202: Repurpose

This wonderful pipe rack belonged to my husband's grandfather. My husband doesn't smoke, but when the pipe rack was offered to him, he knew immediately how he would use it.

157: Dismal Falls

This morning the kids and I visited Dismal Falls on the Appalachian Trail, such a perfect spot for a hot, muggy day. After driving a mile up a gravel road, we stopped at a pull-over just a few hundred feet up the trail from the falls. I miss the days when I would have started further up the trail, but this extremely short hike ending in a natural pool was perfect for two young children. They spent a wonderful morning splashing in the water, and we enjoyed meeting three AT through-hikers, for whom this spot was a unique chance to cool off and wash away the sweat of weeks of travel. I was disappointed but not entirely surprised by the amount of litter and food waste at this lovely spot. 

We returned to the farm to find that my husband and his apprentice had completed the installation of the two small handrails portion of the project.

113: Four Seasons Mosaic

My family and I visited the installed mosaic series on this very hot, very humid morning. This is the summer panel. For more shots of the completed and installed panels, check out our Facebook page.

I felt a bit shocked to see the small size of the bolts used to attach the panels to the brick wall, one in each corner of each mosaic. My husband assures me the ones used are long enough and strong enough to do the job.

The entire series, followed by a few images from the courtyard garden and water feature. All ceramic objects were created and glazed by kindergarten through fifth grade students.

My husband, the metalsmith and manager of our business, Phoenix Handcraft, designed and built this beautiful bridge with some assistance from fifth grade students at the school. You can see the mosaic series and garden in the background. For more shots of this bridge, see our Facebook album.

36: Mirror, Mirror

I'm on a mirror kick lately. This one has a frame made my husband. He nearly traded it away at one point but it's one of my favorite pieces and I wouldn't let it go. The items shown in the mirror are his odds and ends, too. The tall white object in the background is an art school project, a tiny chair attached to a long rope ladder and balanced atop a rocket ship. The colorful sculpture next to the rocket was an exchange he made with one of his instructors. And thank goodness! The instructor took a lovely but huge steel piece off our hands that would have been a nightmare to lug around. The black and white piece on the left is a vase he made in middle school, while the item at the front is a rubber band ball he made from scratch.

Whenever I empty or load the dishwasher with my daughter around, she pulls out the flatware and runs off with the cups. So I try to redirect her with a distraction. Since toddlers are such fans of imitation (or mirroring, wink wink), I'll often pull out the kids' collection of toy dishes. I love the light coming through this masher, but here's another image that shows the items involved a little more clearly.

4: At the Studio

I stopped by my husband's studio today to drop off some things he needed from home. While there, I took advantage of the change in routine to poke around his work space a little. This is his post vise, with the tree stump he uses when working in repousse in the background.

My mosaic studio is in the same building. These jars store leftover bits of tile and found objects from completed mosaic projects and projects yet to come. They haven't been opened in a while, but I'm hoping to get back to it soon.