Thursday, February 02, 2023

Mandala CLII

(Above: Mandala CLII. Framed: 28 1/2" x 28 1/2". Found objects hand-stitched to a section of a vintage quilt. Found objects include: A glass floral frog; sea shells; four, gold teaspoons; dominoes; decorative toy carrots; Barbie doll clothes hangers; wavy hair curlers; Mason Jar lid rings; copper colored can tab pulls; drawer handles; casino chips; Mahjong tiles; vintage film capacitors; orange, plastic circles from six-pack beer yolks; blue, plastic lids; buttons and beads.  Click on any image to enlarge.)  

This Found Object Mandala was totally inspired by the sea shells.  I got them at Bill Mishoe's auction.  I didn't even bid on the table lot where there were.  Another dealer bought that lot and simply gave the sea shells to me.  (I gave him all the glass and china knickknacks on a table lot I purchased.  Nice trade!)  I wondered if I could drill holes into the shells.  Guess what!  It was no problem at all!  

 

(Above:  Detail of Mandala CLII.)

The design was coming along quite nicely until I realized that I have a few empty spots in need of "something orange".  I nearly moved on to another mandala but the mail came!  In the mail was a nice collection of "stuff" from a very talented artist in Washington State, Joanne Bohannon.  One Ziploc bag included a bunch of "orange things"!  I had no idea what they were but googled for information.


(Above:  Detail of Mandala CLII.)

Apparently, these orange things are film capacitors.  For about twenty minutes, I went down an Internet rabbit hole ... reading about film capacitors.  Finally, I realized that I understood absolutely nothing about them despite the explanations.  I do know, however, how to stitch them down!  Thank you, Joanne, for these cool found objects.  They came at the perfect moment!
 

2 comments:

Ann Scott said...

O, I like the contract of the shells in size and value. I always read the items list last... so before, as I was reading along a voice in my head said "Come on Susan, you know those orange things are carrots!" Then realized you were meaning the other orange things; the capacitors, lol.

Christine said...

Love the way you stitched the shells.... Good item to incorporate I think as everyone loves shells.