/workshop. Literally hundreds of old rusty tools and hardware that had been sitting in the non-hermetically sealed, detached building for dozens of years since the man of the house had passed away. I'd been wanting to do something with them - but - and I know this will ring a bell with some of you, I had forgotten where I had stored them. I came across them the other day, looking for something else, and here's the result.

I used a masonite board, 11x14" as the base. An old navigation chart, well folded and with a delightful burn mark, was sanded slightly and then adhered to the board with PVA. I wrapped the chart around the edges ,much as you would when covering book boards. The picture is by 16th century Venetian artist Veronese ,entitled Allegory of Navigation -Astrolabe. I sanded it as well and then affixed using PVA. Couldn't find a brayer, so used a rolling pin to smooth things down. A coat of Golden's Fresco Cream Glaze covers the entire surface and Golden's Asphaltum Glaze was used around the picture for depth. The dividers are attached with craft wire and E-6000. Probably a good thing they were lost for awhile, it gave my brain more time to play around with the idea.

With a Little Help from My Friends

Oh boy! Look what I've scored this week. Friends and family love to bring me street detritus, and I love getting it. Every week I fall heir to rusted bottle caps, bits of unidentified metal and wood, beach glass, moonstones, string, wire and -as the infomercials say - "So much more!"




But this week I hit the jackpot. Thanks to Joen, Destiny and Alexandra - my work colleagues and cohorts in mixed media rust collection.

Mail Jackpot!

I hit the jackpot with yesterday's mail delivery! The new issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors's Studio, Sarah Fishburn and Angela Cartwright's sixth-edition of their Quality Art Zine - Pasticcio, a postcard announcing Anne Bagby's new show in Dallas, and three very small, very rusted madeleine molds all the way from Provence -courtesy of Corey Amaro of Tongue in Cheek. Am I a lucky girl or what?!