customized

I thought I would give people the option of having their flowers tall, med, or short. So as an experiment I have three unmade flower heads and three choices of stem.If you buy tall you get three stems that are 20, 23, and 25" tall. I have med and short available as well. I will have a few more unmade flower heads to list and then see what happens. It's hard to keep things all the same as found objects rarely come in 3's. My biggest challenge is affording faucet handles. I refuse to pay more than $2 for each one and they are almost always $4-9 each or more depending on the size + shipping.  Rent comes first so I'm not splurging. I have lucked out 3 times on ebay and sniped me some. Finding yellow, green or orange ones is like a diamond in the rough. And then there is the attachment pieces...I like having little things to stick the rebar in so secure it to the faucet handle.  Even that is getting harder to find!  Endangered specie list perhaps my flowers.... but for now I have a handful available and I will keep searching or move on and make whatever else is next I'm finding in bulk :)

Stems and flowers available in my Industrial Bloom shop.

new!

Art Recycled, Metal Flower made from rebar, vintage faucet handle and metal eyelet.

 

From IndustrialBloom

Art Recycled, Metal Flower made from rebar, vintage faucet handle and metal tac.

 

Art Recycled, Metal Flower made from rebar, vintage faucet handle and found plastic and 

 

just another day

last night i forced myself to go out and do a table show/sale thing that my friend amanda put together.  it was just 2 blocks away, i didn't need my own table.  no funds were asked and it was only for 2 hours (6pm-8).  hadda do it.  i spent the week making new flowers and grabbed a handful of vases and candle holders and did it and actually enjoyed myself.  the more i try to integrate into this town the more i like it.  people are good.  people are nice.  i may not be making any best friends but i am making friends and contacts.  we are all trying to survive.  we are all busy.

in a small town you usually see the same people over and over and that is a new and comfortable feeling for me.  i think i already have more acquaintances here than what i ever had my 25+ years living in arizona.  the only reason i ever had friends in arizona was because they were all my massage clients.  i could never walk around my neighborhood and stop by and chat with people there.  here i can.  i like that.  and last night i met some new people that i kind of knew by sight and felt just a little bit more connected.   i sold a candle holder and amanda bought a vase.  i love that people always ask how much are my post cards, does that mean i should start charging for them?   nah...thats just not right in my book.  take them and maybe some day they will visit my etsy shop!  anyhow.  people responded really well to my flowers.  huntsville isn't doing so good economically and i didn't expect to really sell anything so the fact i did and i met people, that is all just one big plus in my book.

so now its time to finish more flowers that are also in the queue.  wait for later in the day when it is primo picture taking time and get them up online.  it should be a nice quiet weekend, the university is out.  school is out.  its a holiday.  all of that equals a virtual ghost town here.  i'll be out there in the parking lot making noise and pretending life is just peachy and push all my living situation thoughts under the rug.

have a good weekend, i know most of you will be making art cuz that is what artists do. they never stop. at least not if they can help it.

still life

i am doing my best to just stay with it. whatever it is.  i'm still tired from all the cleaning jobs i had last week.  this week it appears i have nothing.  well i had one but they still have fleas and i ran out of there like nobody's business.

i stopped over across the street at the main street program office today and met kim.  the coordinator.  i had bumped into our mayor last week (also who lives/works across the street) and asked if i could put a piece of art up to decorate his wall and maybe sell (giving him commission of course).  no go.  he already has too much of his own purchased art up.  but he did tell me to stop by kims.  so stop i did. 

it was disheartening to hear that the 'main street program' has been trying to get together with the wynne home art and visitor center (where i have work in the gift shop) and have artists put work in local shops.  she said only 2 other artists were up for it.  considering there aren't even that many shops/places here i'm not feeling like this is gonna happen anytime soon or amount to much.  BUT  i will keep banging my head against the huntsville wall.  there are a few lawyer offices here, there are a few places left to try.

art is a funny funny thing.  i will laugh one day i'm sure.  sometimes i miss the wonderful gallery i was in back in Vermont.  they knew how to treat art.  how to treat artists.  they really did.  i never felt like my art was going to be mishandled and it got respect.  i still think doing it online is my best bet here, especially if i keep up with smaller items. 

i still have no clue people.  none.  where/what/when.  why.  wtf.  sometimes i think stop making more flowers or vases because its just too much stuff and making more art isn't how you sell art.  i'm sniffing around. trying this and that. wondering who/how to market to more people.  mostly i'm so tired its not easy to be online let alone keep working.  feeling less stressed at the moment but i still need some huge shift, even if i could keep working this much and make enough to stay here physically i dont i have it in me to keep working two full time jobs.  cleaning.  art.  its too much.  how ya do it with kids/pets...homes to tend to.  you got one up on me if you are one of those super human people that do it all.  i'm holding on to my rebar flower with all my might, as if it is a magic wand to be waved.

speaking of which, two new flowers. one is up on etsy now the other i might have to get to tomorrow.  sleep...sleep...sleep.

 From IndustrialBloom

 
I'm particularly pleased with the stem thing in the back of the flower...such a cool find!  the other flower is a triumph...i guess when i find what i deem 'ugly' things on the road and make them into flowers i feel i've just done a magic trick.  i know most people like lots of color...but to me there is something more powerful about a rusty or degraded piece of rubber/plastic/metal that is truly trash becoming a piece of art regardless of it's color.  color fades....the body, the substance...the 'thing' has the character.  and this one just delights me because i wasn't sure i could really make it into a flower.

this is some dense rubbery stuff.  i believe it fell off of a car or truck or something.  its nasty, and i love it.

dry cut works for me!

last weekend i got out my newish dry cut saw. i've only used it one or two times as a tester so using it for a few hours really let me get the hang of it;  its such an improvement i cannot begin to tell you!  it might not be apparent here but instead of a fine toxic sandy mist of hot metal from my chop saw, this cuts the metal at a slower rpm and uses a $120 steel blade as opposed to the $7 abrasive blades (which I'd go through each time I cut a handful of vases).  my big fear was that i would immediately ruin the blade....thats what i get for reading too many metal forums.  so far so good.  this blade should last me months depending on how much i cut.   you usually get these blades sharpened but this particular brand which believe it or not is on the cheap side...can't really be sharpened. 

cutting is a breeze...and what you get is bigger clumps of metal that easily sweep up.  i dont even have to wear my face mask because there is no more stink.  still metal flying but not nearly as hot and i think my clothes will last longer now that i dont have hot embers flying at me.  also makes for a really clean cut so i dont need to go thru grinder wheels as fast either.  just a fine brushing with the grinder brush in most cases and its burr free. 

so, i'm hoping to get the bottoms cut, ground and put on in the next few days and finish painting the insides of the vases.  had more flower sales this week and my shop is almost empty!  i have 4 new flowers to upload soon as i edit the photos i took last night.  this weekend i hope is all about ME.  i cleaned 8 days in a row, couldn't turn it down because if i didn't do it then someone else would have and i'd be out the buckage.  i was going to clean today but i've decided to just have a me weekend. 

hope you have a you weekend

cleaning blog

perhaps i should change this to a cleaning blog.
thats all i've been doing. which is great to have the money...
but sure do wish the money was coming from art sales again.
oh well...life is just one big unknown from day to day.

then and now

 

i was talking to tod the other day on the phone...got myself in a particularly bad place (mentally) this week i guess after the reality hit about how now i dont really even have much in the way of cleaning jobs to do right now sunk in and my brain wouldn't stop obsessing about wtf am i gonna do.  i was counting on the end of the school year to bring in a lot of work like last year but it isn't happening...no move outs.  there really aren't jobs here and i've got to get creative.  NOW. 

he reminded me that my life is working better than even a year ago.  i was not clueless as to what he meant.  he reminded me that this time last year i sold hardly anything online.  and he is right.  i just went and looked...there was a month or so i had no sales.  and from jan-june i had what...SIX sales TOTAL?  it wasn't until 'christmas in july' etsy's 2nd biggest month to sell, that i started getting lots of sales and it pretty much took off with the vases non-stop until christmas of this year.  

were tod still here and i didn't have double bills to pay, i'd be okay.  i'm challenged right now.  and i guess i wouldn't be the first person on the planet to write myself a credit card check and live off of that for awhile if push comes to shove.  

this new 'financial' burden or crisis if you will has more to do with not being able to sustain the new double burden of bills.  if i could pay my $400 a month here i'd still be making it.  i keep looking around...and there just isn't anything popping up that is affordable that gives me the space to make art, keep it, keep the materials on hand and have my shipping packing shit all over.  there is no room for a roommate here, i've gone over all over this ad nausium.

it's never easy to know what its like to be in someone else's shoes.  many people say do this and that.  i have a pretty sweet set up if i really face the facts.  its illegal to go thru dumpsters here and there are SCADS of police driving up and down all the streets and behind shops (where i'm at looking for found objects and boxes).  i live in an industrial area that is safe, in the center of town...and i have my own industrial dumpster to pick all my packing materials from almost every day should i need to.  i live within 2 blocks of the little scrap yard.  while i dont have best friends here...i know about 20 people in a 2 mile radius and can walk around and stop by and chat.  i feel like if i can stick it out there is a community here and if i can just make it work it could be a good thing for awhile longer.  i expect change, i want change, and i dread change.  i feel i have some things to do on my own yet....and in the future i do see myself working with another artist or two....it just doesn't feel right right now to pack and move and lose whatever momentum i have going with flowers and new ideas of other work.  but i may not be the decider of this.  the universe is gonna have to fill me in soon....i'm at a loss for how else to make money.  few people actually have any idea how unusual this town is compared to most when it comes to available jobs and how to even find them.  and i know me....i know what i can and can't do.  i dont last long when i'm getting my mind and body energy sucked out of me being trapped somewhere.  i've made it this long in life pretty much not working for anyone.  i've left many a job because the mental pressure of mind numbing hell was too much for me.  i know i'm not like most people.  i just aint.  i know i probably irritate or annoy or scare people...or people think i need to just get over it and suck it up and take the fucking stupid job, ANY job.  well i can't.  i just can't.  and i'm not so sure that that would solve anything.  working a 40 hr min. waged job so i can afford a small tiny apartment isn't living.  

i dunno.  half the time i feel i need to apologize or explain...and the truth is its my stupid life to live and i just have to keep following the bizarre path i have chosen to walk.  and i shouldn't complain or cry about it but i'm human and i freak out.  i freak out at 2am about if i can't pay for my phone anymore how will i get those few cleaning jobs....or will i then be totally cut off from the few people i trust with my emotions to talk to.  i freak out about not having my space for my art and me.  the freedom and peace to play and explore and just BE.

i freak out that all this stress is causing new unwanted physical problems.  i freak out about a lot and then have some sales and think okay another day...i made it another day.  its a hard way to live. i also hear what tod used to say all the time ' no one in their right mind would chose to live an artist's life'.  (or something like that). and  yet...i feel i have no other choice.   just get through another day.  its a motto but i'd like to not have to feel this way and be a little freer feeling.  i'm working on it...

so. off i go to ship some vases that sold!!!  and off i go to a little art opening tonight where one mixed media piece is that i think is hanging sideways to fit the wall space and i'm trying not to be upset about that.  and off i go to work on more art and off i go to work on my new shop that i've yet to put ANYTHING in.  and off i go to exercise.  and off i go to get more things from another storage area to give away.  and off i go to keep trying.  it IS better than last year in many ways.  i gotta keep remembering that. 

attention

i've never had much of an attention span.  i can still see my parent's face's a few inches from mine (and keep in mind i'm almost 50 so it's etched in my brain forever i guess) slightly shaking their heads and saying 'you are not listening. you are not paying attention'.  click. tune out.  right. got you.  now i WONT pay attention.  what? did you say something?  can i get back to my own world now please? who needs story problems anyhow....

guess concentration never came too easily for me.  but i have to say, the last few days i've had the concentration of a brain surgeon.  what am i concetrating so hard on?  who knows.  the moment.  whatever is in my hand now.  whatever i am doing now.  i've never misplaced quite so much before but i believe it has to do with the total rearranging of my loft since tod's departure.  a new me. a new space even if its the old space.  sometimes i feel like a big ole turtle head that just wants to stay inside that tubey warm neck and not have my head exposed to all the shite going on out there.  thats kind of where i'm at right now.  i have officially given up looking for a place to live.  if there is something out there HERE I AM.  i get it that right now i also aint gonna find much in the way of work, i have plenty of work.  MY work.  i put in a 15 hour day yesterday and i paid myself with joy. i wonder if the people i owe money to would take some joy instead money.  

well.  i have sold a handful of flowers recently so i'm all happy about that.  relieved AND happy.  i've got new vases to take photos of.  i made a new clock.  i'm working on new flowers and letting my peripheral imagination work on what other new works to make while i pay attention to what is going on in the studio right now.

 these all sold on saturday!!!

its a little freaky that my favorite photo taking places seem to be getting painted over or fixed up.  i love walking out the door, arms full of art and going just a few blocks here or there and having great photo backdrops.  made me think about detroit again and wishing i had the gumption to live in a place like that.  but i'm here. and its sunny most days and warm, just how i like it.  i know my life will keep changing and whatever i love and hate about my life will trade places with each other and i just have to keep working on me and art. 

OH!  and i put this out there on facebook, my paulaart etsy shop is up to 199 sales!  number 200 gets free shipping.  thats a deal on my bigger heavier pieces, but its a deal on my small heavy vases too.  check out the new clock i made...

Dairy Farm Found Object, Cut Pipe and Found Washers

and a new vase that quite frankly kicks some serious vase booty

Reclaimed Metal Tube finding a 2nd life as a dry flower container.

From PaulaArt

so thats the news from huntsville, tx.  pretty much allowing myself to be with my art and not get caught up in all the stuff going on out there in the world that i cannot change and doesn't make me feel good anyhow.