The installed tree is so tall its hard to get back far enough to get a shot of the whole thing!

Let me see….where to start? Sunday was crazy. I had almost everything organized for TID (Tree Installation Day) but I still had a long list of tiny peripheral bits to finish. Things like tags for the big stack of stackable boxes that were going to display the gift tags,  sewing a crystal on the bookmark, gluing down Santa's letter from the Rotary folks into an old Christmas book-hence the bookmark.

Do I have enough tools? Tape? Ribbon? How many pairs of scissors, wire pliers are in that box? Did I remember to stick in the kitchen sink? That's what it felt like by the time I got the back of our old Durango loaded up with 3 big boxes of tissue wrapped ornaments, a bucket with painted sticks for the wine lights, wrapping paper, tools, telephone, stepladder and my tool bin. I forgot my camera!

Luckily I had my phone camera so I was able to get at least one photo of the tree in process. I did remember my camera yesterday for the final finishing touches which included jamming a ton of wine baskets and wonderful gifts under the tree. Tor arrived 5 hours late on the train with weather delays and breakdowns, a 2 hour trip ate the entire afternoon. He jumped in to the car and we drove through the snow to finish the installation. Getting home at 6:30 was entertaining, we had four wheel drive and had to deal with hundreds of people who didn't, they were slip sliding all over the place and getting thoroughly stuck.

 
Moosh takes in the prezzies, dressed in his snowflake vest for the occaison

 Boy, whoever gets that tree is going to have a great year. The gifts donated by the Rotary people, who really did an outstanding job rounding everything up, include  12 bottles of wine, 3 gift baskets of sexy snacks–including glassware for the wine. A trip to Maui, a trip to Victoria B.C., a helicopter ride, a Karastan Baktari rug, a framed art photo and a ton more. My friends came through too. Shout out to Tone who donated a cool thousand in permanent cosmetics, which are wonderful by the way. (I have to thank her for my eyebrows daily-formerly motheaten, now very nice.) Carolyn at Oly Framemakers gave me an adorable framed print of Santa Claws, sled pulled by cats. Nice.

I whipped up three wine lights for some local color.

I will post instructions for these fun easy wine lights soon. Great for outdoors if you do them with the bottle opening pointed down.

Faye B. met me at the Red Lion Hotel and helped me haul all my supplies and junk down to the ballroom. The room was filled with trees! All the way around the room in every stage of construction. A few were finished and a few were not even started but most of the design teams were hard at work like merry little lady elves. By then it was starting to snow so the mood was especially festive every time we looked out the windows at the white world outside.

It took eight full hours to decorate the tree. Every ornament has to be wired on so it won't come off when the tree is bagged like a giant corpse (eww) and dragged off to the new owner. Luckily, designers are there for the event called "fluff and buff". We get to go to where the tree will finally be installed and unpack everything that was around the tree and deliver it, putting the finishing touches on our trees for their new owners. I am really glad about that because I want to hand carry Carmen Miranda's hat to make sure it arrives intact.

I was so tired by the end of the day, my fingers were sore from wire and I was covered in glitter from one end to the other. My legs and back ached from going up and down the ladder but I was so proud of my tree. Its not like any other tree there. They are all beautiful and all very different from each other.

 Mine turned out exactly as I envisioned which is something rare in an artist's life, and that made everything even better. The ladies who head up the whole shebang were next to me putting up a tree covered in elves. Moosh loved them and the elves! I have pictures…. 
Moosh and his new friend

It was so much fun to see all those ornaments again. They've been packed away as I do them and to see them all together was wonderful. The pictures don't do the tree justice. I will try again tonight at the "Sneak Peek" to get a better shot. It looks very Victorian and white and gold, its just plain pretty.

 
 all finished

With this installation, I have proved what I set out to prove, that you don't have to go out and buy cheap Chinese junk and help pollute the world. We're already in trouble and we don't even know it yet. Our children will reap what we have sowed in the way of  instant and expensive beauty. Yes, this took much longer but the pleasure in creating with my own hands was amazing. ANYONE can do this! You just need patterns and directions and a heart open enough to realize we can still change our world. Okay, Rabbit, off the soapbox now.

Best part? They have already asked me if I would do it again next year. The answer? A resounding YES. I have never worked so hard and felt so fulfilled at anything I don't think. Maybe it was just being allowed to have the vision and control and then share something gorgeous with the world?

Now, next year do I want to do cats or masks or …….?

 
Our girl Carmen, check out those shoes!

Okay, it's really the topper for the Christmas Forest Green Green Tree, but it looks like something Carmen would strap on and shimmy across the floor singing something outrageous.  After I saw the tree toppers on the 'sample' trees at Washington Floral a month or so ago, I was terrified. Those things were serious, both large and in charge. I'm a star on the tree top kind of girl and these trees meant business! Throw in the challenge of going green to make it even better. What on earth to do?

Earth! I went on the hunt for a dead globe, I was willing to conscript my son Torin's really nice one for my concept but as luck would have it, I found a second hand globe lurking in the toy section of a local GoodWill store. $3.00 later I had the raw materials for my concept. I had to unscrew the top and bottom and approach it like a squirrel opening a nut, if said squirrel had access to a jigsaw and opposable thumbs. I used my jigsaw, (yes, mine. Girls like tools too) to cut holes in the top and bottom big enough to stick plastic water bottles inside the globe.

 
cutting the earth down to size

 
who knew Antarctica was so small? 

 I knew I wanted to bring the tree sponsor's theme into my concept for the tree top, the final showy piece de reistance. Rotary is my tree sponsor and their focus is on clean water for children around the world, which mixes nicely with my concept of living more lightly on the earth and leaving a smaller carbon footprint by repurposing used stuff.

I wove a net with wire and acrylic crystals as water drops, glass ones were unfortunately too heavy for this use, and dropped the net over the earth.

Next step was to take the net off and cart the globe to the studio to figure out how to make it into a vase and stick it on top of the tree. The solution was those used recycled plastic bottles. One was glued thoroughly into the bottom of the globe with the neck sticking out using E6000 killer glue. A round rod fits into the neckhole and it can be wired to the tree for stability.  The bottom half of a second bottle  was glued to the bottom of the other bottle. Voila! Instant vase.

I glittered the globe  heavily–one half of the world at a time. Interesting that this was the first time the glass glitter got me. When it's stuck down thoroughly and you grab it, it's like glass sandpaper and I have little glass cuts from my careless handling of the glitter globe. Ah, the pain of making art…

After all  the layors of glue dried I put the stake into the globe, stabilizing  it with shiny silver tape around the bottle neck, the kind of tape guys who do ducting use, I love that stuff. I felt so clever-I used my bench vise to clamp the stake in place to finish the whole thing up. I dropped the crystal net over the now glittery globe, glued that down and added three gold and white ribbons that will unroll the entire length of the tree. 

The final step was to create the floral part with white silk glittery poinsettias, this cool glittery mistletoe looking stuff, and some tingle, which looks like wicker with a permanent wave.  I glittered up the tingle and wired more "water" crystals into the top of it. I wanted it to look like water was falling from the top and running off the globe in a metaphorical sense. 

I love the thing! I was smart enough to make sure I did not glue the flower arrangement in because the finished topper is more than two feet tall and I have to transport it across town and mount it and then dismount it after its sold. Its shiny and catches the light and its fabulous!

Carmen Miranda, eat your heart out!

Carmen Miranda's Christmas Hat

I'm approaching the finish line on what I hope will be a beautiful tree for the Providence Saint Peter Foundation Christmas Forest.  When I finish the ornaments I will have made by hand 302 ornaments for this tree. I'm tired. I think I've hit a small mental wall and the dreaded why-did-I-do-this-to-myself? Will anyone like the tree? Will they get my green concept? Does it matter? Will someone buy it? Did I do it right? 

My friend Faye called it Sally Field Syndrome and says she gets it everytime she does a tree, which is every year. "You like me, you really like me"….etc. I think when you put your entire heart into something its easy to get it broken, which is why being an artist/craftsperson is such an explosive thing to do. If you are serious about this art making thing, you intend to put the work of your heart and hands out into world for people to love, hate, ignore, tolerate and every human emotion in between.

No two people are alike and consensus on opinion is not alike either. I loathe that guy who is "the painter of light", what the heck is his name anyway? His stuff looks to me like art-by-the-yard for over-accessorized pseudo Victorian homes and it makes my skin crawl. He's rich, so a lot of people buy and love his stuff, that's life in the 'art world'.  If you  want to play in that playpen you need the soul of an opera singer and the hide of a rhino along with talent and the years of work to hone it. I do pretty well in all but the getting rich part, but I have my share of dents and cracks acquired over the years.

I think I'm just scared of the whole tree installatoin process too, there's a lot of fear in the unknown.  I have never done this before and I want to get it right.Some big name designers and peeps who have done this for years are in the mix and I'm sure their trees will be amazing. Its not a competition per se, but there is implied competition as in, no one wants to be the designer of the tree that goes for the smallest amount when it gets auctioned. And then again, no one has ever done anything that is green/renewable/recycled so this will be an alien concept. Does anyone actually want to learn this lesson at Christmas? I just don't know.

 I haven't seen the venue or the blank, lit artificial tree or where it sits in the room. I know its against a wall so everything on the back won't be visible, but as Faye pointed out, after its delivered it could well be sitting in the middle of a room and be viewable from all sides. After the auction we have to go "fluff and buff", a big bag is drawn up over the tree and its mandhandled into a truck for delivery to its new owner. This means every fragment on that tree has to be wired down like it was going into a wind tunnel for testing. I'm guessing the glitter will be an interesting thing to contend with when it gets bagged. All I can do is make sure they handle it gently. I'm hoping I get to go along and tidy it up when it gets to its new home. We're back to that again–will someone buy my poor little tree? Sally Field where are you when I need you?

I woke up tired this morning, not enough sleep and the Tree that Ate Cleveland tapping on my subconscious like a crazed squirrel at a window. I had coffee, one of life's wonderful necessities and hit the studio, still in my pajamas. Hey, its Saturday, its the closest I'm going to get to a day off!

I started fighting with the circle cutter and here's what I know: circle cutters hate thin old paper. You have to work to find something acceptable to the infernal machine. I used most of the sturdy sheet music, tried several old books and wound up dragging out a 1987 map atlas which worked well. Also learned to open the "holes" in the balls as I go, stretching them out to make a pretty full circle when done. The glue dots were okay but I went back to the glue gun for speed and sturdy to finish my big batch.

It took all day, but I got a batch of the metal cutouts polished off with bows and final touches and ready to pack in addition to finishing 20 paper balls. A few of the balls are all done, I had to have something to keep me going besides scorching my fingers so I glittered and bowed and baubled some to just enjoy the prettiness. A bunch of them are sitting on a tray waiting for the last touches tomorrow.

I want the paper done because next project is doing the glass. I keep finding more salt shakers I cannot resist and  I have old postcards that I am shrinking and enclosing in sheets of glass, leading and soldering them. They should be pretty, I am shooting for about 10-20 and that should get me close to my goal of 300 ornaments.

Blessings on the gallery that shows my work, Matter Gallery, and Jo Gallaugher, the owner. Matter artists have created 12 ornaments which I will pick up tomorrow and cannot wait to see! I will put up photos of the ornaments too.

I am at the list making stage and into some serious time management at this point. Next Sunday and Monday are Up With The Tree Day, and Tuesday is the gala cocktail party pre-launch. After that, the public pays to tour the forest along with a whole week of breakfasts, dinners, events and finally the big gala auction. Funds raised go to community  health, I'm paying it forward with my work, knowing someone will get care they might not otherwise get with the proceeds.

I don't mind not directly benefiting, its been a wonderful experience and it has been good for me to understand that I can do this stuff, soldering, glass work, wire, paper, you name it. I know I can do lots of amazing arty things and I'm good at it too. Now…if I could just make a living at it…I will be teaching classes in the studio in the spring, a great start, thanks to the encouragement of Carolee and Jamie.

 Exciting stuff! Tree Week, I am only attending the cocktail party for the Chritmas Forest and representing me, the Artist's Market group (rock on independent artists!) and Matter. I'm pretty sure no one has ever seen a tree like this one with 300 completely handmade ornaments. I am just hoping like hell people get the concept. I always doubt everything I do of course.

Which brings me to something I wanted to observe. Paul Sparks, my all time favorite college professor, held that the presentation and finish were as important as the art. I have always taken that to heart and everything I do is finished as completely and as perfectly as I can make it, even if you can't see it, its in the details. Yes, its made the tree ornaments longer and harder than a Wal Mart run, but I am really proud of this work.  

I'm hoping to get the Tree stuff polished off and do some joyous stuff to sell through Matter and my Etsy site. If folks want my ornaments, give me a shout and I'll get them mailed quick as a bunny. (shameless plug for Running Rabbit).

Stay tuned for details on the upcoming Artist's Market Gala and my show in December, but for now its late and I think I'll go fall face down in a pile and sleep until the squirrel starts tapping on my unconscious again…

While my hands are busy with the endless work of creating the ornaments for this magnum opus of a tree, my brain is busy with a lot of things including what to make for dinner, did I remember to feed the cat, give the dog water, and why I am working so hard to make ornaments that are repurposed, recycled and made from renewable resources?

 Every single thing is not green– there are a few plastic bits here and there. In our culture I don't think I could completely escape them and I haven't found glue yet that isn't pretty much like plastic when its dried.  I think I have always been on the recapture and repurpose wagon, way before it became popular. That's what comes of growing up without much money and being very clever, and its a great skill to have, thank you. That, and always wanting to figure out how to make new stuff have been very useful in the construction of what will be over 300 ornaments when done.

 I have always loved second hand stores  and garage sales. The cultural anthropologist in me regards these places as treasure troves of stories of our world. I just don't have to dig and get filthy to do my archaelogy. I am so curious about how did this stuff get here and why?

Being an art packrat I have always dragged things With No Useful Purpose home to just look at,  rocks, sticks, seedpods, shells and pieces of the natural world inspire me. I am the only person whose husband ever looked at her in disbelief when moving house. "Second best rocks? You expect me to move a box of rocks? Where are your best rocks anyway?"  I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd spent money mailing rocks home to myself either. He knows when we go on a road trip the floor boards will be full of stuff I pick up. Last summer went to visit my favorite Utah ghost towns, nothing there but old busted glass shards. 5 Trader Joe bags full of glass and a huge box of bed springs later….oh, did I mention we were in a Mini Cooper convertible? (My husband is wonderful and patient if you haven't already figured that part out.)

I do use these things in my work. I create jewelry from the glass and I love handling it and wondering where it has been and how long. The bedsprings I haven't figured out yet, I'm thinking they'll be windchimes sooner or later, but I digress. The point to this tree is to show that you don't have to go to Joanne's, Target, Michael's (all of which I adore) and buy their gorgeous cheap ornaments made in China. Why not?

From a 2008 editorial in the New York Times: "Chinese leaders argue that the outside world is a partner in degrading the country’s environment. Chinese manufacturers that dump waste into rivers or pump smoke into the sky make the cheap products that fill stores in the United States and Europe. Often, these manufacturers subcontract for foreign companies — or are owned by them. In fact, foreign investment continues to rise as multinational corporations build more factories in China. Beijing also insists that it will accept no mandatory limits on its carbon dioxide emissions, which would almost certainly reduce its industrial growth. It argues that rich countries caused global warming and should find a way to solve it without impinging on China’s development.

But just as the speed and scale of China’s rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history, so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents. Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And it is not clear that China can rein in its own economic juggernaut.

Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water.

Chinese cities often seem wrapped in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe. Beijing is frantically searching for a magic formula, a meteorological deus ex machina, to clear its skies for the 2008 Olympics.

Environmental woes that might be considered catastrophic in some countries can seem commonplace in China: industrial cities where people rarely see the sun; children killed or sickened by lead poisoning or other types of local pollution; a coastline so swamped by algal red tides that large sections of the ocean no longer sustain marine life."

Did you know a lot of the pollution over L.A. comes from China? I think we have become very spoiled Americans. We want things cheap, cute and now. We are often not willing to pay the price for goods that are made in a thoughtful, carbon-light way. I think the price is hidden and the toll in our environment and on humans around the world is a terrible price to pay, and ultimately we will pay it.

With this tree I have decided to celebrate the beautiful things that are already in the world and turn things that are not so beautiful into beauty. Old glass, old metal, old paper, and lots of German glass glitter. 

It has taken me long hours and many of them are hard hours– cutting out old metal with tinsnips racks the back and trashes the hands, solder can burn and glass can cut, but the end result is worth it. Beauty wakes up and walks in the world again. I can share it with hundreds of people who will see the Green, Green Christmas Tree and maybe be inspired to make a few of their own ornaments.

I have put instructions for each and every one in my blog as I go, I hope they inspire your own creativity!

 
And today in addition to mo metal, I am boiling sweaters….my house smells like sheep and there is woolly fluff everywhere!

 
The Angel and the tools at the ready

Got up early and got busy with the metal cut outs. First things first with metal, you need the right tools which include a dust mask, gloves, tin snips, emery paper made for sanding metal, a drill or two, a dremel with a grinding stone and a brush and dust can handy close by.

Metal work is not for sissies. Its messy, its has sharp edges and its just plain hard work, but nothing looks any cooler when you get done either. I guess that's why I keep going back to it. I chose an angel cutout to start with and began by sanding off the rusty bits and old paint to bring up the metal pattern. With this old stuff its really important to put on a clear sealer when finished to make sure the rust doesn't show up and start its evil work again.

 
Drilling a hole for hanging is a cinch with a portable Dremel tool

First step is to wear gloves and a mask and make sure there are no huge jaggedy bits around the edges to catch fingers, those jagged pieces get carefully removed before the real work starts. Using the Dremel with a sanding stone I hit all the curves and all the edges. The hard work starts then with the emery cloth sand paper. Emery cloth is made for metal and does a great job at blunting the edges. About now I strip off the gloves because I don't know of any other way to make sure the edges are not knives in disguise. A light touch can show me any places that need more attention. This part takes about 30-45 minutes and is hard on the hands and elbows, just sand, rub, sand, check, rub and sand some more. I use an entire sheet of emery paper on one metal cut out. The stuff just eats the paper and comes back for more.

When I'm finally satisfied there are no killer edges left and the pattern is raised I clean the pieces up with ammonia and water and scrub them dry. I drill a hole in the top and put a wire twist in to hang on to the piece, I pop outside to the fresh air and spritz it with matte sealer on both sides. After it dries, its glitter time.

 
Angel in the glitter pan getting glue applied. I use trays with raised edges because I recapture all the glitter. I have three different glitter pans because I'm using at least 3 different German glass glitters.

 
Gold flake glitter gives this cut out an organic feel, it looks like mica flakes. Its not dry yet so it looks very thick and not at all clear.

I use Q tips to apply the glue and its really important to choose a glue that dries very clear, like Weldbond which is my glue of choice. This time I tried my new gold large flake glitter and it dried very naturally and the piece looks organic. When I finish up with a halo and some extra touches I'll pop a shot of the finished piece in here but for now check out this marvelous Bell Bear.

 
Bear with a bell, sanded, sealed, ready to ring in Christmas!

Same process but not glittered. I love the way this guy came out! He's about ten inches tall and you can actually find him at Matter Gallery in Olympia, WA. More smaller bears will be on the Tree that Ate Cleveland after I cut them all out and get them ready. I think the metal work is the hardest of all the pieces for the tree but it will be some of the most striking. Only 29 to go….

Counted the ornaments that are done and I have hit 100. Whew, only 200 to go.