Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Welcome to the EHAG Emporium Sale!

Hello!
Welcome to the Ehag Emporium Sale!

Click here to go to the Emporium.


This Portrait Rattle is available in my Etsy Shop. Click here to go to my shop to purchase, "Portrait Rattle - Tony, one of the founders of "The MelonBall" masquerade ball. Stay a while and browse to your hearts content.

The EHAG Emporium opens tonight


The EHAG Emporium opens tonight at 9:00 PM Eastern standard time, that is 6:00 PM Pacific time.


Here is a sneak peek of what I have for offer tonight. See you there.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Studio Update - WIPs

  HAPPY AUTUMN EVERYONE!  

You may have noticed that I did not say, "Happy Fall". Autumn does not seem to be used as much any more and I love the word; it is poetic and has such a lovely sound when spoken. I am a one man crusader to keep the word alive!

... Black Cat is sitting over by the window looking out at the rain. I was telling him what I was thinking of writing about in my blog post. His response was that I was trying to make it more interesting and plump it up, sort of like a marshmallow, full of air.

After a moment he said, "You never write about me and Jack any more."

I was a little surprised at his comment and then promised that I would write about them more often.

He apologized to me for the "full of air" comment that he made about my blog post.

"But you do tend to go on you know" was his next comment; good old Black Cat.


I had promised in my last blog post that I would show you some of the rattles that I have been working on.

Some of these rattles will be used as accessories for veggie guys in the larger rattles. This is what I am planning on doing but I never design an item but create it as I go so my ideas are always in a state of flux until the item is finished, let's see what happens.


The watermelon fellow will be perched, I think, on top of the large rattle. I'm not certain what I'll be doing with the yellow handled rattle but there are a few things percolating in the grey matter.


I found another turned handle, it was on my desk under some stuff. I have three other veggie guys that may be used with the rattles or on another project, I'm not sure.

Well, there we are, proof that I have not been goofing off. I mentioned this because of a conversation between Jack and Black Cat the other day. Well, enough of that I must get on with things. See you later.

Monday, September 15, 2014

From my reference library - Two Canadian apple cookbooks

Summer is almost over, Autumn is almost upon us and that means apple season is here. I have picked buckets of apples from our trees. My wife and I have made some apple sauce, more will be on the way. I will also be making chutney. As a nod to apple season I thought that I would show you these two apple recipe booklets that I came across years ago while doing my rounds at the Salvation Army and Goodwill. I have scanned both recipe booklets front to back instead of just showing design highlights, so if you find a recipe there that you'd like to try, go ahead, let me know how it turned out.

 Just to set things straight, I do not collect recipe books but I do collect interesting design and colour combinations not just for future reference but because they are an enjoyable glimpse into the past.

I have been in the studio creating  some small rattles for Hallowe'en. I will give you a glimpse in my next post. They will be available in the upcoming EHAG sale at the end of the month.



The cover of this recipe booklet features British Columbia, the western province of Canada. The large island is Vancouver Island. Down at the very bottom is Victoria where I live.

I love the clean stylized graphics and the way that the outside soft cover is larger than the pages of this 1931 Depression era cookbook, it creates the impression that this is a "book" not just a little booklet.











Here is another Canadian apple recipe booklet from the 1940s. The book is die-cut in the shape of an apple; probably not the most sensible shape for the book shelf but definitely memorable.


The back and front covers as well as the reverse interior side are printed in full colour. The rest of the book is in black and white with a red border framing each page.


















Here is Lovey of Lovey's Tea Room holding two pies that have been inspired by my small collection of recipe books. Go to my Etsy shop to purchase this giant "Portrait Rattle".


Resting on a shelf in this large sculpture is a homemade berry pie and a loaf of bread fresh out of the oven. Go to my Etsy shop to purchase "The Man-in-the-Moon Will be Having a Party".

Have fun baking up an apple storm or use them for inspiration like I do when making my sculptures.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

From my reference library - "How to Decorate a Cake"

Food is definitely a part of holidays and cakes are a part of the celebrations, whether they are a simple iced cake or an elaborate work of art.


This book "How to Decorate a Cake - Let Anne Anson Show You" was published by Tala a British company that produced the equipment for cake decorating.


The back of the book shows what the hostess and housewife can accomplish with help from Anne Anson and Tala.

The following four colour illustrations from the book show finished decorated cakes and the Tala decorating utensils used to create them.






These five small cakes were made from cardboard tubing, thick acrylic paint, coarse crushed glass glitter, and vintage milliner's fruit for a Christmas window display that I did for Hillside Shopping Centre. I will be creating a sculpture around these five cakes and other colourful desserts.


Three large cakes, a sample from about twelve cakes in all, used in the same window display were created using metal jelly and cake moulds painted and glued together. Faux fruit, fake candies, and coloured pebbles were added during the window installation to make them appear even more elaborate than shown here.


Here is a close-up of the installation showing the cakes, pastries, and candy on the table. There are more pictures of the window display here.


This sculpture that I created, a working party horn, is a "Portrait Party Horn" of Byron the pastry chef. Byron is the pastry chef at Lovey’s Tea Room in the heart of Jollity Village. Whenever he is invited to a party he always arrives with a very tasty treat. Go to my Etsy listing to purchase my "Portrait Party Horn – Byron the Pastry Chef".

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

From my reference library - Dennison books, "How to Decorate Halls, Booths, and Automobiles".

We have had our daughter Melissa, son-in-law Jon, Ethan, their three year old boy, and four month old Benedict, Benny for short, visiting us from Toronto for the last three weeks. It has been wonderful having them with us. I have not done a thing in the studio for about two months now. Getting the house ready for guests and then visiting has taken up all of our time. It has been, wonderful.

In the next little while I hope to have some posts about work that is in progress but until then here are more books from my reference library. When I did the post about the book "Holidays on Display" I did not realize that display men did the crepe paper floats and hall displays. I have three Dennison books from the 1920s with directions for creating these extravagant displays.


This book is dated 1923. I would love to have seen the finished halls, booths and floats; the rich colours would be quite magical.










The only colour in the book is on the back and front covers.


This book is dated 1927 on the inside. I wonder if the final product ever matched the artists rendition of the finished event, I hope that it did










This is the back cover of the book. The amount of work that went into these tables was amazing.


This book is dated 1927 and is identical to the book above but with a much less impressive cover.