The Finished Product

Okay. This is probably the most ambitious Arts-and-Crafts Project I've ever tried to do. First, a little background.

Paul Baukema is a member of a MyFamily.com website dedicated to the genealogy of the Long family, and he's a good researcher on all things Long. About three years ago he found a manuscript by a John Turner Long written in the 1907-1908 time period. His sources of information included Joel Long, James Turner and Moses Jackson Long, Professor Joseph R. Long, Mrs. Margaret E. James, and the Hon. E. V. Long. The manuscript can be found in the Heritage Quest images of the Newberry Library (Chicago, IL) images.

Hey, a Judge in the family tree. Imagine that.



The origin of this "Family Crest" is not clear. It was probably created by John Turner Long for the Manuscript he wrote, although it may have earlier origins -- we may never know.

So I decided to try to recreate it as an Arts-And-Crafts Project, and immediately ran into a few problems. First, there are no colors specified in the black- and- white pen- and- ink drawing. I thought the stars should be white -- like the 1776 flag's stars were. The sword should be silver, of course. Through a little research I discovered that the felt cap is a "Phrygian Cap", and a slave on winning his freedom started wearing a Phyrgian cap as a symbol of his freedom.

Okay then -- red seems to be the traditional color for a Phyrgian cap. . . . what color for the plaque background itself? The Virginia flag is Navy Blue; the state seal is a lighter blue; and while I still like Hunter Green, Navy blue seems to be the predominant background color for colonial flags; but I bow to the will of the people.

The next major problem was one of perspective. It's easy to choose sizes when you're freehand drawing something: less easy when you're working with established materials. The tiny swords are swizzle sticks, so there wasn't much choice in size there. I had a few choices with the stars and tried to pick something that wasn't so tiny it would get lost in the background and be noticeable without dominating the area of the craft.

Once I picked a shield shape that roughly approximated for the stars and the swords, the Phyrgian Cap was the last choice. It's obviously larger than the drawing and that was a conscious choice. Too small and it risks being overlooked (or worse, looking comical); and the "Freedom" thing is the whole reason for the Revolution, right? Worth dying for, even.

I elected to retain the hand-lettering of the Crest in the manner of the original, and made the letters yellow like the Virginia Flag; although I did some slight re-ordering of the words to make it less clunky.

So, those were the choices and why . . . .



And this is what I got.

Not too bad, if I say so myself. I'm pretty happy with it, anyway.

~~JD~~

The Nameplate that I made for the Nursing Office at my last job. My first effort at nameplates, and pretty darn good, I think.

Arts-ing and Crafts-ing for Fun, Profit, and Influencing People

Ariane is convinced I'm going through a mid-life crisis lately. It's not a really big or nasty change of life for me. I'm not fooling around on her; I don't want a hair plug transplant, or a sports car; or even a motorcycle. (Well, I'd like the motorcycle, but that's a long-standing request.) My problem is . . . . I've taken up Arts & Crafts.

No, Really!!!

I've discovered this little artsy-craftsy nook in my soul that yearns to make cute little things for people. Why now, I dunno; it just **IS**, for lack of a better explanation. Above is one of my earliest attempts at making nameplates for everyone in my office (a hobby my supervisor is both thrilled with and highly encourages) is shown above. She requested Pink as her primary color with green trim; and it turned out fairly well, if I do say so myself. (I just wished Tanisha had a shorter last name!)

Sharon's was a nameplate I really didn't expect to turn out that well. She specified red as the background with yellow trim, with "bluebonnets" as the flower (a spring flower native to Texas -- gorgeous things.) It surprised me how well it turned out, though, and Sharon appears to like it a lot. So I shouldn’t gripe, I s’pose.

Molly's nameplate was a pure joy to work on. I liked the color scheme; the flower choice (roses), and got to explore the paper cut-outs aisle to find a white dove for her. Turned out pretty well, I think.

Melissa's name plate is another example of her choice of colors (I'd have never thought of Maroon as a color choice!). I used the mini alphabet blocks because she just got back from maternity leave. She requested a theme of Hearts, which goes well with her title of "Residential Support" also.

This one I did this weekend also. I had to improvise the decorations; but fortunately, "Hobby Lobby" has an entire aisle of dollhouse decorations & furnishings; so the tiny calculator and money worked well for our gal in reimbursements. I later added a fairy to it, since Jana requested a fairy. I ended up making one from a wooden soldier, some creative painting, and 2 butterfly wings. Apparently Fairies are seasonal – who knew?

And finally, this is my latest masterpiece; an example of what I'm sending in my Christmas gift boxes this year. Pretty snappy if I do say so myself; I've already had two offers to buy the one on my desk at work, so I imagine this coming weekend I'll be haunting the aisles of "Hobby Lobby" once again, and driving Ariane crazy.

And frankly, I think she’s just pulling my chain. Some guys get Sports Cars in their mid-forties; or fly off to Cancun. This is turning out to be a pretty affordable (and productive) mid-life crisis, if I do say so myself.

Heh-heh.