Storytelling Saturday: Objects that Tell Tales...

I have always been interested in the way objects tell stories, how artists & craftsmen build, repurpose, recycle & take seemingly disparate & even discarded things & turn them into something new, something that tells a tale of the artists choosing, waiting to escape the confines of function & tell the world something new or something it had forgotten. I collected things, arranged themin different ways, covered my walls or just bits of paper. It comes from many different sources, from hearing of times past when things were not discarded, but used over & over again, in quilts of old clothes, repurposed dresses handed down from sister to sister, from the frugality of the 30's to the 60's hippie movement, 80's punk re-inventions & 90's thrift store grunge, each generation building on remnants of the past, using these blocks to tell their own story...

I recently stumbled upon a great example of such an object, an old door that tells the tale of a wedding...

Held in 1965, in Fiji

Presided over by the bishop of Polynesia...

And attended by quite a cast of characters...

The bride's attendants were all male...

Painted palm trees adorn the the door with tropical color...

I came upon this door in a local architectural salvage store (Earthwise). I wonder how it got there? Who was the couple? Who painted the door? The door tells their story, but it leaves as many questions as it answers, what an amazing piece & an amazing story!

I think just about any object tells a story, some more straightforward than others. What stories have you uncovered recently? SAM

*As always, images remain the property of Shelley McElhiney, all rights reserved, feel free to share with credit back to Shelley McElhiney & this blog. Please contact the blog for any other desired usage.

Winter Ice

So, yesterday, it started to snow & we woke up with a layer off snow & ice everywhere, most of which seems to have stuck around throughout the day. I didn't go outside, but I think I was a bit inspired by all the snow & ice to create something new, from something (or several somethings) old. I had some beautiful vintage crystals, like the sparkles in the snow that shine in the snow, that I picked up at Earthwise Architectural Salvage. It's a wonderful place filled with rescued remnants of old buildings of all types. You never know what you'll find there, from hardware & windows to doors & dishware, anything really that might have been left behind by previous owners, like these pretty little crystals that I started with. I also had a spool of vintage silver string that I discovered in a bag of supplies purchased at a local Goodwill. I crocheted the silver string together with some super soft, ice blue yarn that I had in my stash, for a bit of icy sparkle throughout the bracelet, in several different stitches, to create extra depth, texture & a bit of delicate laciness:

One of the crystals was from an old chandelier, I'm not sure about the round beads

It can be worn as a wrap bracelet, a lariat style necklace or a hair wrap

small round crystals & the soft yarns create a pretty contrast of textures

"Winter Ice" worn as a bracelet.

I've created several of these lately though, each one with vintage, salvaged, repurposed elements.
What have you been inspired by lately? SAM