MAKE ART THAT MEANS MORE THAN A BRAND NAME

Make art that lasts, something that leave a clue about who you are.

It doesn’t have to be complicated; you don’t have to give it away.

If you make art that makes you happy, do it. No one expects you to look into the soul of a loved one and make them a perfect gift.

But if that happens, and a loved one gives you a gift they made, act like it’s the perfect gift.

What have you made? (If you’re married and you made the bed, it counts.)

If you’re a mom or dad, try building a bed for the kids.

You’ll need wood, saws, and glue. How about a plan? Without a plan you might get the measurements wrong.

I built two beds, one for each kid. The first had a craftsman looking head and footboard. It’s wider and longer than the standard mattress.

The second was a four poster, but I sawed the posts off when it didn’t look right. And it’s a closer fit to the mattress size. Practice.

Without a plan to start, it makes sense to build models before diving in on the final results. That way, if it goes wrong, you can adjust.

With two kid beds under my belt, I took it to whole ‘nother level.

A queen size bed for my queenie and me.

Make Art Queen Sized

I found a stack of wood, oak stickers, the sort of wood used to separate loads on a rail car. Since I lived near the railroad tracks, I saw trains pass and wondered where all of the spacer wood went.

A neighbor found the wood dump and brought home a load of oak he planned on sawing up for firewood. It was rough cut and furry looking.

We bargained it out and I ended up with bed-wood.

The first part of the project was milling the rough cut smooth. I did this with my table saw, running the long boards through with just enough cut to remove the fur.

At the end of part one I ended up with wood that looked store bought.

The next part was cutting everything down to size, which was easy. The hard part was deciding to join everything together with woodworking skills, like mortise and tenon joints. And glue.

Make something that is challenging, but not engineer challenging. Mortise and tenon joints can happen free handed, or with a jig. Mine were free hand.

While my wife was gone for a few hours, I assembled the bed, then took it apart and changed out the old bed for the new. When she came back home I did a little “Ta Da” presentation.

The bed was beautiful. The first time we sat on it, the mattress fell to the floor and the head and footboards collapsed. A mortise and tenon jig would have helped.

Neither of us was hurt, but I changed the bed back. The beautiful oak bed I had milled down to semi-perfection? It became four foot stools. Really nice footstools. Not the same as a bed, but not a loss either.

Make art that adapts to change.

Make A Card And Save It

My wife has a friend with great ideas on decorating, organizing, and giving advice. I say this with appreciation, also a little jealousy because her ideas concern things I should have figured out.

But we’ve already seen how I make something better, like footstools.

She said now is a good time to go through pictures and cards and sort them out, which means throw them away. Throw them away?

Not so fast, there.

If I didn’t write this blog everyday, I’d be more than the minor league hoarder that I am. I might be called up to the majors, rent a storage unit, and start scouring the earth for ‘treasure.’

I read a Larry McMurtry book called Cadillac Jack that dipped into this.

We have a saying around the kitchen that goes like this, “Don’t throw it away,” which leads to ‘old food’ decisions. The regular solution is to eat it, not throw it away. So far so good.

I try to throw things out, recycle, reuse, donate. But the image at the top is one of something I rescued.

How many times can you freeze a moment in time? With little kid hand prints? This one isn’t going anywhere.

It went from storage, to recycle, to my hands and into my ‘art collection.’

Make art? Yes, but don’t make a mess. And if you do make a mess, clean up after yourself.

Me? I’ll be leaning back with my feet on that special oak footstool. And making plans.

And remembering little hands.

What have you made? Something big? Something little?

Something to share? Let’s hear about it.