Art, Bunka Shishu, Mushrooms, and More

I do so enjoy a nice cruise through the aisle's of our local 2nd hand stores. They seem to get in a wonderful array of textiles and art. It makes me smile to see all the different kinds of talent out there that went toward making it. I know what it is to be creative and I can appreciate the effort it took to make the objects I am finding. I can't purchase every piece, but those I do, I know I will cherish and enjoy for a long time to come.

This lovely bright colored modern art piece, is a giclee of an original oil painting by artist Beverly Palmer. I was not able to find anything on Foogle about Beverly, but I am perfectly happy buying giclee art, if it is good quality, and a good price. This at $6.99 was a bargain, and so fun I thought it would go with the original oil painting I bought some time ago of the funky ladies in the cafe.

I think these two art pieces are loads of fun but I can't make up my mind whether to hang them in my studio immediately or wait for the new house build and hang them there?! I am leaning towards hanging immediately, they are so bright and cheerful, I want to look at them all the time. They drive away the winter doldrums like magic.

 I just love this latest piece of Japanese Bunka Shishu I found. I saw it up in the window at GW with a note on it that said, "Ask for assistance!" I am not short, so I just reached up and snatched it out of the window, quick as you please. I didn't even look at the price. I do believe that GW is catching on to my love of these things because since January 1st, their prices for art like this has jumped hugely. I paid $15 for this piece and was still glad to get it, but honestly not so long ago I was getting these for half that.

 I love everything about this piece except the condition of the mat. There is evidence that moisture got to this piece at one point and warped the tarnation out of the mat board. Since I plan on removing it, this is not an issue. I think this artist was so good and she certainly had a sense of humor. Have you noticed the tiny owl sitting on the end of the twig down at the far right? It has the letter,"G" tucked in right above it. Now I don't know the significance of the cute little owl, but the piece was made by Gwen Bloomfield, for her name is on the back. I couldn't find out anything about Gwen on Foogle, but I really appreciate her fine needle-crafting abilities, and am happy to add it to my bunka shishu collection.

I can't get over just how realistic this type of needle-craft is. The eye of the eagle looks so bold, his feathers look like they could be ruffled with a breeze, and it almost seems like the nestlings are actually flapping their little wings in greeting. What a lovely piece.

On a whole different level, I fell for this piece. It is tole mushrooms on a funky old piece of pine board. It is the one thing I always wanted to try and never gave it a go, back in the day when tole painting was all the rage. This is going in my new little kitchen, because it makes me laugh to see it. I think it will fit in splendidly. It was $4.99 which was I thought a little high, but the $3 senior discount that day helped.

 I had to take snatch up this fine example of a magnifying glass. Even small ones of these on Amazon are $15. This was just $1.99, which to me made no sense at all. The pricing at GW is always strange, but it is getting worse. It's like they can't make up their minds what a thing is worth?! I was happy to get it for such a value because I use one of these a lot. It is great for stitch counting quilts, deciphering old handwriting, or any number of other useful things. My eyes not being what they once were. It's going to be super handy in my studio, that is if my hubby doesn't swipe it. I barely had it out of the bag and he had it and was polishing it up. I could see he thought it mighty fine too.

At the last I was so glad to find these decorative rings on a shelf. Now I can repair the Hollie Hobby shadow box that was missing one. I am getting rather annoyed at GW's new policy tho, "Nothing priced under 99 cents." This was .99 and in the past it would have been marked something like .45. I am very tempted to not remove them from their original package at all, these being actual vintage rings from the 1970's. I had to include a picture of the back of the package, simply because I thought it a hoot. Look at all the nifty idea's they gave you for how to use them. I think the mini towel ring the funniest. Towel ring indeed! It's so small it wouldn't fit a dolls hair ribbon. ha ha ha  But hey, when was the last time you saw a package like this with Made in U.S.A. printed on it? This package might need to go into a museum because of its rarity. Just kidding!