I’ve been in a major slump lately when it comes to my reading/blogging/writing life. It’s been pretty extreme, and honestly it feels like it’s getting worse, not better. If anyone has any advice to get me out of it, feel free to share!
But, while I’m not doing much with my blog, I’ve been filling the creative void by creating junk art! I do the designing (or the finding of designs) and my husband does the welding. It’s been a fun hobby that we can do together, which is nice since we actually don’t have many of those. I thought I’d do a monthly post to share our newest creations.
Introducing our cute little bookworm! I found the design for this guy online – several people are selling similar dudes on Etsy, and I thought he was super cute (and perfect for me). He’s made mostly from nuts, with nail hands, screw antennas and some sheet metal for the base and the book.
Next is this super cute mole. I’m especially proud of this guy because he’s the first creation that I just came up with from out of my imagination. I found this vintage oil can pourer thingy on Facebook Marketplace (along with a few others) and my daughter and I thought that the shape of it looked a lot like a mole face. We gave him a hat made out of a blue tea kettle top, eyes made of large nuts, whiskers made of short nails, and his little paws are just little bracket thingies that we screwed in (you can tell I have a lot of expertise in these parts based on my highly technical names for them). The finishing touch is his little buck teeth, which are made from two square nuts. I think he turned out great!!
And finally we have our scorpion. Again, we found this design online, but we adapted it a bit to work with our materials. His body and tail are made of a bike chain (my husband came up with the idea of using three rows for his body and two for his tail since we didn’t have two sized chains). Then we used nuts for his eyes, a square nut cut in half for his mouth pincer, two small wrenches for his main pincers, wire from an old broken drying rack for his legs, and a small nut with a piece of a nail attached for his stinger. This little guy is a Father’s Day present for Scott’s dad, who lives in Arizona half the year (where scorpions are prevalent – hopefully he won’t ever see a real one this big!).
And those are our latest creations!! I’ve got a few more in the works, so come back next month to see the finished projects. And if you missed my first post with our earliest junk art, feel free to go back and check those pieces out too!
Here’s one final pic of what our metal garden is looking like so far:
Have you been doing anything creative lately? I want to know!
Oh my gosh, those are awesome!
Thank you!!
That bookworm! I love it, I feel like it’s something all us readers need in our lives. And the mole is cool, I love seeing it in the garden as if it’s poking its head out of the ground. The scorpion will make a great gift, very unique. I can’t wait to see more.
Yes, the bookworm was an obvious pick for me, and I love him! And I thought the mole looked cute in the garden too. 🙂
Those are fantastic! What a great use of chain in the scorpion. I am amazed at the things you saw in these scraps.
It definitely helps to start out being inspired by other people’s creations. But I feel more confident to come up with my own creations now.
Those are really cute!
Thank you! They were really fun to make too!
These are so great, Nicole. How fun to create something cool and fun out of hardware and “junk.” That little bookworm is priceless! 🙂
I love the idea of using things that would otherwise end up in the trash!
I’m so in love with this hobby!
Karen @ For What It’s Worth
Me too!
These are awesome! Great job! I love stuff like this, especially the bookworm.
knew the bookworm would be a favorite around here. 🙂
I love your creations! Thanks for sharing them.
Thank you!!
These are all so cute and creative! I think the scorpion is my favorite of the three, and that it makes for a perfect gift! I would love to get something like that as a present! And I don’t why, but for some reason the mole’s hat makes me think that he’s an adventurer!
The scorpion is probably our favorite thing that we’ve made so far. It turned out great!!
Cute! This morning I saw a junk art bird in someone’s yard and thought of you. It was far away, but I think its beak was a tiny shovel and its feet and tail were tiny rakes. 🙂
I have a whole Pinterest board filled with cool junk art animals, and I’ve definitely seen some with shovels and rakes. I’m sure I’ll make one at some point. 🙂
I’m loving your creations!!!! And don’t stress about your slump – when the time is right, you will come out of it. Sometimes our brains our sending us a message to take a break…just embrace the time to pursue other things. Reading and writing will be back before you know it!
Yeah, I think you’re right—forcing myself to read certainly hasn’t been working.
Those are so awesome! Now I have another reason I need a husband, so I can do this cool stuff! LOL!! I love that bookworm. I want one so bad! I’ll have to go see where I can find who is selling them. I wish my lack of motivation to write was at least leading to something productive like this right now.
Ha! Yes, it’s nice to have someone else to do the welding part. 🙂 I’m sure you can find a bookworm online – I’m actually thinking of possibly selling some pieces on Etsy myself once we get some more done. Our garden can only hold so many.
I’m going to have to check out a place on Etsy. Or if you start selling them, then I’ll check out your site. Now that I have a yard I can decorate, I want more stuff! Even though really my male dog is just going to hike his leg on anything I put out. LOL!!
Let me look at our schedule and see if we have time to make one for you soon. I’d be happy to make one for you at a discount from what you’d pay on Etsy—I haven’t looked into how much it would cost to ship yet, though, so I’d have to let you know about that. 🙂
I LOVE the bookworm! These are so creative and adorable!
Thank you!!
It’s so fun that you’re doing this with your husband. And how creative of you with the Mole! I’d be excited if I came up with something like that too. The bookworm is adorable – and I really want one now. I love that the scorpion is a gift – I think his dad is going to love it. Great job!!!
-lauren
It really has been a great hobby for my husband and me to share!
Those are so adorable!!!!! Great job on them!!
Thank you! This has been a fun new hobby.
Oh my gods, I LOVE the little bookworm! He’s so cute! And so perfect!
My advice for slumps is almost non-adivce… I say just ride it out. For me I’ve discovered I can’t force myself to read/blog, even if it’s re-reading a favorite book, because it’s just no fun for me if I’m not into it. So I just let it happen. I’ve been watching a lot of TV lately cause I’m in the same boat as you. Oh and my brother just got a Switch so I’ve been borrowing that. I get the urge to read every now and then and I just take advantage of that when it happens.
Yeah, that’s basically all I’ve been able to do—just wait for the reading mood to hit me again. I’ve never gone this long without wanting to read, so it’s been very odd for me!
These are so cute! I love the way they are turning out, you and your family are very creative with the critters!
It’s been a really fun hobby and something we can do together, which is so nice.
These are SO CUTE!! I am so impressed, especially that you came up with the mole on your own! It’s so nice that you and your husband have a hobby to do together, I love that!
As for the slump…. I wish I had better advice, but I am sorry! They are the WORST. I will say this- I find that if I don’t MAKE myself try to push through it, I become very content to NOT do it. So it might be worth trying a “fake it til you make it” approach, you know? It has worked for me historically, at least. I hope it ends soon ♥♥
I’ve tried to force myself to read, but I just keep falling asleep!!! (And that’s with a book I’m really enjoying.) I blame the puppy.
Oh, Nicole! These are brilliant! I love them. I lack the spark of inspiration, confidence and skill set when it comes to creativity like this. However, luckily the world is filled with talented souls like you who brighten our world.
I hope you post some more picks of your creations soon. x
It has been a really fun creative outlet!!