When Worlds Collide

A funny thing about framing – while there may be many thousands of approaches to the framing of the unending variety of two-dimensional “stuff” people bring in to a frame shop, folks always seem to want the same style of framing that they have always seen.  Maybe it’s just me, but after almost fifty years as a framer, I have found that birds and botanicals generally end up in traditional gold or dark wood frames with cream colored or deep green matting; watercolors find themselves in simple white mats and plain black or natural wood frames (especially if the artist is framing for a show); larger paintings (realistic or abstract, prints or canvas) seem to go home matching the sofa or woodwork.  I could go on, but I won't.  (You're welcome.)

 

But when it comes to the framing of posters, photos, tickets, autographs, and the like from any area of Fandom (movies, TV shows, bands, and even sports) – framing is usually chosen to match the items themselves.  For instance, team colors always go on various sports memorabilia (bores me to tears . . .).

Bands have been selling merch for years – I have framed   posters, photographs, guitar picks, drum sticks, set lists, serigraphs, tee shirts, album covers, ticket stubs, wrist bands, and backstage passes from classics such as Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead to current performers who produce high quality limited edition posters.  Fans pay a premium for tickets to these concerts, sometimes traveling great distances to attend events, and they want to remember every detail.  So fabulous framing is a must.

Of course I have been framing my own stuff for all these years and my collection has fallen into five primary categories: relatives, cats, horses, pop culture, and art.    Some framed pieces have been on my walls since I was a child.  Oh, and I have some of my own artwork as well.  I am running out of wall space and therefore my latest additions have shrunk from poster size to postcard size (and even smaller).

My pop culture heroes have come and gone over the years; I have a couple of little pictures of Indiana Jones and Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and my favorite image of Ross and Demelza (Robin Ellis and Angharad Rees) from the original Poldark that I stuck into simple frames and which have been on my wall for decades.

Then, a few years back, full blown Robin of Sherwood Fandom arose in my brain and I bought a nice little painting of Herne the Hunter from a fellow member of the show’s Facebook fan group.  Nice prints of drawings of Robin and Marion (Michael Praed and Judi Trott) followed, and then on ebay I found the lovely promotional postcards from the series.  I framed all of these images in shades of cool greens with rustic/Ren Faire frames to hint at Sherwood Forest.

Robin and Marion by Carmen Modde

Herne the Hunter by Iain Chinn

Michael Praed as Robin of Loxley

After a decent interval, I fell in love with the TV series Haven and framed a little print of Duke Crocker (actor Eric Balfour) plus a temporary tattoo (adhered to clear Mylar) of the Guard symbol/Haven logo in a driftwood frame (to match the weather-beaten seaside landscape where the series was filmed and Duke's bar, The Gull).

Eric Balfour as Duke Crocker on Haven

And then along came Doctor Who with its bonus attraction, Captain Jack Harkness of Torchwood, and the beginnings of which I described here, in my last typically verbose post: https://tiltingatwoodpeckers.blogspot.com/2018/10/help-ive-fallen-into-tardis-again-and.html

Tom Baker had always been my favorite Doctor – and he was my “First Doctor.”  I spent a lot of time searching images of Tom to make a little print to frame.  I needed two very important aspects of Tom to be in the photo – his smile and his scarf.  The curly hair was a plus.  I rummaged through my personal private frame collection, and I cannot remember where it had come from originally, but the wood frame with the colored stripe inlaid at the bottom struck me as perfect.  All I had to do is sand off the glossy finish on the inlay, add the proper colors here and there, and then cut a narrow TARDIS blue mat (Bainbridge Indigo #8526).

Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor

By the time I completed the Fourth Doctor frame I had finished watching David Tennant's Tenth Doctor’s series with his third companion, Donna Noble (Catherine Tate).  The CD of Series Four, which could be blamed for starting my entire episode of Whovian madness, included a lovely photo of Donna from the “Planet of the Ood”.  I printed up a copy of it and, wow – I found the perfect golden wood frame (The color matches the highlights in Donna’s fabulous red mane), cut a TARDIS blue mat – and it looks amazing.

Catherine Tate as Donna Noble (DoctorDonna)

Then I discovered little trading-card size magnets in one of the DVDs.  I found a frame in my stash that was the perfect size, so I painted it TARDIS blue and added a two-opening mat so both Ten and the TARDIS cards could be seen.

David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and his TARDIS

My next prize was the Alice X. Zhang drawing that I found on the cover of a Doctor Who comic for David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor.  I had planned on framing the entire cover, but discovered to my delight that there was a full page reproduction of the cover drawing included in the comic – but with no writing on it!

I ordered a frame for it that should have been absolutely perfect – it had seemingly random squiggles carved into the frame and the color was a perfect combination of warm cream, gold, and red.  Unfortunately the frame company had changed manufacturers and, alas, the frame no longer matched my sample.  It was too pale, too regular.  Not wibbly wobbly at all!

See how awful this frame is compared to my sample?

I went to work on the frame, determined to somehow make it match the artwork.  I painted it blue.  I scraped some of the blue off.  I went over the blue with dark green, red, cad yellow, and blue again.  I sanded it, I scratched it up, I added paint – I subtracted paint.  Finally with a TARDIS blue mat, I installed the print and it was good.  A perfect wibbly wobbly timey wimey frame!

Ten by Alice X. Zhang

I kept thinking my grouping was finished but then the first Torchwood sound track arrived and within was the best photograph of Captain Jack I had ever seen.  It had all my favorite Captain Jack elements – penetrating blue eyes, hint of a smile, and, of course, the greatcoat.  The only thing I found myself annoyed with was his hair which was far too neat. So I printed a copy of the photo, and worked at tousling up his hair with some Prismacolors.  Made the eyes a bit bluer, and colored the coat a bit closer to gray-blue.  Then I got the brilliant idea to add a TARDIS blue hexagonal mat, to echo the Torchwood logo.  For the frame I found another in my stash, flat, wide, grainy stone kind of finish, with crumbling edges.  I repainted this a steely silvery gray, so it gives an appearance of strength with a sense of timelessness (not unlike Jack!). (“IN THESE STONES HORIZONS SING.”)

John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood

By this time I had finished watching the Peter Capaldi run as the Twelfth Doctor.  As his song was ending I realized I had grown quite fond of his take on the role.  I went hunting and found the perfect photo of him from the last episode, when he appeared weary yet still strong, and his hair was out of control.  Of course I found another perfect frame in my collection, and I painted it to pick up the silvery blues in the photo (hair and eyes).  The style of the frame itself is a nod to the first role Capaldi played in the Who reboots (and the Twelfth Doctor’s answer to “Why did I choose this face?”) – in Ten’s “Fires of Pompeii”.  It has the appearance of ancient Roman architecture.

Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor

So this is what happens when a passionate and slightly crazy picture framer frames her own collection from various fandoms. God help me if I ever make it to a Con and meet any of these icons of mine in person - I will need a bigger house with even more wall space!

Help! I've Fallen into the TARDIS Again (and I'm Blaming Murray Gold)

I have never had any kind of cable or pay TV so I have always relied on a large antenna, pulling in nearby broadcast channels and our local PBS station to catch up with Doctor Who over the years.  Tom Baker, the Fourth Doctor, was my first, back in the late seventies, and along with Leela,  K-9, and the silly, low-budget monsters (like the actors covered in bubble wrap in "The Ark in Space") - I loved him and his long scarf that he was always tripping over and his readily proffered bag of jelly babies.  I later ended up naming one of my cats Leela.

The years rolled on and I was able to catch most of Four, some of Five (Tristan Farnon!), and a glimpse of Six .  I never saw Seven and never even heard of Eight until recently.  My allegiance remained with Four.  (As they say, you never forget your first Doctor.)  I have also seen most of the first three Doctors’ episodes, here and there along the way.  I love each of them in their own way.  The early episodes are constantly on the retro stations.

Then few years back, out of the blue (so to speak), CBC began airing the Third Series of the reboot - you know, the one with David Tennant as Ten.  Oh my!  What a cutie and my oh my how everything had changed in the world of Doctor Who!  I was instantly hooked and watched as many episodes as I could.   Which turned out to be most of the 3^rd and 4th Series.  The fearless and brilliant Martha Jones and the endearing and madcap Donna Noble were his companions.  But this strange blonde kept showing up . . .

One particularly moving episode was Planet of the Ood, which planted two seeds:  the DoctorDonna plotline into the series, and the haunting songs of the Ood into my brain.   It finally occurred to me to search out this music online and of course I found a treasure trove on YouTube.  So, a few months back, I went hunting on ebay and found the soundtrack to Doctor Who, Series 4, with the Ood songs on it.  After it arrived I spent a month listening to this one CD over and over and over.  Good grief, Murray Gold - what have you done to me?  I could not stop listening to it.  At first, I had the Ood “Songs of Captivity and Freedom” on repeat for a few hours each day, but gradually I found myself being drawn more deeply into the rest of the album. How to describe such music?  Words like haunting, soul-stirring, rousing, lush, brash, funny - a little bit of everything wrapped up in one glorious package.

I decided to do some searching to find out the lyrics to the Ood songs and discovered a website that not only had them (in Latin and English) but also the lyrics to Vale Decem (Goodbye Ten) so I had to track down the CD with that on it.  Thus began my Whovian saga.

Ood Song of Freedom

With silence, we shout

With silence, we shout

Without salvation

He provides our salvation

He provides out salvation

As long as we are

Among humans

Let us be humane

With silence, we shout

As long as we are

Among humans,

Let us be humane

With silence, we shout

I ordered the DVDs for Series 4, Part 1.  Watched them - got hooked, ordered Series 4, Part 2 a month later.  By then I needed all of the Tenth Doctor’s episodes so I bought Series 2 and Series 3, with companions  Rose Tyler and Martha.  And I bought the DVD with the Specials, and more CDs of each series’ music.  Damn you, Murray Gold! 

Then I figured I needed to go back to the beginning of the reboot, to find out where Rose came from and the background of the Bad Wolf storyline, and so I bought the Christopher Eccleston Series 1. That was gonna be it.  I swear.  But by then was becoming confused, so I found an episode guide, from the First Doctor through the Eleventh. 

Of course then Series 1 introduced me to the delightfully drool-worthy Captain Jack Harkness.  Lordy, lordy! 

After watching Series 1 through 4, I decided I had to give Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor a chance, so I bought Series 5 through 7.  By this time Jodie Whitaker had broken the glass ceiling and debuted as the Thirteenth Doctor, (I have seen a few clips but no episodes yet).  What the heck.   I purchased the Peter Capaldi Series.

Mama Lucy always says "Allons-Y!"

I realized my obsession was getting out of hand when I purchased a David Tennant t-shirt with “Allons-Y” (my spell check thinks this should read “Alonso,” hee hee hee) on it, River Song’s journal, a couple more Doctor Who books, a comic book with a great drawing of Ten on the cover, more music, a few more specials, and then . . .  then I started in on Torchwood.  While awaiting the arrival of the first two seasons of Torchwood in the mail, I occupied myself watching John Barrowman panels at various Cons over the last few years on YouTube.  It takes a pretty secure man to prance onstage in red high heels and a TARDIS onesie, let me tell you.  I am old enough to be his mother, but good grief - what a doll!  And such a talent - plus the good example he is providing for the LGBT kids in the fandom.

Of course, now I have on order Barrowman’s (first) autobiography, plus both the Doctor Who and Torchwood Encyclopedias.  And the music from Torchwood.  Of course!

When I bought the Capaldi series, it came with a free vinyl mystery figure.  Looking back on the number of Doctors, and the number of companions, and the number of foes, I was almost afraid to open the little silver Mylar bag.  But guess what?  Out fell Tom Baker, complete with his famous scarf!  I was so chuffed!

One day's ebay deliveries - this is getting out of control!  (But in my defense, I ordered them from all over the world over a period of several weeks - they just all arrived the same time.)

Speaking of the famous scarf, in 1979 I had a friend knit one for my wasband, and he paired it with a long brown suede double-breasted coat and a brown fedora.  Unfortunately the friend who did the knitting used polyester yarn and knitted it so it rolled into a tube.  But - what the heck - it worked for a Halloween costume!  (Wishing I had a photo...)

That scarf was long lost so a few years back I found an “officially licensed Doctor Who scarf” online and bought it for him for his birthday.  Close but no cigar:  polyester.

Now I have a friend who is both a Whovian and a knitter and she is finishing a proper wool scarf for me - eleven inches wide, and eleven feet long plus fringe!  I am so excited!

Four, DoctorDonna, Ten, and TARDIS

Ten by talented artist Alice X. Zhang (wibbly wobbly timey wimey frame by me)

I have framed a few little pictures of my favorite Doctors for my Doctor Who wall (a work in progress) and I am searching for the perfect Captain Jack image.  I am halfway through watching Torchwood and, thanks to the Internet I know what is coming.  Dammit.  It was hard enough watching Owen and Tosh die - I am not sure I can bear the death of Ianto Jones. I cry every time I watch Season 1’s Captain Jack Harkness episode (which in my mind is right up there  alongside Ten’s regeneration “I don’t want to go” scene).

Back to the man who began my most recent bout of crazed fandom.  Murray Gold:  the mastermind composer behind the incredible soundtrack of the Doctor Who reboot from Series 1 to 10.  Thank you Murray Gold, and as Executive Producer Julie Gardner wrote in the liner notes on the first CD, “I will play this album for the rest of my life.”  So will I, sir, so will I - all of them!  Thank you!

P.S.  I am also thanking Ben Foster, conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, David Temple, conductor of the Crouch End Festival Chorus, Jake Jackson (a man of many areas of expertise), and various soloists including Mark Chambers, Neil Hannon, Yamit Mamo, and Melanie Pappenheim.  What a talented bunch of folks!  Thanks to all! 

Me and my fabulous new scarf, posing with knitter Arlene and her hubby Alan.

 

Rocks in My Head

We moved to Attica, New York in the summer of 1953.  I had just turned seven and our parsonage was located on the edge of this tiny town, in a Leave it to Beaver neighborhood.  The Tonawanda Creek meandered at the bottom of a huge clay cliff behind our house and the mixture of neighbors was right out of a sitcom:  the rich folks at the end of the street with an extensive orchard of lilac trees, the reclusive former teacher with the stark "modern" house that did not even face the street, the kids, the teenagers, the dogs, the cats, and the mysterious elderly couple next door.  I do not remember their name but I will never forget their home and the priceless gift they gave to me.

This couple had a lovely garden, festooned with beautiful rocks, gazing balls and vessels.  They traveled frequently so I rarely saw them, but I used to sneak peeks at their magical side garden.  One day they invited me inside and gave me a tour. I remember being in awe of the museum-like interior.  They collected vases from all over the world (from dollhouse scale to taller than I was!) and they collected rocks and minerals.  My eyes must have been like saucers.  Then they presented me with this precious gift that still inspires me to this day.  They gave me a massive chunk of white quartz with shiny black crystals here and there.  It was so huge I could barely hold it in my two little hands.  Oddly enough, though, this rock seems to have shrunk over the years because now it fits easily in one hand.

My first rock - 1953

This rock has moved with me almost a dozen times and my love for it sparked a love for rocks and minerals of all kinds ever since.  I believe it also helped to inspire my dad to collect rocks, and lug them back for me from many trips.  Since his death I have inherited his favorites (also survivors of many moves).

Last week I joined a rock group (I have always wanted to say that!) - actually a Facebook group of rock hounds and collectors.  This has prompted me to photograph some of my small but much-loved collection and dig up some memories.  As time goes by I have become increasingly tired of dusting and re-dusting my collections and I have been trying to protect everything in display cases, or in the case of small rocks and crystals - I have been framing them.  Hey, I am a framer and a collector - it is a perfect matching of my interests.

Geologea was my first attempt at framing part of my collection.  In my hoard of materials was a wooden box, fashioned with a rounded spine to resemble a large book.  I cut down an worn old gold-leafed frame to fit inside this book, fitted it with glass and suede walls, and placed my little loves inside.  I can add new ones and rearrange them any time.

Geologea, 2004

The smooth pale green speckled stone has delighted me since my grandma and I both spotted it at the same time on the shore at Lowbanks, Ontario and I snatched it up first.    I have always loved it because it reminds me of the color and pattern of the fabric in one of her dresses.  My best friend in junior high school gave me some of these crystals.  The slab of lace agate was a gift from a high school friend (her dad was just getting into rock cutting).  Some I purchased from a rock hound friend when he was broke  and in need of money.  Some of the fossils I found in the creek bed.  I love them all!

Specimen card, circa 1955

I framed the specimen card  after I realized that the thin cardstock that I had been holding and oogling for so many decades was finally starting to disintegrate.  I used to recite the names like a mantra:  Rose Quartz, Pyrites, Chalcedony.  Magical, mysterious, beautiful and ancient.  

Rock collecting has snuck into my dollhouse scale roomboxes.  Madam Tabitha is a rock collector and she displays them on the shelf in her parlor.  She has recently added a few new specimens.  She loves to rearrange her large bowl of rocks, crystals and shells, and she is also very proud of her malachite pyramid.

Madam Tabitha's Parlor

Madam Tabitha's shelf

Madam Tabitha's collection

Alas, my legs no longer allow me to clamber around in slippery shale creek beds, or wander for miles down rocky beaches, struggling back with pockets laden with great finds.  But rocks still seem to find me. Terrapin Station in Buffalo is a sweet source to buy small specimens and I have found a few pretties at Lily Dale.  A few years back a friend gave me a generous gift certificate good for anything in the Galleria Mall.  Now, I hate malls and avoid them at all costs - but hey, a gift certificate is a gift certificate.  I searched through many stores: clothing - ack,  jewelry - ack.  Then I found The Nature Store.  It was like a museum with price tags.  I was in Heaven!  Of course my friend looked at me like I had lost my tiny mind when I told him I had bought a rock with his gift certificate.  (I think he was hoping I'd buy lingerie.)

Current and perennial favorites

In the photo above the striped specimen in the top left was one of my dad's favorites.  He found it in the Southwest.  The round black half sphere has always been a mystery since my late partner Kim saw it at Terrapin Station and said, "Wow - Mar would love that!" and Barry gave it to her to give to me.  I have already told the story of the white quartz, and the petrified wood in the center has been with me almost as long.  The sphere is a recent find at Terrapin Station.  The starburst crystal is part of my inheritance from my dear friend Barbara, and the ammonite never ceases to transport me to another time and place.  Even if I had a room full of ammonites, this would be the most loved.

I guess I will always have rocks in my head.  I still have dreams of finding piles and mounds of pretties or stores full of them.  But until money falls from the sky I will be happy to play with the pretties in my collection that have been in my life for decades.  Rose Quartz, Pyrites, Chalcedony - nice mantra, eh?

Collecting: My Thoughts

I collect many things but my oldest and dearest passion has been horses - swap cards, paintings, prints, books and figurines.  It all began when my dad brought home a little china horse for me when I was three years old.  I don't imagine many dads would gift such a young child with so fragile an item, but he was quirky like that, and unbelievably, the figurine remains one of the few in my growing collection that has never been broken.  Clumsiness, kitties and a lot of moving have taken their toll over the years, but this has had an unexpected side benefit - I have learned a lot of ways to repair broken artifacts and people at my shop actually pay me to fix their stuff.

A lot of people collect plastic "model" horses - Breyers and Hartlands .  I did not even know the name Breyer until a couple of years ago, although I had had several in my collection for many years.  Breyers are very realistic looking (for the most part) and there is a massive community that has evolved around their collection.  They make outfits (tack and costumes) and have "horse shows" and take photos with realistic backdrops.  They make manes and tails from real hair and repaint the models with excruciating detail. I have little interest in this; I have my special old Breyers, that is enough for me.

Another community is built around the collection of Hagen Renaker porcelain figurines.  I have about a dozen, dating back to the early fifties, but, again, I did not know anything about them until recently.  Some were gifts but most were bought one at a time, when my dad had to go visit someone in the hospital in Rochester and I went along to keep him company. He rewarded me by taking me downtown to a little gift shop off of Main Street where they sold small china figurines and a good number of novelty items (magic tricks and pranks).  Most in this collection are tiny and spindly and very fragile - and all have at least one broken leg and some have lots of breaks.  I have always repaired them, using increasingly better adhesives as they have become available.

A few years back I acquired a collection of Breyer miniature Stablemates - it took me quite a while to realize that that many of these were identical to my little Hagen Renakers and I was baffled at such seeming design thievery.  I eventually discovered that Hagen Renaker had licensed some of their molds to Breyer for recasting in plastic.  Mystery solved!

Original favorites

In the above photo, Horse Number One is the one in the center.  Clockwise from the upper left is the porcelain foal given to me when I was very young by a little old lady from our church.  She said it had been hers since she was a little girl - I figure it must be almost 150 years old by now, and I have never seen another one like it.  The next one, with the saddle, was made in Japan as a souvenir of Niagara Falls.  Others like it are all over eBay every day.  The grouping of three are Hagen Renakers and designed by Tom Masterson.  The white and gold horse with the spaghetti trim is Queenie, one of the few named horses in my collection.  At least as far as eBay goes, she is pretty unique.  Below Queenie are a pair of Bergen hard plastic horses (I called them Black Beauty and Ginger), and the pair of pintos are salt and pepper shakers.  The jaunty black and white colt and the little white Trojan have always been amongst my favorites and I have had them as long as I can remember.

Current favorites

My taste seems to moved away from mostly realism towards mostly fanciful.  My current favorites all seem to have an artistic style to them.  The one in the middle is one-of-a-kind hand modeled, recently repainted by me because the original paint had become drastically soiled.  I was so delighted to find it in a thrift store.  Upper left is a beautiful pink and blue drip-glazed Royal Haeger, then my collection of little porcelain Trojans (thank you, eBay!), the red rearing horse and the two green rearing ones were designed by Don Manning and I have discovered that they are from the late forties, early fifties.  The little pink gal is a Hagen Renaker (I love her!), the row of colorful colts are also Don Mannings, the elongated green glass colts are made by Mosser, and the white mare and foal are a recent thrift store find.  Aren't they sweet?

I have become a savvy eBay shopper and I have made myself very happy winning these little treasures.   The Internet is proving to be a wondrous resource for researching the origins of my figurines, but much information is lacking. I wish more makers would placed identification marks on their creations!  Not stickers - stickers fall off!   Sadly, I have found only a few books on the collecting of horse figurines. Maybe some day I ought to write a book about the subject, but for now I am keeping myself busy documenting my entire collection.

I am lost in the admiration of the creation of these figures - how lovingly and cleverly and carefully they have been sculpted by such wondrous and mostly unsung artists!  I run my fingers over the elegant lines and shapes.  The beauty makes me smile every day.  I will sing their song.

Horse Collection 1956

Horse Collection 2014