Player for a player

I bought these plaques for not very much money, maybe ten bucks. I thought I might use them in an assemblage one day; I didn't know how. I just loved the graphics.

At first I thought these plaques were from a metronome but the text* on
the piece from the upper left reveals them to be from a player piano.

Since then, I started cutting up tin and making pieces with it. Now there are tin snips and files and shears at hand. And when I started making a necklace for a friend who's a stellar guitarist, Jane Getter, searching through my cabinets for pieces to assemble, I came across the player-piano plaques and realized I could actually make a necklace from them.

Largo,  slowest<--------------> fastest, Presto

The thick brass was harder to cut than tin (thinner steel) but I managed with my new German shears. I filed off the sharp edges and shaped the treble clef. 

The volume control was already banner-shaped, but the brass was thinner,
so I cut a piece of vintage tin to back it with and riveted the pieces together.

I think it turned out great. Now where do I find more player-piano plaques?

*Standard Artist-Record Action is specially constructed to play any make of reproducing or regular music roll with transposer lever at normal.

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work in progress...on a plate

sea horses cut from a very old tin and a riveted combo of vintage tin pieces

fairly ready

Renegade tent setup dry run. The real deal happens in three days...and also four days; it's a two-day event.

gamesmanship necklaces for Renegade

antique game pieces from France, vintage rosary chain,
vintage brass and steel chain, antique brass uniform
beads, antique crystal bead, vintage black steel bead

tin riveted to antique yellow-dyed bone game counter, antique
yellow enamel and sterling watch chain, antique turquoise enamel
and brass watch chain, African trade beads, copper heshi beads, vintage
copper leaf bracelet links, antique dog clips from watch chains

the antique swivel dog clip makes this piece reversible

tobacco tin time: plugging my plug pluggers

I've forayed into homemade rivets, attaching tin tobacco tags and the like to tin-can backings cut from a Sunshine Candies container. I'll be selling these goodies at Renegade Handmade (see previous post).

Tin tobacco tags were a promotional tool used circa 1880-1920.
These are all tobacco tags except the feather and the key, which were
promotional pinbacks from Red Feather Services, a forerunner to
the United Way, and a 1947 tourist promotional key that was worn by
teachers and students visiting D.C. and Virginia on spring break.

Sunshine Candies tin cutouts for the backs...or fronts,
however you want to wear them.

According to cigarhistory.info, "A key strategy in the war for market supremacy was the offering of  household items as premiums in exchange for tags.  The man who couldn’t afford to buy his wife a set of silver-plated tableware, might be able to accumulate the 500 tags necessary to get six Rogers knives and forks for free." Like S&H Green Stamps!

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RENEGADE HANDMADE

I'll be selling my wares at the Renegade Craft Fair in Los Angeles on July 28 & 29.

Where? 1245 North Spring Street, adjacent to
Chinatown and Dodger Stadium.  FAQ!

Per Renegade, here's what's happening: "We’re finishing up the West Coast leg of our 2012 RCF summer tour with the 4th Annual Renegade Craft Fair Los Angeles on July 28+29 from 11am-7pm both days, at the Los Angeles State Historic Park! Get ready for hundreds of today’s best indie crafters, hands-on workshops, music, food trucks, booze + oh so much more.  As always, our favorite free-to-use photobooth will be in full effect, and DJs from KXLU will be spinning our crafting + shopping soundtrack.  Attendees can help LA’s four-legged friends find a forever home with Second Acts Animal Rescue. We’ll also have several of LA’s finest food trucks on hand!

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many metals, many years

New necklace: Victorian enamel and cut-steel button mixes it up with 1940s TWA DC-3 pin from a Stetson Stratoliner. Metals are mixed, too: brass and nickel silver chains and plane; and steel and pinchbeck (an alloy of copper and zinc that shines like gold) on the button. Two links from an antique watch chain accent the neck. Delicate brass-beaded rosary chain holds the twin-engine craft. That bitty plane makes me happy to no end.

wild blue yonder

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