Finding the Right Decor

   I recently cleaned all the junk out from my room, took my bunk beds apart and stored them in the attic, and rearranged my two bookshelves. I decided that I wanted to redecorate my room with repurposed and salvaged items, so while I was in Clarksdale one day I went to a junk store that was located in a dirty, waterlogged, dusty, store front that used to be some bigger store. The owner was just trying to make an honest living selling anything that he could. He was really nice and checked on me offten to see if I needed help or had any questions. I found some salvaged chippy painted wood that I liked, an old cotton painting on a wooden panel and as I was fixing to pay the owner for what I had, I saw an amazing trunk barrier under a pile of junk. I quickly asked if it was for sale and he said that it was for sale, so I said SOLD!!! After that I had a trunk for redeocating my room, I just needed a desk and a few little items to hang on my walls. I have a few animal skulls that I want to hang on the walls. I also want to print and frame some of my personal photography. I am going to use one of my bookcases as an art supply station on the left of my desk and the book shelf on the right is going to be my curiosity cabinet. I have so many small curiosity cabinet worthy pieces but I'm going to have to organize it. I also collect weird and strange pottery pieces. I have a Penny Loafer made of clay, a bright orange hunting themed pitcher, and a blue and grey glazed bowl that I found in local woods. Oh! I almost forgot... I got my new desk from my families business that works on and hand-builds Cotton Module Trucks. I notice a dirty, little, blue, wooden desk that needed love, so I broke out the sponges and cleaning spay and put some elbow-grease into shining it up a little bit. Then I called a local glass cutting company and got a custom piece of glass cut for the top of the desk. I brought it home and wa-la, a salvaged desk given new life. Then same day my family went to Cleveland, MSto shop at Wal-Mart and I bought some drawer organizers that are Lego like. They stick together on the sides of each cubby. I am still working on decorating, but hope to be through soon. 

Rust or Bust

    I sometimes think that I was born in the wrong decade. I love old things, but I'm a new soul; only seventeen years old. I find a solice in all things old, vintage, antique, and odd. My love for old things comes from being brought up in the Mississippi delta and being taught to appreciate the value and pourpose of things. For me it's RUST or BUST! I also love making art out of things that once were shiny, but over its lifetime, has weathered, rusted, or has been forgotten. Art to me speaks in volumes when it comes truly from the artist's heart. Art to me is also like species; there are many different styles, forms, and shapes of art.

My New Hobby: Jewelry Making

I have been making salvaged and repurposed jewelry for a little while now. Piecing this and that together to make minimalist and statement pieces. I have made necklaces, bracelets, broaches, and earrings. I love the thrill of making something new from something old. I love mixing something shiny with something tarnished; a little bone with a little rust. That's how I came up with the name Bone&Rust Art Co. My mom let me pick out what I wanted for Christmas since I'm older and don't want toys. We ended up at Jo-Ann's. I picked out some necklace and bracelet chains, some beads, charms, some blank kraft cards, letter stamps, and a black ink pad. I had fun rummaging through all the jewelry making supplies. I can't wait to open it all Wednesday and start designing new pieces with what she bought me. I love that my mom supports me in my journies even if she doesn't agree with or like what I do. I get a lot of support from my family and my artist friends. 

  These are some ideas that I am currently working on.

The top necklace is styled with gold safety pins and pearls.

This necklace is made from antiqued brass chain and grey heart charms.

I bought a few skeleton keys a week ago and am just now getting to design some necklaces around them.

Recycled Light-Bulb Snowmen Christmas Ornament

I started last Christmas making these Snowmen ornaments. I am currently working on the second batch for this Christmas. I hope to sale about 50 or 60 light-bulb ornaments this year. I hand paint each light-bulb and then work on each detail with the smallest paintbrush I own. I love to experiment with the different types of light-bulbs. Depending on with type I use gives me different shapes of snowmen like: a fat snowman if I use this light-bulb...

Or a tall snowman if I use this lightbulb...

           (This is the finished product)

Functional Art: talks with Hayden Hall

As Hayden Hall knows best, these days people are just as interested in functional art as they are fine art. In our conversations, he has offered me the advice that people these days are looking for art that is more than a good wall hanger or unnoticed sculpture. They want functional art; art made to be used. Functional art can be as simple as an old pallet taken apart and put back together as a wooden canvas for painting and added hooks, mechanical parts repurposed as a candle stick, to more elaborate pieces like a Module truck door  turned into a masculine frame for a bathroom mirror. Here in the delta native people have collected and curated fading objects from decades that have since flashed by like rolling credits at the end of a movie. Those items and trinkets need someone to see their potential as a repurposed piece in someone's artwork. Mr. Hayden is a home-grown creative spirit. He is a Mississippi native and has turned his passion for repurposed / functional art and love for food into a small-town grocery and catering store called Oxbow. In an adjoining building that is connected to the store, he has a gallery / showroom that he displays local finds, artifacts, and the art that his wife (Erica Hall) and him create. When they host a pop-up restaurant, they use this showroom as a small sit-down and eat place for their customers. I find their store a relaxing, hometown, refuge where I can escape the pressures of the day, enjoy talking to my friends (Mr. Hayden & Mrs. Erica Hall), and an artist oasis. Oh. and occasionally I find my favorite food; Hayden's very own Tuna Tacos! You know those questions about what would you take with you if you where going to be stuck on a deserted island? Well I would take Mr. Hayden's Tuna Tacos and my iPhone so I could post articles to my blog! 

(Display window of Hayden Hall's Oxbow)

(Locals enjoy Mexican Colas and Tuna Tacos during a pop-up taco day at Oxbow)

(One of my Tuna Tacos that I took a picture of because I wanted to savor the flavor!!!)

Bone&Rust Art Co: Jewelry

I have created some of the most insane pieces of jewelry; from fishing lure lux, to down-right odd, and weird. Some of my pieces that I have made are more minamal like my shotgun shell and leather necklaces, and some are over-the-top statement pieces like my fishing lure necklaces. I collect pieces of scrap and little trinkets every time I go on an adventure. I have just now started to turn them into necklaces and bracelets. I have a few necklaces that I am working on that are some of the biggest and boldest statement necklaces that I have made. 

These Shotgun Shell necklaces are some of my more minamal jewelry makings.

These two fish lure necklaces are by far my favorites that I've made!

Repurposed Lock-plate & Skeleton Key

Work in Progress. (Pearl and Wood)

"Tupelo Honey" Necklace

Work in Progress

Creating

Recently I have noticed that I am creating more art. I have been working on a prototype creation that I don't want to say to much about and give it away just yet. I can tell you that it has to do with displaying and that it is repurposed from natural by products. Since my fist solo art show back in August I have been turning out many of my ideas as paintings, mixed media, and sculptures. Here are just a few:

"Bruises" (x) 

Acrylic & Gold Leaf on Canvas

"3 Oysters" (12x12) still life 

Oil Paint, Acrylic, Mixed Media on Canvas

"American Flag Cotton Field" (4x12) landscape / Oil on Canvas

"The Patch Worker" (4X12) portrait  

Oil on Canvas

This is an arrangement that I'm working on. I have previously made two more of these salvaged panel artworks. 

"Plus Size Monster" (16x20) Surrealism 

Acrylic on Canvas (work in progress)