Crafting From the Collection: Recap

Yesterday we missed First Thursday because we took a road trip! We were invited by the Amon Carter Museum in Ft. Worth to present several crafts for their quarterly event, Crafting From the Collection. The above pic is our fabric flower piece inspired by a still life of flowers at the museum. (Some of you may remember us posting about it back in January, that scheduled date got postponed due to the "snowpocaylpse")

In preparation for the demo, we made several example pieces along with a tutorial, which will be available in our Etsy shop and our boutique.We had a great group of very crafty ladies. Everyone quickly picked up the technique and got creative.

We loved the variations on our tutorial, the creative leaves and just the awesome vibe everyone brought to the event. We hope the Amon Carter will be interested in having The WonderCraft come up again to get crafty with another great group.

Before the event started, Jen and I visited the other museums right next to the Amon Carter, The Kimball & the Modern. We loved the architecture, the collections, and enjoyed the beautiful spring weather. This steel tree sculpture ('Conjoined' by artist Roxy Paine) was particularly cool.
How are you inspired by fine art?

A Shrine to Jewelry. Why Not?

You may have read in a previous post that the girls and I are doing a project in conjunction with the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, TX. We were to select three pieces from the collection and create a craft inspired by those pieces. I selected Joseph Cornell's Soap Bubble Set.

Joseph Cornell (1903-1972)

Soap Bubble Set (Lunar Space Object), ca. 1959 Mixed media

The division of space and use of three dimensional objects in the piece inspired me to create a Shadow Box Jewelry Shrine. From a "crafty" perspective (is there such a thing?) I always disliked the idea that jewelry gets hidden away in a box or drawer when not worn and loved the idea that it could be displayed as a part of a work of art and functionally stored at the same time. So I thought I'd share the "how to" with all you crafty folks out there.

I started with a dollar store frame and disassembled it (destruction is fun!)

 
I then cut a piece of self healing cork to the full size of the back. Cutting to the full size of the frame rather than the size of the glass was important because I wanted the background to sit away from the front of the frame to create a shadow box effect. I had to reinforce the cork with a stiff cardboard, so I cut up a box I had lying around. (Yes, that's a rip in the cork...no I am not Martha Stewart...I hid my boo boo by gluing it to the background. lol)















I glued the cork to the backing.











I then selected an image from a vintage Life magazine. This one happened to be an ad for hair dye...something about washing the grey away.






I then laid the frame upside down over the image, marked the proper placement for the ribbon, and attached the ribbon with both glue and staples.

Finally, I attached the backing to the frame. Broaches can be stuck directly in, the ribbon can be used as an earring hanger, and T-pins can be used to display any other jewelry in any desired configuration. Et Voila!

Fabric Flowers Inspired by Roesen Painting

Severin Roesen (1815 or 1816—after 1872)
Still Life of Flowers and Fruit with a River Landscape in the Distance, 1867
oil on canvas; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Earlier this week Beth A & our fab new assistant, Marley, came over for a make day in preparation of our upcoming demo at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. We were invited to present a few handmade projects inspired by works in the museum's collection as part of their Crafting from the Collection series. We'll be road-tripping up to Ft. Worth for this funtastic event on February 3!

At the Carter Museum, we'll be demonstrating how to make pretty flowers from upcycled t-shirts, as inspired by the abundance of flowers in this gorgeous painting from the collection. We'll have 3 different types to show the museum guests who want to get crafty with us.




One type is made from stacking layers of clover-shaped fabric, resulting in a sweet flower with big, floppy petals. Marley models one she made, showing how cute it would be as an embellishment on her beret.

Another, slightly more involved, type is a really full flower made from circles of fabric that are first folded into wedges & strung together, then fluffed & sewn in place & fluffed some more until you get it just right.
 



The last type of flower we made was a super-simple rolled one. It works great with the hem of a shirt, especially if it has some fancy trim or stitching.



Here's all of our finished little pretties ready to be placed in an arrangement. I'll be attaching them to stems of some sort & arranging in a vase for their big debut in Ft. Worth.

We have two more art-inspired project examples we'll be taking with us to Ft. Worth as well. Stay tuned to see those in future posts!