FOUND - whimsical art, vintage treasures, fun finds!

Anagrams galore!!!

Found a HUGE supply of tiny vintage letter tiles.  Green and white wooden anagrams...  Square black tiles with embossed gold or white letters and pretty designs on the back...  And lots of simple cardboard letters like I vaguely remember from spelling games in elementary school.  The "fun" activity the teacher planned for after the Friday spelling test.

I used to be pretty good at spelling and at Scrabble...but somewhere along the way some clever 8 years olds passed me up.  Still love these letters and what collage artists and other creative folks do with them.  We have some cute little necklace pendants made with scrabble tiles and wrapped wire - almost out of them, but hopefully have someone making a fresh supply.  We sell the pendants for $6.50 each and they are pretty popular.  Will be listing them on the website before long.

 

As usual, I'm posting late at night and need to sign off... instead of snapping a picture of those scrabble pendants and showing you right now.

Regards!

Mary 

Do-dads

At FOUND, we love do-dads: all those little odds-n-ends that may seem like junk so some...but to those of us who see things differently, they become something more.  Here are some of the do-dads I've found lately:  

Old Lamp parts.  Nice for holding tea light, or making garden art, or making skirts for odd collaged figures, or whatever....

Wheels and castors.  Some rusty, some not... You'll find plenty of them at FOUND this month.

Spindles, with chippy old paint can be turned into garden stakes to hold up the tomatoes or pea pods!

More photos tomorrow.

Regards!

Mary

Sally Jean Tiara - HIV/AIDS Silent Auction

The tiara that graced the head of Mariah Carey could be yours....

Here's the story.  Once upon a time in a land far away, there lived a princess...

oh, no, that's another story. 

This chapter begins with a request from e tv for a tiara for Mariah Carey to wear during an interview at the 2006 Grammy Awards.  Sally Jean looked at her shelf filled with tiaras and sent this one.  It briefly graced Mariah's head during that interview, and was returned to Sally Jean's Studio.

It came to Ann Arbor in 2007 when Sally Jean was in town teaching workshops at FOUND.  Sally Jean presented it as a door prize during a fabulous artful evening event we hosted.  Our friend Kathleen Splaine Dolan won it at that raffle (and graciously shared it with others who are queens in their own right).  After ruling over her household for the past year, perfecting her queenly wave and wowing the masses with her extraordinary extemporaneous speaking at countless royal events...Kathleen decided it's time to pass the crown on for the greater good of helping others.

Thus, Kathleen is donating this tiara, composed of dozens of petite works of art and snippets of vintage papers, created by the queeen of soldering herself,  Sally Jean Alexander, to HARC, the HIV/AIDS Resource Center for a silent auction to be held at their May 14th fundraiser, Dining for Dollars.

Dining for Dollars 2008 will mark the fourteenth year of HARC's premiere fundraising event. The event includes a scrumptious dinner at Zingerman's Roadhouse in Ann Arbor and a silent auction full of wonderful items donated by local merchants. Dining for Dollars helps raise over $35,000 for HARC and is the organization's largest fundraiser. For tickets & information, please visist the HARC page.

If you've always wanted your own tiara....

Royal Regards!

Mary

Sally Jean class sign-up begins this Wednesday!

Do you want to learn to solder and make art the Sally Jean way?  The queen of tiny art work in little glass charms is returning to FOUND in July, but registration for the workshops opens at 7 p.m. on the 7th of May (that's this Wednesday).  Go to our website for information and to sign-up!

She'll teach 2 sessions of Soldering for Virgins - The Bracelet.  This is a technique class where you'll end the day with a handful of charming little soldered charms.

She's also teaching how to make the Flower Power Necklace pictured in a recent issue of Sommerset Studio magazine. 

Sally Jean will also teach a special new class she developed just for FOUND called Tin-Type-Oh! in which students will make 2 pendants based around antique tintype photos and collage art.  This is gonna be fun!

I hope you can join us for a workshop or for the special welcome party and trunk show on July 19th.  More later.

Regards!

Mary