Copper Pictures

This week, I get a two-fer. My favorite thing happens to also be vintage. How cool is that? So I'll be linking this blog to both Favorite Things Friday (or Favourite in Down Under-ese) and Vintage Thingie Thursday.

My great grandmother (the one whose quilts inspired me to take up quilting) made these two copper pictures.  She was one talented lady!  I love everything about these pictures--the way they look, the subject matter, and of course the fact that my great grandmother made them.  I'll admit that the picture of the oxen pulling the covered wagon is my very most of favorite of the two, because that one in particular reminds me of her.  She was born in 1900 and never left the county of her birth until after she was married.  She and my great grandfather were wheat farmers.  In addition to growing wheat, they lived off the land raising all their own food, and supplementing it with fishing and hunting.  While their life situation was a bit more secure than those who set out across the prairie only a few generations before, my great grandparents were not all that far removed from that type of life.

The picture of the oxen pulling the covered wagon was passed on to us after her death in 1982.  The flowers and butterfly came to me only two to three years ago.

These pictures were made sometime in the 1950's.  My grandfather, her son, said that she and several of her friends learned to do this together.  I don't know how they learned or who taught them.  I have no idea how they are made.  I did a search on Google, but as it turned out copper is used in a lot of art forms and since I don't know the name of the technique, I found all sorts of different types of artwork but none that looked precisely like this.  If anyone knows anything about it, I'd love to hear from you.

My Favorite Thing Friday with Mrs. Pyjamas #2

This stained glass lamp is one of my favorite things.  My dad made it, and I had the role of assistant.  So it's special in two ways--the fact that my dad made it, and the fact that I have the memories of working on it with him.  My dad was very artistic.  He played several musical instruments, but favored the guitar and piano, and had a short stint in his youth playing professionally before it became apparent that was a good way to starve  (like many artists, it's very hard for a musician to actually make a living doing it); he wrote novels and short stories (twenty of the short stories were published); he painted, and he learned to do stained glass.  Before making this lamp, he did only a couple flat pieces, then intrigue with lampshades caught him.  This is not the only one he did.  I'll show off the other at a later "My Favorite Thing Friday".

My dad made this lamp for my maternal grandmother.  She chose the colors.  Stained glass lamp shades are made using a Styrofoam form.  My dad cut the pieces, and I ground down the rough edges.  We both worked on the soldering.  There are over 1000 pieces in this shade.  The shade is over 20 years old (unfortunately, I don't have an exact date).  The lamp returned to us when my maternal grandparents passed away.

When we made the move to Nevada, we didn't have a house waiting for us.  We were going to have to find one after moving.  Consequently we held an estate sale and sold everything we couldn't carry in the back of one pick-up with a hard top.  The bedroom furniture you see in the photo came with us because my mom's dad made it.  So did the lampshade--but only because my mom put her foot down.  My dad was not sentimental in any respect.  His take was that he had the fun of making it, but it wasn't necessary to keep it.  Got to thank my mother for not putting up with that reasoning. 

After we arrived and got settled, she made this quilt specifically to match the lampshade.  Every quilt that goes on this bed must have some green in it.  She's made a fall quilt, and it looks great with the lamp too.

So there's my favorite thing for this week.  Be sure to check out everyone else's favorite thing.  You might find some neat stories, or a great idea.