Why Are There Porch Pirates?

 One of the current scourges of shoppers everywhere is the fear their Amazon, FedEx, or USPS delivery won't make it through the front door. In case you haven't noticed, especially with Amazon, not only do they text you that they made a delivery, they include a photo of the package where it has been left on your porch. 

That is well and good unless a porch thief has been following the truck and is doing some porch shopping. While it is a daily problem, it is especially bad during various holidays when gift giving (and stealing) is expected.

I have become addicted lately watching porch thieves videos on Facebook. I stumbled on one after posting photos and description of a current artwork. While I watched I couldn't believe they taunt the camera as they snatch and grab. The treat, of course, is the exploding box that surely will ruin their clothes, their car and hopefully their day!

Stealing has consequences as the purple man here is discovering but the question remains, to me, why?

The Porch Thief here, comes up to the porch, makes a snarky remark to the camera and heads back to his $600,000 Rolls Royce SUV, complaining as the box explodes, then curses. I mean, well, it IS a surprise. The question remains, why? Is this how you can pay for a Rolls Royce SUV?

In retrospect I don't think he considered this smart move very well. I mean how do you explain this to the insurance man and your dry cleaners because this is paint baby and it's on everything!

It can't be a matter of money, can it? These people are driving Rolls Royce SUV's, exotic sports cars, Cybertrucks, many that will be ruined in their joyous glee of putting "freebies" in their cars. 

This young lady appears to have more than enough "things." What makes it so important that she needs more? Short of cash?

Have Americans become so greedy, in all classes, that they feel it's their right to walk on to private property, pick up a package NOT addressed to them on a private porch and walk away? 

Really? Surprise!

But the most galling thing to me are the angry (why of course I'm sure they are angry after being caught pink, blue, green or red handed) arguments they make. "I was 'just' crossing your porch and 'stumbled"'on your package." Why were they on private property at all? Mothers and grandmothers defend their wayward children rather than giving them some kind of punishment for stealing. I'm sure I'm not alone having had your mother make you go back to return something you stole, or pay for it AND apologize for stealing something at the local store. That's what parents did, once upon a time. Even the kids in the video dragged these parents away in full acknowledgement of what they did as they stood dripping in paint.

Of course not all surprises are paint or glitter. One ingenious homeowner used his pet lynx that flew through the door for the surprise of that porch thief 's life. I don't think he'll be calling there again.

Unfortunately even the "politically correct" are not immune from a "little" present now and then. You can't help but laugh at their greed but also wonder what has made this acceptable in our society at any level.

Many cities suffered "smash and grab" events where 20 or 30 people in black hoodies and masks would rush a store armed with hammer and crow bars to break cases and grab what they could in say 30 seconds. Videos of their cars showed anything but junkers. Are they bored? Does this give them a thrill?

The answer is probably yes. In the 50's and 60's many of us had jobs. Between school, maybe sports or band and a part time jobs there wasn't time to be bored. Today youth are crowded out of part time jobs by under employed college grads asking if you want fry's at McDonalds. Working parents leave unattended kids at home with time to get into mischief. I came home to mom who asked about homework and made the decision if I had to study now or could wait until after dinner.

However, it's not just kids. Here an adult with a Porsche, no less, is learning a lesson about sticky fingers. Why would she jeopardize all she has for a box she has no idea what its contents are? I guess enough is never enough.

Actions have ramifications and will not be ignored. Whether these are staged or real videos, owners have rights too and trespassing on private property, stealing merchandise not belonging to you and leaving (stealing) with it have ramifications. As the Bible says in the 10 Commandments, "Thou shall not steal." It means exactly that; do not take what is NOT yours. And in case you forget, some jurisdictions will send a police officer who can write you up and/or take you to jail.

Maybe it's the thrill of it all but whether an owner will go to such lengths for future thefts or not, I know that they wish they could. And for those that do, let's hope these thieves have learned a lesson they will never forget!!!

Thank you for reading my blog! Please be sure to visit on a regular basis or contact me at KrugsStudio@gmail.com. New blogs are added all the time. In conjunction  with my store I feel that “design” is an important part of our lives. Everything we use or live by was designed by someone. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates design about my blog.

Please be sure to visit my store, KrugsStudio.etsy.com on a regular basis. New birdhouses, craft items, photography and canvas paintings are added all the time. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates local handcrafted items about my store.

OWN or GIFT an original work of art this year!

How Bottle Caps and Jar Lids Make Great Paint Cups

A dirty palette -  think of the
water wasted cleaning it!

I've been painting, both on the traditional canvas and for years crafting birdhouses, boxes and trays, 15 years in fact. One of the problems is what and where you squirt out the paint you're going to use. Even more perplexing is what you do with it after you paint!

Since I rarely use oil anymore (the drying time is way too slow and difficult to use on wooden birdhouses and such), I'll talk here about acrylics.

Since I use already mixed colors from say DecoArt or Folk Art, I rarely have a need to mix. If I do, I have used a piece of paper or a small plastic palette with divots to mix colors. Then when you're done you head to a faucet and scrub away.

A definite no-no!

Teachers I've had frown on using the cap of a paint bottle and using what's stuck to the top. I know it's not good for the paint but what's a man to do? I finally hit upon those little plastic cups they use for hot sauce and such saving them, dirty or not, from takeout orders. I then finally realized that any small, clean cap would do.

I'm talking about plastic bottle caps, medicine bottle caps, even jar lids run through the dishwasher to clean, would do. In fact, the jar caps are perfect for mixing. When done, just throw them away, NO clean-up needed!!!

Why didn't I think of this before? 

Use caps of all sizes

Living in Southern California and, now Palm Springs, you are always aware of water and its usage. Our condo   complex was paid over $26,000 by the city for removing the green grass along the front of the complex. Inside we've removed all but a small area of grass replacing it with desert landscaping. We saved paying for less water, equipment and mowing time for desert landscaping. I mean after all, this IS the desert. In fact most of Southern California, including Los Angeles, is a desert. Its vast water projects keep it green until it doesn't.

The beauty of cap usage is 1: you've already paid for the product and 2: when finished, after using it you can just throw it away, no cleanup needed. However, be aware that if you use the same color, often like white or black, you can use it several times until it's full. The only concern will be washing out your brushes. A lot less time cleaning means more time painting.That's a big plus for me.

Used caps

As you can see here, many of my projects only need a small bit of paint. I use black a lot and I've added black in small amounts a few times in the cap you see here. Hopefully my paints will remain more fluid over time as they aren't open to our drying air.

Our humidity is so low you can literally see the brush water basin shrink in a day or two. Even more telling is the kitchen sponge. It will completely dry out overnight here, in Palm Springs.

Give it a try and see if it makes the painting experience faster and more enjoyable. You'll have more than enough caps and lids in no time!

Thank you for reading my blog! Please be sure to visit on a regular basis or contact me at KrugsStudio@gmail.com. New blogs are added all the time. In conjunction  with my store I feel that “design” is an important part of our lives. Everything we use or live by was designed by someone. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates design about my blog.

Please be sure to visit my store, KrugsStudio.etsy.com on a regular basis. New birdhouses, craft items, photography and canvas paintings are added all the time. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates local handcrafted items about my store.

OWN or GIFT an original work of art this year!

Mr. Clean's CLEAN FREAK Gets Things Freaky Clean!

As a senior living alone I don't like things messy or dirty (except my work bench which always looks like a storm hit it). I do try to keep the kitchen and bathrooms clean. However, keeping things in the kitchen and bathroom clean is always a challenge. I'm sure any housewife will agree.

One of the worst  things is the glass top on an induction stove! URGH!!! No matter how hard you try, something gets baked on that surface. Cleaning is a daily challenge. When I moved into my condo I replaced the stove because the glass top was so encrusted with debris I couldn't get it clean! They didn't even try. The new stove came with a 2 oz. bottle of cleaner looooog gone by now.

I found DAWN does a fairly good job and amazingly Bon Ami, which I once used to keep ferrotyping plates clean when I had a darkroom, does a decent job without scoring the glass.

After I recently burned spaghetti sauce in my Faberware stainless steel pot, I tried my go-to soap, Dawn. Not much came off. I remembered I had bought Mr. Clean CLEAN FREAK after reading an article in CONSUMER REPORTS that picked it as the best cleaner available. I had bought a bottle but wanted to use everything else I had up first. 

What the heck! I grabbed the bottle and sprayed it in the pan. Then let it set a few minutes. Wiping with a nylon scrubber huge chunks lifted from the pan. A few scrubs more for a minute and most of it was gone. WOW! I remembered scrubbing similar burned food from the same pan with Comet and steel wool in what seemed like hours when I was a kid. My mother, then married life and now finally single, I am still using Faberware. The pan looks new.

CLEAN FREAK comes in a 16 oz. bottle and costs $6.49 on Amazon. It can exchange with refills in two scents. One interesting feature is the "squeeze." How you squeeze gives you a small, medium or bursts of spray. It's meant for countertops, tubs, toilets, stainless steel. But, as I found out, it can be used for much more. It uses a fancy alcohol mixture to do its magic.

When I discovered dried blood on my newest bedspread I kind of got upset. How it got there I'll never know. Since I'm on blood thinners I cut and bleed easily. So I grabbed CLEAN FREAK again and with a wet wash cloth, sprayed it on the blood, scrubbed a bit and it was gone. I mean 100% gone.

Finally, when I went into the studio to start painting I washed my water bin and a few brushes with Dawn. Dawn has been a great cleaner for me of brushes, my water containers and, if I move fast enough getting paint off my clothes.

Seeing the CLEAN FREAK bottle there I sprayed some in my palm and started scrubbing the brushes I had just cleaned again. As I started scrubbing the brushes in my palm, in no time the spray became dirty. I realized CLEAN FREAK was removing dried acrylic from the paint brush bristles. I don't know how much more dry paint it can remove but those brushes were noticably cleaner in just a few minutes.

I think folks there's a new cleaner we can use to keep our brushes cleaner. Will it remove dried paint on clothes? Stay tuned, I will report on that next. I'm just glad to hopefully need just one cleaner for the messes in my life!

Thank you for reading my blog! Please be sure to visit on a regular basis or contact me at KrugsStudio@gmail.com. New blogs are added all the time. In conjunction  with my store I feel that “design” is an important part of our lives. Everything we use or live by was designed by someone. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates design about my blog.

Please be sure to visit my store, KrugsStudio.etsy.com on a regular basis. New birdhouses, craft items, photography and canvas paintings are added all the time. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates local handcrafted items about my store.

OWN or GIFT an original work of art this year!

Making My Own Door Hanger For $2.50

I have always liked door hangers. While most people don't bother, those that do often have interesting personalities. I hated my boring brown door and after buying a lion's head brass knocker in Hong Kong have tried to "go with the seasons!" You know, some kind of Christmas item, say a wreath, a Valentine's heart, spring flowers and so on.

This year nothing, including prices, attracted me. Sorry Michael's.

Painting thrills for $1.25

For the past few months I've been drawn to cubist art and have decorated birdhouses, gourds, trays and even a real canvas in this newfound fascination.

Going to Dollar Tree recently looking for disposable bowls for pot luck pool parties, I spotted a blank 12" x 12" thin wood blank plaque with a jute hanger. Stopping, I picked it up and thought, "Here it is! My hanger and for just $1.25." Below there were smaller blanks with one shaped like an arrow. For $2.50, and a lot of work ahead, I had my hanger.

Because it was wood, for once I put a sealer on the side to be decorated. I'm not sure it made things any better as transparent paints struggled to give a smooth, streakless base surface.  Many colors still needed several coats. In the worst cases I painted a cream undercoat and then the transparent paint on top.

The first step is the design, or layout in the trade. I did it in pencil and keep an eraser handy to remove mistakes in design or just before a transparent paint seals it in forever.

Here you can see the outline and beginning of painting in the base colors. I try to paint all of a color where it is to be used before moving to another (I wish). As more colors are added you find yourself reaching for a color you've already used or giving a color a second coat.

Here you see more colors added. The bright green has had two coats already and the gold around the central face has as well

To me putting the background colors is both tedious and frightening. People ask, "What do you think about when you're painting?" It's not about Trump or the Iran War that's for sure! It's more like: that's a crappy stroke, OMG why did I pick that color, are you sure you want to do that?, crap, I got paint on my pants, or sometimes grubbing about on the floor for something that fell. It's ALL about the painting. It may not be tension free but it's in another reality completely and that's good.

Here I need to work on the eyes.

Finally all the background colors are in and the fun begins. As you can see most of the hard black lines are in. For this I am now using a Uni POSCA black paint pen that gives a reliable black line I just couldn't get with a Black Sharpie Fine Point pen.

POSCA pens offer a variety of tip sizes and mostly opaque colors wonderful for getting into tight spaces. I have tried many pens and these have performed that best on wooden surfaces.

More work has been done to the outline making it clearly defined now. Small details have been added alá Zentangle items with a .08 fine tip Pentil pen. Flowers in the middle purple and in the central face. A checkerboard pattern is in the upper right. 

It's amazing how these small details add so much character to a piece. Filling blank spaces with unexpected details can delight the viewer. I have no problem mixing styles if it adds to the item I've created. Why not? Especially if it enhances your work.

I've found that adding pieces of say small wood blocks, or jewels, half round balls, wooden hearts and such give another dimension to the piece.

You can see the small heart in the central face and green half circle buttons on the red fence. Jewels were added to the crown.

Even puffy paint is used to give dimension. Anything to break the plain, flat surface. When done it's very interesting to see in person.

The final step is roughing up the black lines. To do this I use black oil pastels drawn over all black lines then use a pointed paper scrubber to soften every line. From a cold sterile line I get a softened line that adds so much more dimension.

Next came the welcome arrow. If you're going to have a door hanger why not welcome visitors? Dollar Tree had the perfect add-on - an arrow to match the plaque! So I bought it for another $1.25 and decorated it to match the plaque.

The same steps are followed, pencil outline, base colors, hard black lines, details and scrubbing the lines with oil pastels.

Here is the finished arrow already to attach.  

The hanger joined!

The last step was getting the arrow attached to the plaque. I have pretty much lost the use of my right hand so I really wasn't sure on how to do it. My Chinese partner suggested I drill two matching holes at the bottom, cut the arrows jute, thread the jute like the top and re-knot the jute on the back. That's exactly what I did . I threaded the jute through the holes and tied it again on the back. You'd be amazed what you can do with one hand and scotch tape. Here is the finished project!

Here is my welcome hanger on my front door!

Thank you for reading my blog! Please be sure to visit on a regular basis or contact me at KrugsStudio@gmail.com. New blogs are added all the time. In conjunction  with my store I feel that “design” is an important part of our lives. Everything we use or live by was designed by someone. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates design about my blog.

Please be sure to visit my store, KrugsStudio.etsy.com on a regular basis. New birdhouses, craft items, photography and canvas paintings are added all the time. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates local handcrafted items about my store.

OWN or GIFT an original work of art this year!

I Am Not An ATM!

I am an 80 year old man on a pretty fixed income who lives in the State of California. I have medical bills, a wide variety of medical issues, am alive via a plethora of drugs, living alone with a home mortgage (a 30 year loan given to me at age 70). I am NOT an ATM with an endless flow of money.

I don't know about you but I'm getting pretty darn sick of the hands "out" for my money. It comes as mail, text messages and email relentlessly each and every day. 

It seems to me any one can start a charity with tax free status and become its CEO. I recently received Charity Watch's recent report guide (40 pages) and let me tell you, there's a charity for just about anything you can think of. I know! It fills my mailbox, my daily text message and 100's of emails in all my email accounts daily. Give to one charity and you will gain 100 more appeals. Maybe I should start one myself. Some of these CEO salaries are eye watering and the amount actually going to many charities is pretty low. Many are only 60% effective with salaries in the $200-600,000 range. One is 49% effective with salary ranges $167-385,000 range. Pretty good work if you can get it.

And this barely scratches the surfacee. Many of the charities in the Coachella Valley aren't even mentioned.

However, my biggest complaint is elections. As if those in California aren't enough ( our recent governor primary had at least 26 candidates if not more before election day), I had 49 other states Senate and Representatives and even more PAC's asking for money. If I gave to them all - Alan can you send first $3, then $5, then $20 and one asked for $100 from a person in a state 2,000 miles AWAY - I'd be bankrupt in a week. And why, WHY should I send money to Alaska, Montana, Georgia, Vermont, even Texas? They won't do anything for me. It's not like I write a Senator in Alaska about a problem I'm having in California. Will they help me get an American visa for my Chinese partner where our embassy in Beijing won't take appointments for visa renewalsl? Either we get to vote for EVERY Senator or Representative in EVERY state or you run and get campaign money from your own state.

Article 1 of our Constitution states "All legislative Powers herein shall be vested in a Congress which shall be comprised of Members of a Senate and House of Representatives. House members are elected every two years. It goes on to state there will be two Senators from each state for a term of six years. There is no set limit of Representatives. It also adds Senator must be at least 30 years old, lived as a citizen for nine years and "be an inhabitant of the state for which he will be chosen."

It also states times, places and manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature. It also gives Congress the option of altering election laws. 

As a youth I knew most elections for state electors was held by and for those running for office in their own state or county or city. Tammany Hall in NYC comes to mind. At some point, as elections cost more and more each party reached out the wealthy benefactors to help pay for campaigns. Clearly at some point candidates saw the fortunes of the Democratic and Republican Parties grow and must have asked themselves, " why not me?" Why not? It's free money!

This is too big of a cash cow to BBQ and we know Congress will never, ever untie the money leash they have been milking for decades. The same goes for every elected official in every state. I propose an electronic ballet be created by impartial, hopefully neutral officials, in every state, using the same verbiage, held on the same day that asks voters what limits should be set for money raised, time for when an election is held and if term limits should be set for the entire Congress to two terms as we limit our President and Vice President. In the UK once an election is called candidates have 90 days to run for office! Wouldn't that be heaven? From our four years or every two years for Representatives to three months?

The Founding Fathers never expected  Congress to remain in government for their lifetimes. Why should ours think so? Who knows, we might just get a government that works again.

Thank you for reading my blog! Please be sure to visit on a regular basis or contact me at KrugsStudio@gmail.com. New blogs are added all the time. In conjunction  with my store I feel that “design” is an important part of our lives. Everything we use or live by was designed by someone. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates design about my blog.

Please be sure to visit my store, KrugsStudio.etsy.com on a regular basis. New birdhouses, craft items, photography and canvas paintings are added all the time. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates local handcrafted items about my store.

OWN or GIFT an original work of art this year!

The Painting Saga of an Abstract Face On a Birdhouse and Tray!

Items to paint - a wood birdhouse
amd a wooden tray

I am trying something new in my blog. I will try to give a day by day work in progress report on the creation of two new projects using similar designs and colors but on two radically different surfaces. I will be using a wooden tray and a mushroom shaped birdhouse (with a plastic top)  while trying to use a similar design and colors.

Because the objects are so different it will be a challenge to keep designs similar. I think my object here is to show how the same design becomes something different on different surfaces and media. It is always good to have more than one project so the first project is dry when you come back to it. 

As for the media I found the mushroom birdhouse at Aldi for $7.99 ( I should have bought them all as I can't find more) and the tray at Michael's years ago. I think it was part of a nesting set.

DAY ONE

I got both surfaces ready for painting. I removed the plastic top of the birdhouse as I will make no attempt to change that. I did light sanding of the wood surface on the birdhouse but found it was already quite smooth and needed little additional work.

The tray needed sanding especially on the corners and edges. I then sprayred a flat black enamel paint on in inside and outside rails and vaguely around the bottom allowing some of the wood to show. This took several coats as the wood was porous and soaked up the paint. I decided to not seal the wood first though I probably should have. While opaque paints cover well, more transparent paint like yellows, oranges and reds often need two coats, or more, to cover well.

Pencil outlined  birdhouse

After thoroughly dry, the black paint needs sanding as it brings up the grain of the wood. Then it's time to draw the pattern.

Depending on the base color i use a regular lead pencil to sketch out the design. On dark surfaces white lead pencils show the design better. Once your design is laid out the painting can begin.

Paint selection can be  tricky. I used to gather paints I thought I would use but found while the colors looked good together in the bottles, the actual paint didn't. REMEMBER, all acrylic paints dry a shade darker! Now I grow the colors organically laying one down then considering what the next should be. You often come up with amazing, even startling combinations you would have never chosen. I love color and especially the interplay between them.

The adding of color to the outlines.

Ending with day one painting

As you can see, with several coats of paint colors the pattern begins to emerge. The beauty of this is when you finish one piece you can paint another. When done you can start a new color on the first piece as the acrylic paint is usually dry.

DAY TWO

Today, as you continue to paint, you continue the background colors in the larger blocked areas. For me this is always a time of uncertainty. Am I using the "right" colors, is the layout right, "How does it look?" Realizing, of course, the differences in size, scale and color, this angst becomes worse.

Painting is a bit messy

The biggest challenge here is the wide difference a 2D surface presents to 3D. Round vs. flat! You can see both items share common elements but already they are beginning to change.

As the number of colors grow the workbench begins to fill up with paints, markers, paper towels all needed to clean, paint or outline various portions of the project . Believe me, it doesn't take much time for this list to grow. 

Since many colors don't cover well another layer of color is often needed. I'm sure another artist reading this would suggest a sealer layer over the entire project first before painting and I'm beginning to consider that good advice. While some paint can cover in one coat, because of the absorbancy of wood, other paints can require another coat or two. In the past  I have used an opaque creme colored paint as an undercoat and then put the colors I want on top of that. It works well and I should have used it here. I was led astray by trying to record this daily (or actual working day). I wanted colors to pop up immediately.

I use mostly DecoArt paints with a smattering of Folk Art. Their paint are thicker with more pigment and I find I need a bit of water to use them successfully. I have started using Uni POSCA acrylic paint pens and they give me the ability to "paint" lines I can't with a brush. Eighty year old hands are not as steady anymore.

My black lines are made with Sharpie Fine Point pens. Their black is dense and pretty much doesn't run later when adding an acrylic varnish to seal the artwork. Again it allows me to create steady lines plus reach into areas I can't with a brush.

I use, despite ALL the brushes I have, two rather grubby brushes. One, that I use to outline painted area like the photo above is a thin round bristled brush. Because, this style doesn't have big areas, I use a battered old flat brush to fill in the outlined areas. As you can see it seems to work.

Spaces between colors is good.

I wanted to show a close-up of the paints as I paint them next to each other. I don't worry about them touching or leaving a small space between them as I will outline each with a thick black stroke. I will work with this line later. After working with another technique on my second Abstract Face Birdhouse I found just a harsh black line not "enough." I will show this technique later. I feel it softens the line and makes the overall design craggier!

You might ask," Well, how long does this all take?" The short answer is hours. I have a TV on my work bench and listen to rather than watch shows. Currently I'm in about Season 14 of a BBC show, HEARTBEAT. Or, I listen to classical music on the radio or from my CD's. When I am painting, or some may call it crafting, the real world with all its political worries is far away. I've also found that when I'm away too long, I get grumpy and impatient. Painting is my senior therapy.

The results after Day Two!

DAY FOUR

Black bottom!

Day Four was a cleaning up and finishing up. All blank spaces on both the tray and birdhouse needed to be completed. The bottom of the birdhouse was painted black so I could add a golden spiral on it so that it would complete the all around design. Once this was completed then use a Sharpie Fine Point marker, which is not very fine, every color is drawn around an homage to cubist painting techniques.

Once all the outlining ingredients is done then any other details are added such as glitter glue on red or green paints, truly extra fine markers for other details and element and finally in stages a black oil pastel is lightly drawn over every black line and "smudged" with a smudging stick.

Starting the smudge.

I did my first abstract face cubist birdhouse without this step and while I liked it I realized it was a bit harsh, especially after seeing paintings by Picasso and others. The smudged lines soften the lines and add a kind of aging to the work I found appealing. Always accused of being "too" realistic I found a way of creating a more impressionistic image. And it can work on pedestrian objects like trays and birdhouses. As you can imagine, after outlining this takes even more time and this is just about where the time went on day four.

Here is the tray nearly completed.

You can see the lines are smudged, glitter glue is in place and small details were added. Many of the same elements and all colors were used on the birdhouse yet because a 2D and 3D objects are so different they can only share features differently.

DAY FIVE

Finished birdhouse

Spiral is added

Both items are finished. The last details are added and everything is sprayed with an acrylic varnish to keep all materials: acrylic paint, puffy paint, markers, acrylic pen paint and glitter glue from running when a final acrylic varnish is put on the protect the surfaces from the elements, i.e., hung outside for the birdhouse and washed for the tray.

One of the things I added to the tray was an eye on the outside rail on one side and lips on the other. I felt these elements tied the tray to the fully painted inside making sure it wasn't an after thought. It is very east to over work a design and often takes great restraint not too. 

The finished tray with all elements in place

Here is an angle view of the tray with the guiding eye:

I hope you have enjoyed my daily progress project report. As you can see, no project is "easy" and yet it can be a time where the worries of your world are held at bay with something that gives you pleasure!

Alan

Thank you for reading my blog! Please be sure to visit on a regular basis or contact me at KrugsStudio@gmail.com. New blogs are added all the time. In conjunction  with my store I feel that “design” is an important part of our lives. Everything we use or live by was designed by someone. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates design about my blog.

Please be sure to visit my store, KrugsStudio.etsy.com on a regular basis. New birdhouses, craft items, photography and canvas paintings are added all the time. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates local handcrafted items about my store.

OWN or GIFT an original work of art this year!

Creating A Chinese Opera Mask Birdhouse.

Traditional Chinese Opera Mask

As a crafter I am always looking for new subject matter, new ideas if you will. After finishing my last birdhouse with a mola inspired design my partner suggested I try a Chinese Opera mask on a gourd. I was struck by the idea and said to myself "why not?"

Raw gourd birdhouse

For those who have never seen Chinese Opera, the artistry is quite stunning. and very similar to Japanese Kabuki. It is an ancient Traditional, highly stylized performing art that combines music, vocal acting, mime, dance and acrobatics. The Peking Opera, with over 100 regional branches, is the prominent "national theatre," featuring elaborate, symbolic makeup and costumes to portray historical, romantic, and supernatural tales. Disney's MULAN would be a Chinese Opera tale. The masks can be used in acting or mimic actual painted faces of actors. As in Shakespeare's day, all roles, male or female, were acted by men.

Google's search engine gave me a trove of options

Because I already had gourds that were scraped clean with bird holes and hanging cords the challenge was finding the right "mask" to paint.

After a Google search for Chinese Opera masks I soon had quite a collection to choose from. Because I wanted a black background I thought a mostly white face would "pop" from the background.

Then after I had my gourd ready for the image I wanted to use, I froze for several weeks. It seemed an impossible task that I wouldn't be able to do. It became worse after I tried to sketch the face on the gourd. It seemed like it might work but looking at my sketch and the beautiful masks hanging on the wall in front of me, I set it aside. What followed were days  of struggling how to actually paint it.

Finally one night when I couldn't sleep I realized that I should paint around where the the white face would be then paint the face covering any mistakes I made. The next day the housekeeper came and I hide in my studio, my very messy second bedroom, and got to work.

Amazingly it went quite fast. I could stick a finger in the opening and paint the black outlining all around where the face should be.

Once I had the face defined I painted it white around the black background and black parts of the mask. I had to be careful but acrylic paints dry quickly though for  large areas I hung the gourd to dry and washed my brushes so the black wouldn't remain in the bristles.

Once dry, I added vermillion to the lips that now surrounded the opening for birds (hoping, of course, the face wouldn't scare them). The face is taking shape but oddly a 2D photo doesn't capture the 3D gourd. Now to add nose, ears and eyes.

The good thing for me was the minimal use of colors: black, white, a Chinese vermillion for the lips and simple decoration, brown for the eyes and of course a rubbing of white for the lips and eyes that make the mask look almost real. 

The real surprise was that once started, even allowing for drying periods, was that it only took about four hours to create. 

However, the top neck and back looked rather bare so I decided to add Chinese styled clouds to the top of the front and larger stylized clouds to the empty back in white. That was all it really needed. 

I had done my panicked delay for no reason. Friends who have seen it either in person or photos have been supportive and now that I have completed it realize the steps I should follow for the next, more ambitious birdhouse. A lot of future projects depend on the shape of gourds. For a wide selection of natural gourds in all shapes and sizes I use Welburn Gourd Farm products. Visit their web site, welburngourdfarm.com for a wide variety of ready to paint or sculpt birdhouses available in a variety of shapes and sizes!  Take a peek.

I always let everything dry thoroughly a few days which happens here (quickly in Palm Springs if left in the sun a few hours) before varnishing with an outdoor acrylic varnish. I usually apply several coats a day apart. Oil based varnishes are better but since cleanup is messy I don't use as much, throwing the brush away after. In fact I save several projects so I can do them together. So brushes don't dry up I place them in an air tight baggies and the bristles usually are still flexible for a day or two.        

This latest project shows there is no limit to what you can try!      

Thank you for reading my blog! Please be sure to visit on a regular basis or contact me at KrugsStudio@gmail.com. New blogs are added all the time. In conjunction  with my store I feel that “design” is an important part of our lives. Everything we use or live by was designed by someone. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates design about my blog.

Please be sure to visit my store, KrugsStudio.etsy.com on a regular basis. New birdhouses, craft items, photography and canvas paintings are added all the time. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates local handcrafted items about my store.

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