Copper Bearing Material

I've been getting my craft on quite a bit for the last week or so. I've completed no less than 5 pairs of earrings and 17 bracelets. (Yes!!) There'd be more earrings if I had inexpensive access to used french hooks, or the materials to make my own. Where is a SCRAP reuse craft store when you need one? Now I have more jewelry than I could ever want for just myself, so I have to either give it away or try to sell it. But selling comes later. You want a bracelet? Maybe some earrings??

While interning in the recycling department of Free Geek I (legitimately) salvaged a mess of snazzy heavy metal junk from their obsolete waste stream for my own art purposes. I told myself that I would use the coated and copper wires, the nuts and bolts, and the other miscellaneous aluminum and plastic pieces in my craft stash before returning to Oregon. ...This is what happens when one sets goals: you get a mess of copper junk.

But! It's pretty and colorful junk, I must say.

And it's wearable junk. ooh.

I'm about to start reading "High Tech Trash - Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health," by Elizabeth Grossman. Maybe I'll develop an even better understanding of why I feel like I have to do what I do after reading it. I've been studying garbage and related issues while here in Montana and High Tech Trash is next on my must-read list. I also have to return my copy of the book to the Bitterroot Public Library very soon.

/sigh

A Stroll Through Dandelion Farm

In early July I braved the Greyhound bus to travel 13 hours from Portland, Oregon to Sacramento, California. From there I was promptly whisked away for a couple more hours drive via California's best selling hybrid vehicle to visit rural and mountainous Dandelion Sustainability Farm in Lower Lake, CA.

My first introduction to what the farm might have to offer was the “Queen of Heaven Gate,” a massive but intricately sculpted steel push gate. A cement guard lion is perched nearby. I was a bit awe struck, to say the least.

Through the gate I could see the “Hub of Happiness.” It is marked clearly by a haloed lion mural on its western side. This is the home I was to be staying in for my time in Lower Lake. The woman I was visiting has been living on Dandelion Farm as a renter for a couple years. Her Hub is situated in the sculpture garden, “Dandelion Ballad.”

Several large and intricate metal, tiled, cemented, multi-media, repurposed material sculptures are arranged within the terraced gardens of the Ballad, as well as throughout the farm. A white and gold sculpture called “Metal Hymn,” somewhat resembling a gazebo, stands tall in the dry sagebrush of the hills south of the Hub.

At a higher terrace lies the “Bed of Roses,” a cement bench covered in a glass tile mosaic of roses. The form of a resting woman shields herself in the shade of a metal arbor. Vines trail up to the iron ceiling. The beautiful pieces throughout the farm are created by welder and jeweler Candace Stolley and occasional volunteer farm aids. Candace and her husband, Loren, acquired the 190 acres of the farm a few decades ago and their efforts toward sustainability and outreach, as well as the art, is ongoing. The elaborate and decorative structures are intended to further beautify the blissful natural surroundings and are meant as gifts for a personal spiritual guide, Avatar Adi Da.

The “Lion's Lair” rests beside the Hub. The roof of the open circular structure is an obsolete and enormous satellite dish. While I was visiting, three volunteers, or WWOOFers, were painting a design of purple hues on top its roof (a task not yet completed in this photo). Many of the projects throughout the farm, decorative and functional, are done with the labor of unpaid willing workers.

The northern side of the Ballad houses an unfinished cobbed bathhouse, “Reign of Grace,” situated behind a small flower garden and pond.

A woman's figure, shaped with cement, sunbathes beside the fountain pool.

Within the pond a mosaic fountain blossoms among the irises. The clear glass fountainhead appears to be a repurposed lamp shade. Many of the intact glass objects used in Candace's art pieces appear to be antique dishes and bowls.

Several of the sculptures in the Ballad are welded iron rod structures – some functional like this glass tiled bench. Creeping vines are planted near these pieces and add a living element to the sculptures as they become intertwined.

Another small bench is seated by the “Arbor for Endless Intimacy,” the home neighboring the “Hub of Happiness.”

Leaving “Dandelion Ballad,” one must progress through the "Immortal Portal," the doorway to the iron “Tofu Tunnel,” to walk along the “Magic Carpet” trail.

The carefully welded and painted eyes of the portal watch you as you pass.

A jewel-eyed beast, “Pipe the Magic Dragon,” accompanies the portal. His winding form is composed of PVC pipe, cleverly disguised with painted scales and iron webbing.

Through the “Tofu Tunnel,” the “Snake Charmer” is visible South of the Carpet trail.

A naked figure plays a flute, a tiled sinuous snake around his ankles.

The woman dwelling in the Hub finds this piece particularly eerie. I think it's the representational glass eyes.

The magic carpet trail (yes, it's made with repurposed rugs) continues east.

“Lucifer's Lap” hides behind a blood red flesh-peeling Madrone.

His seat is meticulously tiled with colorful glass shards - however, they won't harm you if you have a seat...

The “Sign of Things to Come” points us to the direction leading out of the Madrone Woods of Lucifer, as well as to many other possible end points.

Madrones have always been my favorite tree.

A view of the northern hills beyond the sculptures, arbors, hubs, and carpets shows a clear blue California sky. There were many more art pieces throughout the farm than I have pictured. As well as some wonderful and functional alternative structures such as a yurt (the homestead for the volunteers), solar panels, rain collection barrels and ponds, and a greenhouse with a sun heated lap-pool and hot-tub.

With the thunderstorms that have been going on all day in the Bitterroot Valley, a dip in a hot-tub certainly sounds enticing.

Big Sky Bling

“Is it worth it? Let me work it.”

Last night I opted to observe the long held tradition of Sunday Craft Night. My celebrations included listening to Montana Public Radio while constructing a few pairs of earrings from components in my craft supply stash. Although my partners in craft are still in Oregon, I had their company in spirit.

This morning I awoke shortly following the sun's rise and so decided to utilize the low angled brightness as my photography spotlight. The Bitterroot Mountain range is my backdrop. A willow branch works as my model.

My favorite pair that I made last night, and have been wanting to make for quite awhile, are composed of two smushed pennies.

I put these pennies through a machine in Depot Bay, at my best guess, sometime during the summer of 2003. Both read “OREGON COAST” within their embossed image. Just a nail and hammer was needed to poke the hole through the longer oval end of the flattened copper alloy. It's that easy!

One has an image of a sailboat. The other, my favorite, is of a logging truck.

“Keys” is another simple pair. I used larger French Hooks for these silver keys (while definitely smaller and lighter than average keys, they're still somewhat weighty). I believe I salvaged this key set from Free Geek. A windmill is embossed on one side of each key.

“Pinked” is a junky pair of earrings, but certainly still worth wearing. The pink teardrop plastic bead is from a dismantled piece of costume jewelry I took from Candice. These beads have also been used for other pieces (see March's “Free Geek Glam”). A steel washer rests behind the bead. Malleable metal beads from another salvaged bracelet were pinched using pliers to clamp and secure the ends of the yellow-coated wire into a loop.

“Sprung” uses engraved plastic beads salvaged from SCRAP and a black steel spring from Free Geek. The components are pierced by a malleable metal pin. The upper end of the pin is coiled into a loop to secure the spring in place.

“Tubular” also uses a coiled metal pin arrangement. Colorful tiny beads salvaged from another earring surround a single cylinder hexagonal steel nut.

“Roped,” a lasso motif, consists of two steel nuts and green coated electrical wire.

“Washer” is a pair of earrings I made a couple weeks ago and is the only pair of earrings I brought with me to Montana. (Needless to say, they've certainly been getting some use.) Mismatched steel nuts, hexagonal cylinders, and a thin black coated wire make up this design.

“Linked” is a 1/2” nut linked to a smaller serrated edged washer using another tiny discolored washer.

These penny charms are wrapped in copper wire salvaged from computer circuit boards. The “Lucky” penny was a random find in the cash register of a used book store I volunteered with – and I have been wearing it ever since. The 1956 “ONE CENT” Wheatie is wrapped in wire sculpted to resemble a star.

Wearing the “Lucky” penny necklace and smushed earrings together might be over kill. But, sometimes, I like over kill.