Arts and Crafts by Beth Thomson - #4

My first 3 posts were all related my mother’s paintings.  This final posting in the series delves into her use of different mediums for her creations… She was always trying something new and some of her efforts were whimsical or cute and others were true works of art.

You be the judge…

 We really like this little wooden decoupage tray with the cone flowers… My grandmother made quite a few things in this fashion but as far as I know, this was my mom’s only creation of this type. 

Mom started out early on…drawing and painting from childhood.  Around the the time that she met my stepfather, Hugh Thomson, he’d been painting for some time.  My mom married Hugh in the 1947 and I was about 4 when they met at an adult education art class in Jackson Michigan.  They were part of the group that founded the Jackson Art Club with Hugh serving as the first Vice President and Beth as the first Secretary.

I do know that this photo about my mom’s “Bartendas, Inc.” was taken at our house on First Street in Jackson…and I was in the First Grade.  I have vague memories of these papier-mâché liquor bottle figures all over the house…

Mom tried just about every artistic medium over the years.  This photo from 1966 shows a head that she decided to carve from a large piece of wood…

FYI…Beth also wrote a couple of children’s stories that she sold to Playmate Magazine.

Another phase of creativity were these large ‘natural’ collages constructed using seeds, leafs, stems, weeds, little stones, etc.  We still have one of them but it’s slowly deteriorating. 

Clay became another medium… Among other things such as painted tiles, she created these little folk-style figurines.

I think that this owl painted on an old piece of barn wood is a little scary…

Then there were a few works involving flattened, pounded, cut and painted tin images tacked on a wooden board…

I think that I was in the 6^th grade when mom came up with Wee Bonnie Lass Ready to Sew Doll Fashions. We lived at 304 Douglas Street in Jackson Michigan at the time.  It was a cute and creative idea but it didn’t become a burgeoning business…

Dolls… Mom made a lot of dolls.  She sold a bunch of them, she gave some out as gifts and we have still have a few of them.

Beth drifted in and out of fabric related creations for many years.  She made a lot of quilt style pillows.  We still have a couple of them…

This is one of my mom’s finest works from a couple of perspectives.  Number one…she made it for me when I was about 8 or 9.  I loved the west with Cowboys and Indians and like most boys in the early 50s, trains were a big thing! 

The second reason I know that this hooked rug is a winner involved an incident that took place at Laurie and my former home in Mt. Prospect Illinois.  We had a couple of old worn but high quality oriental rugs that we offered to sell to a rug dealer who came our house.  He didn’t want them…but he did covet this hooked rug! (NO SALE!)

My mother made a lot of ceramic owls… This one was far and away the biggest and most startling of the bunch.  She made and sold a lot of small hand painted and kiln fired owls at local art fairs in Jackson and East Lansing Michigan.

…not just ceramic owls either.  She also hand painted and fired a number of colorful plates.  Laurie and I still use these when we serve dessert to guests.

…and as time went on, mom got more and more into fabric art, in this case a woven cover for a decorative pillow.

Talk about whimsy!  This chess set is about as whimsical as one can be… Mom didn’t play chess and neither do I.

More weaving…this time combining plant fiber with wool. 

Here was another use for mom’s kiln.  She started making jewelry…painting the metal flats and then firing them in the kiln and attaching backs to them.  Back in the early 1960s she sold a lot of these items at art fairs.

I do recall an Art Fair in East Lansing Michigan in the early 60’s (GO SPARTANS!) where I helped mom set up and tend her booth.  She sold some little owls, a little handmade jewelry similar to the earrings above and then she sold a ton of ceramic beads.  

I’d convinced her to bring a bunch of ceramic beads that she’d been experimenting with.  At a dollar apiece she sold out in about 3 hours.  That night, we went home and dug up a bunch of beads that she disposed of in the garden because she didn’t like them.  She sold out again on the second day!

But, she kept coming back to fabric related creations…like this quilt top.

It was like a mental battle… Where would her creativity go next?  This little hand painted ceramic figurine is definitely reminiscent to her primitive folk paintings.

Don’t ask me why…but I like this cork, chain, nail, brad and tacks with bits of ‘this and that’ creation on a board.  It now resides at our son’s house in Omaha.

Weaving slowly evolved as her primary artistic medium.  This is one of her earlier creations. 

She even wove this little Sherpa style jacket…

Then she really got into weaving!  Despite her new artistic ‘love’, she still dabbled in mixed media weaving these feathers into this wall hanging.

FYI…The person hiding behind the weaving is my wife Laurie.  This photo was taken ca. 1980 behind our home in Bridgeton Missouri.

Mom wove this little hanging complete with critters for her grandson David II when he was just a tyke…

Bright and bold… Amazingly, she preferred natural dyes.  That’s one reason I cringe at the sight of walnuts.  I had to help make dye from those noxious husks.  She used a variety of plants to create the colors she wanted so it wasn’t unusual to arrive for a visit and be greeted by a pot of some kind of dye on the stove…

She saw art everywhere…even in these balls of home dyed material for her weavings.

As she progressed, her designs got more and more complex.

Eventually, she had 2 or 3 small looms at her house plus a giant loom with a foot treadle…

After a bit, some of her weavings became more like paintings…

…or they became complex eye-numbing creations like this one.

I have no idea what became of this small complex weaving…but I like it.

…still more yarn poised (and posed) and ready for the loom.  Note the woven belt.  She made and sold a lot of belts!

This is another fanciful and complex weaving whose fate is unknown to me.

These 2 large weavings (posed against a table) were unusual in that they were more basic design-wise.

Yep…more feathers were incorporated into this small wall hanging.  I believe that she got the feathers from her guinea fowl.  She had 5 acres on Sears Road in Jackson County for quite a number of years.  She had a garden, canned some of her own produce, raised chickens for a while and was entertained by a number of cats and a dog. 

This is a display of my mom’s weavings at a local arts and crafts show.  She did sell a lot of her weavings over the years…

This subtle artistic weaving is one of our favorites…an impressionistic image that I can wrap my head around.   

This very large and colorful wall hanging is on display in our home here in East Tennessee.

…and we love this handsome pillow with its complex design and earth tones.

Here is another big wall hanging… I see the beach, sea and sky.  What do you see?

  

Finally…my mom made this king size quilt for Laurie and me.  We love the colors and the cheer it brings into a room!

Well…this ends the 4 part adventure that was my mother’s artistic and creative side.  Thanks for coming along for the ride!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave