If Summer doesn't come to you...

...Then you have to make it yourself.  Summer, that is.  The weather - cold, rain, fog, and more cold - still isn't cooperating, and it's all anyone can talk about here in coastal New England, ad nauseam.  I feel the pain myself.  After suffering through our raw winters, the least we can have is 90 days of relatively moderate weather.  But not this year.  This year we have already lost the possibility of a happy June, and are now in the process of ruining July.  I need to move on from this topic, however.  I mean, how long can one complain about lousy weather?  I refuse to find out.  And to help myself along, I'm posting a picture of an electrically-painted antique piece that will provide the viewer with a jolt of summertime color.  If I can't have summer outside, then at least I will have it inside.  And I promise: no more complaining.  Until it gets too hot, that is.  Then I'll be sure to have something to say.

New Project

Usually I leave the personal stuff out of this blog, except for the occasional rant, but I just couldn't resist sharing this latest creation.  It took a lot of work - but here it is, coming in at 8 lbs, 2 ozs...

p.s.  So far he's not nearly as cranky as he looks in this photo!

Past Projects...

Yesterday a couple came in with a photo of a canvas they bought from me a few years ago. For a while I was painting these canvases with designs in the negative, putting blocks of color around the image I wanted to create, which was usually left as raw canvas. It was a bit more time-consuming, of course, than doing things the other way around, but has a great effect. Anyway, here it is, recorded for posterity, assuming that is, that posterity will care. So thanks, Customers (who shall remain anonymous), for bringing the photo in - it's nice to know that past projects have lives that extend beyond the shop!

June in Rockport

Things are quiet here in Rockport. We seem to go directly from a sort of April chill (with a few sunny days thrown just to remind us of how people live in other places) to the pavement-melting heat of July. It is technically June, almost technically summer, yet here I am ensconced in a sweater. And I am not alone. Most of the (very few) people I see passing by my window look dressed for another season entirely. I have had just three people in the shop today, two of whom looked dazed and confused, as if they meant to go on summer vacation in a nice little coastal town and ended up here instead. But just wait, I tell myself - in a few weeks, these same deserted sidewalks will be teeming with scantily-clad people who should, by all rights, be ensconced in sweaters. The shock of so much naked flesh here in Ye Olde New Englande juxtaposed as it is with what had been, just days before, chowder weather, is a lot for anyone to bear. Yet one must, in the retail business, take the bad with the good. Or, in the case of the current climate, economic and otherwise, the bad with the bad.

So on to the actual purpose of this post: Handpainted Wooden Boxes. These are useful creations, all one-of-a-kind, although the general themes do get repeated. The images are hand-cut from vintage paper and mounted on handpainted boxes. Here a few to spark the imagination. The rest of our current stock is shown at both our real store and our virtual one.

More Strange Vintage Lighting

Last time I featured a homemade star (see previous post), and in keeping with the offbeat, today I'm showing off a vintage lighthouse lamp that an ambitious person with a nice sense of scale created with plaster (for those realistic-looking boulders), wood and - best of all - the top of an old lantern. This lamp is not for those of you who are shy about their lighting. It measures 25" tall with a base of 8" in diameter. Still, it's not imposing. Just a friendly lighthouse that would work as a conversation-piece, bedside lamp, a welcome beacon in your window, et cetera. And to add to its appeal, the lamp has been rewired. Check it out at our online store. Clearly I can't get enough of vintage lighting, but there are worse things to be addicted to.