Soup du jour....

Hi everyone! Sooo... I was cooking up some hardware soup today. The "flavor" was mostly crusty painted hooks, with some odds & ends thrown in for a little variety.
The end result is above - terrific shiny hooks with great patina! There's always a little suspense involved in the paint removal process. The crustier hooks start out, the less I know about how they will turn out. Below is the tangled pile I started out with - from the Kane County Flea market May 4th.
Here are 3 more hooks that looked a little different from most of the others. The top right hook is actually some sort of porcelain, in a cool robbin's egg blue. Probably an old bathroom hook -
While I was at it, I threw in some old doorknob plates - these started out a nice orange color. The end result: great blackish brown patina... I think they may be copper??
Here's another "2" for my collection (to support my second chance theme). This one was coated with black paint. Now the finish shows through - some sort of rusty copper look.
Other notes on Second Chance Art ..... I found out today that I've been accepted into the Frankfort Fall Festival! (Labor Day weekend). This has been a great show for me for the past 3 years, so of course I'm excited to return.

Also - I was asked by Country Living Magazine to send some samples of my artwork to their New York offices. I took part in a "pitch your product" opportunity back in march this year. As a result of this, they wanted to see my art again up close. This past saturday, my husband & I shipped 2 items via UPS to the magazine. Very exciting! Naturally, I'm thrilled.. even if nothing comes out of this, every opportunity is another chance to make a connection. Though my main sales venue right now is retail art shows, I continue to keep an open mind about the direction Second Chance Art & Accessories may head in the future.

On a personal note, my family spent the past 2-3 days in Miami for my cousin's wedding, on Monday night. I've included some photos here. One photo is a view of the Miami skyline just after sunset. The signage is from a store we found... taken at an unflattering angle. The sign really said "scrap n' elegance" but I couldn't resist a photo of this view. (heh heh). Of course, I wanted to check it out, but it was closed. The final photo is my husband & I standing in front of some strange stringy looking tree. Definitely not something that would grow in our area!

One more thing about some Second Chance Art - here's the finished product (one of them) from those great door sections with chippy green paint I showed a few posts back. I love the way they turned out. They exemplify the very essence of what I'm trying to do with Second Chance Art & Accessories: preserving the patina of old things while making them into unique artwork.

As always, thanks for checking in! take care - Amy