Friday, May 28, 2010

Your Mystery Objects - And A Winner!

OK, folks - the post you've been waiting for. Here is a 'best-of' of the images sent to me as a result of my invitation a while back. Thank you to all who took the time to toss some oddball pics my way. It was hard to pick a winner, as you can see by the wild contributions. So here we go...

Cheryl Connell's mystery objects:




Jen Crossley's mysterious receptacle:



Nancy MacBride's whatchamacallits:





Romy Zunde's rusty thingy:




And lastly, some of the best of the many and varied contributions from Steven Russell in Virginia. Steven is the winner of my contest, and not only from the sheer volume of odd objects pictured - there are so many that are truly obscure and beautiful - he's really got an eye for the idiosyncratic.










Congratulations to you, Steven, and to all those who chimed in. If anyone wants to venture some guesses, leave them in the comments and the owners can moderate their own stuff.

Cheerio!

Keith


Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Mystery Objects, No. 2. - Answers

Sorry for the delay, all. Here are the identities of the last round of objects (for those who haven't seen the last round, find them here:

#8: I marveled at this little personality when it came tumbling out of my Special K box one morning - as I was about to post my mystery objects, I thought it was an obvious sign from the breakfast gods. Couldn't bring myself to eat it though - it's now in my studio, awaiting.

#9: Corner bumper from an old suitcase - dragged from the Deer Island Dump in 1996.

#10: One of my early found items - it's the side panel from a champagne corkscrew, circa 1830's. It's one of the objects I think I would have wanted to save intact, but what did I know then??

#11: A fulgurite. This beautiful natural object occurs when lightning strikes sand or soil and fuses the surrounding ground into glass. Peering into the hole, you can think of it as a negative of a lightning bolt. Amazing. More info on fulgurites here.

#12: Good guessing, all - it is indeed a pierced brass cage for a work light, here shown open. I've flirted with making this into goggles since I found it way back.

#13: This is the inner plastic seal from a drink bottle, encrusted with sea life. Found on the beach.

#14: No one got this one. It's a Roman-era horse boss, which is a bronze decoration attached to the animal's harness.

Thanks for playing to those who gave it a whirl, it was very fun.

Lots to post in the coming week - firstly, I'll announce the winner of my upcoming DVD - those who sent me images of their own mystery objects were eligible. Look for that in a few days. Following that, I'll start you on the in-progress journey of my new sculptural object - another series of firsts for me. It's still being made now in my studio, and is coming along well - and is really unlike anything else I've made.

Ciao!

Keith