Les is new, a citizen of ocasiocasa, and is pretty happy about both. This is her dance.
I held the camera.
~dale

(Les came to be by reclaiming a baby doll with sculptured masking tape art.)

…illustrates a patchwork quilt of life at ocasiocasa, and are also new additions to our online shop.

All created with original photography, some are digitally collaged and feature our toy art. Some are processed with textures and colors to expose the magic of a beautiful world we are fortunate to witness consistently.

Feel free to take a closer look—they can each be seen in our art print section of our online shop at Etsy.

cheers,
~dale

“Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.” ~Gilbert K. Chesterton

frame v. To conceive or design,    n.  A structure that gives shape or support

As Jeff and I have proceeded along the road to creating our ocasiocasa art world, we have willingly and purposefully placed limits on our ideas. Jeff could easily sculpt with more conventional material than masking tape. Tape certainly has limitations as a sculpting medium, but I like the grounding effect it has to his work, because his ideas can be waaayyy out there, and tethering all that to the ground helps to keep him on a nice little path without getting lost. (…there, I said it.)

But, it is just as well—he likes using tape because it is convenient, non-messy, travels well, likes the comments he receives from other passengers on the plane while he makes something out of nothing but a roll of tape.

There is another imposed limitation we’ve place on ourselves: using only second-hand items for Jeff’s “canvases”. Like the empty bottles, of course, and the once-loved-but-then-thrown-away-dolls, which are coming along nicely and are loved, once more, very much by me. We have other items, not quite finished, that are circulating around our home studio.

Recently, we completed some reclaimed frames. These are the first ones we’ve finished, and as we make more I’d like to document the process and share it here on our blog. I’m happy with how they turned out, but even happier that our original photography will have a fitting frame to reside in while staying true to our path.

“chain reaction” print in reclaimed frame on etsy

“on the wire” print in reclaimed frame on etsy

for me: old frames + masking tape + original photography = big smile

wishing you a happy path ahead,
~dale

This was created to use as a trailer at the end of short videos jeff and i dream and scheme about making.

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Some of our dolls are in local retail shops, and some are in our Etsy shop online.

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And while I’ve been really happy with how they turned out, and the reception they’ve received, I’ve also felt that they seem a little vulnerable in the spaces they occupy—out in the open and over-exposed, while sitting on their shelves.

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Custom made boxes are what I’ve been devising for them, and have come up with several different prototypes. But, I think I’ve finally settled on using foam board.

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It’s sturdy and light weight. I use masking tape to join the edges. Inside, I create a little bench shaped structure, made from the foam board as well, and tape that in securely. This allows me to attach starman to his box with a ribbon or string.

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Then, add several coats of glue, paint and illustrations printed on inkjet photo paper, and finish with a sealant.

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The boxes have turned into a further extension of the art that is inside of them. I like what it adds to our toy art, and they seem happy with their hand made homes made just for them.

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Here is Raman with his custom box, who was recently entered into a group exhibit at HOWL Gallery/Tattoo, in downtown Fort Myers, FL.

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oooohhh, the places he goes in that box…

~dale

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I’ve been on the lookout for paper flowers that can be made easily with old dictionary paper. I wanted to add them to our altered bottles to pretty-up the photos in our etsy shop, and to make the bottles themselves even more of a unique gift item.

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Jeff adds the sculpted design on the bottles with pieces of masking tape.

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Layers of glue are brushed on to make it hard, durable and paint-able. If you would like a closer look at Jeff applying masking tape to a bottle, we have a video showing exactly that, here.

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The flower blossom is made from one page of a dictionary (any paper could be used though).

The page is torn or cut in half long ways, and then each piece is folded in half, long ways again.

With scissors, cuts are made on the fold side, about 1/4 inch (.5 cm) in width and about two thirds deep into the folded paper.

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This is placed onto a strip of masking tape—the folded edge away from the tape. Now, the photo only shows one section of the dictionary page being used. But, I use both, when I’m making these by just adding the second piece right next to the first one. This makes a much longer strip, and a fuller flower.

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For the stem, a salvaged piece of aluminum wire is used that we saved when a hurricane brought down all of our power, cable and phone lines into our yard. You can use any type of wire or stick though. Thin tree branches look really nice.

After cutting the wire with wire cutters, and twisting one end in a small coil shape to help stable the bottom while it stands in the bottle, the other end is attached to the tape.

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Then the paper strip is slowly rolled up, keeping the tape in line with itself and pinching it down as you go along.

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The ‘petals’ will need to be gently pulled down, a bit, to open up the blossom.

One more thing that I’ve done, for the flowers in our etsy shop, is run the paper through our printer to color the paper. It gives a nice transparent shade of color to your blossom. This is easily done by creating a picture, in any paint program, the size of your paper, with a swash of color down the middle where the fold will be.

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These are a couple of our ‘nu cola bloom bottles’, and are the beginning of a new section of altered bottles at etsy.

cheers,
~dale

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This is an ocasiocasa stop motion video of Hilda, the art doll, in the making.
While Renny will be staying close to home for more  photo shoots, and will be featured in upcoming illustrations.
Once again, our music track was created by our son, Lucas.

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Stacked in a pile, high on a shelf, in a hall closet, were some old hardback book covers. Many were Readers Digest. They were put there so long ago, we aren’t sure what happened to all the pages that used to be inside of them. We feel confident that they were used up in some creative fashion, and have two nightstands with collaged tops under glass to back up our claim.

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It was time for another art show and I wanted to to include some illustrations, I’ve been working on, of our art dolls.

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Attaching the prints to vintage book covers seemed like a unique and appealing way to present them.

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The images were printed out and cropped. Artist tape was used to cover the bottom raw edge. And the prints were attached with photo corners.

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I liked how they turned out and the response was really good.

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After the show, I put some in one of our local shops, The Franklin Shops on first street, and made a display box with cardboard, from reused shipping boxes, black artist tape and some printed photography.

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This is one that sold at the show and is a personal favorite of mine, which I titled,”valentine”. The dolls in the photo are also currently for sale at The Franklin Shops on first street, but look a little different now. You can see an image of them in our last post, here.

happy valentine’s day,
~dale