Your trash is my craft
Last year I happened to drive past what would turn out to be one of the best hard rubbish piles I have ever had the good fortune of rummaging through. You may remember it, I wrote about the spoils here.
Amongst the beautiful vintage bits and pieces I saved from landfill were a few linoleum samples. I have often wondered if the owner of the house was a lino salesman or just saved the samples from a fabulous kitchen renovation in the 50s – these thoughts that have made me desperately want to knock on their door and take a peek at their (possibly) amazing interiors.
Do you think they’d mind? How would your grandparents feel if some redhead in an old frock came knocking asking to sniff around their house? Well, with the best intentions I assure you. But it might be a little confrontational … but then again nothing ventured nothing gained!
Never the less, I had acquired lovely lino samples, some of which were a little cracked with age and all of which were dirty and needed a bit of a clean. What to do with them? I mentioned framing them on facebook and a friend suggested a solution that her picture-framing-parents employ: mount them on pre-stretched canvases. She added that the best place to get them was a $2 shop. Thanking her I locked the suggestion away in my head and stored the cleaned lino to await the day that I may have the time or energy to mount them.
Miraculously that day came last month. Waking to a lovely sunshine morning, SAH and Bub curled up next to me I announced that I wanted to make something that day.
So off I trotted to the shopping centre to pick up the necessary equipment (cheap canvas frames, all I could find where ones with images to colour in!) and returned home to get to mounting these bits of old plastic. Meanwhile SAH and Bub played around me (occasionally trying to assist). In the end I produced 4 framed pieces and I think they look lovely. However I have no idea where I am going to put them, erm yes I didn’t think of that before I started!
I am sure I will find somewhere, even in their age worn state the patterns and textures are too pleasing not to have them displayed.
