FOR THE ♥ OF SHOES

Stamping into art one shoe at a time!

This is the shoe from an etsy store that inspired me to add this side link. I love working on shoes as well and found this glass mosaic fascinating. How magical , I want it for my garden!

From snakehair

These

These shoes are created from my friend of many years who recently opened her own shop at etsy . All of her work is magical and these shoes will transport you into another realm.

Magical MOXI-cans

From VictoriaPandora

why shouldn't your slippers be as busy as you? the third pair in my endeavors to ground those who know they can fly
walk a mile in these
up-cycled route 66brand mary janes
comfy and steady on your feet
priced easy and good to go
size 9 1/2

RECYCLED SHOES by C. Reinke

 Whats new in shoes ?

 

These are a pair of 1980s stripper shoes made of white patent leather that I have been working on to putting side of my first shadow box suitcase 

Recycled Shoes featured in collections

The Red Glitter shoes are my work, they are Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz inspired

Wicked Witch of the West recycled shoes are featured in this great treasury

antique VIOLIN CASE

ANTIQUE VIOLIN CASE

The case is made of wood with green velvet inside and a thin leather alligator hide, rusty hinges, duck tape and the side wood was all coming out, it was pretty shot.







I have done SEVERAL GUITAR cases and was commission once to do a violin case, my husband Mike from Patriot Log Home Builders wanted to do this very old wood violin case that he has held on to for many years.

It was his idea to use the music sheets. I play classic piano and have allot of sheet music, we choose a single piece from my BACH book. Mike had the cleaver idea to burn the edges, which he did. As you can see we are still in the design phase.My husband patiently cleaned and repaired the case before I began its treatment. He is between jobs right now and at times we like to work together.



This project has sat for quite a while as since then , I decided it was time to finish up my Groovy 1960s inspired guitar case, which I did just yesterday in fact. It was one night over a few beers with my husband, sitting in my studio when it hit me that I had to take my suitcases to a new level.

I wanted to cut a whole in them and my husband right then and there got out his jug saw and did it for me. See this process here.

The excitement of these projects have over shadowed the violin case. This is how I often work however, several projects going on at one time. As drying time and other factors play in it enables me to keep busy for hours at a time, which is how I like to work. Yesterday I started a 9:00 A. M. and finished up around 8:00 in the evening, I was bushed dead tried but I finished my self portrait and it is my favorite suitcase to date.



Today , Saturday afternoon I will spend most of the day as well in my studio. My oldest daughter, after seeing what I did for my 15 year old daughter on her birthday ,

the face-lift of the dresser wants me to make her an end table for her collage dorm, so I might start that today. She wants it in similar papers and thankfully I still have some left over.

WORKS IN PROGESS

WORKS IN PROCESS

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE THE ENTIRE POST

♥ANTIQUE VIOLIN CASE

♦SELF PORTRAIT

♥SHADOW BOX

☺GROOVY FLOWER POWER GUITAR CASE

REcycled phone featured in REGRETsy

regretsy?
Those who cant...
c r i t i c i z e

I made my first treasury on recycled artists, and had so much fun surfing
along the artists of etsy.com , I was truly amazed at the diversity and
creativity of the artists!! I found bracelets made from coke cans as
shown here and lots of colorful joyful art. I barely could wait to do
another treasury for etsy.


Since etsy has added Treasury East and given a broader opportunity
for sellers to do Treasury's , I had been lucky enough to be featured
nearly weekly in a Treasury. It is and has always been an honour to
me to be featured. It is free advertising , true, but it means that
someone has taken the time and felt that your item was worthy of
being displayed.

After going out with a friend for a few drinks on a warm spring evening,
I came home to my laptop to check my etsy. My mailbox was full of
thanks and warm regards for the treasury that I had created, I sold
an item while I was gone, then I opened a mail that simply said

Were you aware?
Did you know that your one of your phones made it to the Regretsy website? http://www.regretsy.com

I miss read regretsy to read registry . I was excited, life felt good ,
my hard hard work was paying off. I thought incorrectly that my
phone was featured in something relating to etsy, a good thing.
I clicked the link which lead to the May site for the most recent post here





There is my phone, and WOW 62 comments! my heart beat
with excitement. The first comment , was horrible, did I read
it right? the next and the next weird , confusing. My face felt
hot, I slowly disengaged from my body, everything felt unreal.
I read posts such as :
It’s looks like the beaded curtain and the telephone got into

a fight and the telephone lost.

another wrote
Liberace called from beyond. He wants his telephone back

These I found cleaver and even funny but I was confused

at the cruelty and rawness of some of the remarks such as

Way to ruin a vintage phone. I don’t give a shit if 22

hours were invested to fuck it up, but it’s worthless now!

The mink really did it in. lol

Next time, if you want to fuck things up

, use a hammer. Guaranteed it won’t take 22 hours.
This comment positively hurt to the core and

A fingerless epileptic could produce finer work in less time.
How, I wondered could everyone hate my phone? One of my
phones had recently made it to a Treasury. When My Art gallery
was open, a notable collector added one of my Candy phones
along with a suitcase and bike) to his large outstanding collection
of OUTSIDER artists. I was confused and humiliated. Then I forged
on and realized that the comments where being rated, as it stands
to date the number one rated comment is from

LeeLooDallas : Someone use this to call 9-1-1.
and then This is the phone you use to call
Liza Minnelli in an emergency.

these two number one rated comments I find funny , cleaver
and given the overall intended spirit of the site in good humor.
However, so many of the comments are, as others feel hurtful,
mean spirited and even hateful.

Shortly after I was featured I received an inbox at etsy from an
unknown buyer which reads
I'm sorry they posted one of your creations
on that site. The author of the blog and the
book Regretsy (recently published) does noting
to contribute but spends her time trolling Etsy to
find items to bash. Check out her facebook page
(especially the "Flounce" page. I am a shopper,
but posted a message about the mean-spirited culture
the "author" endorses. She is hateful. Instead of
celebrating the good on Etsy, she seeks out items
to make fun of, and all under the shield that she
is promoting charities (hardly).

People say it is a good thing because she is bringing
traffic to their Web sites. In fact, weird people have
been purposefully posting crud just to get on to her
Web site. I left a comment about the mean-spirited
nature of the comments and was blasted by hateful remarks.
They act like bullying teenage girls. They harassed me
for taking up for Etsy sellers and set me crude and
vicious private messages. I copied them all and
will be sending them to her book agent. Not very good pr!

Anyhow, saw your blog and I would just ignore it.
They waste so much time blasting people left and
right that they are all over someone else now.
The best thing is to ignore them. After all, what
they are doing is not imaginative and gets old
petty quick. It will crash soon when people
get bored with it

Take care,
Laurie Charnigo


In an attempt to receive feedback from other etsy sellers,
I posted in a forum
Familiar with the site regretsy? any victims?
what are your thoughts?
I received what I was looking for, good feedback.
The two most helpful
came from



Honestly I wouldn't sweat it. Sure it can be cruel, but
honestly the site gets so much traffic it's going to drive
traffic to your site. And it's instant free advertising.
It may hurt for a while, but try to keep your head up and
look on the bright side. You can look at from either side
of the coin. And really it's best to ignore it and move on.
Some folks who were on the site made it into the Regretsy
book with permission and are continuing to get free advertising
out of the entire thing. So try to take the good with the bad.
I feel for you but try not to let it get you down. Hugs.

While on the other side I received
Regretsy's climate is to be hateful and mean and top each
other in the hate.

You will not find any nice comments there, so please
don't let it ruin your day, there's art to be made!

Hummm, useful. The hurt was subsiding slowly. The night this happened to me,
I slept like crap, all the doubts that so many artists are
plagued with haunted me once again. I'm no good, give it up, you are kidding
yourself, you are a fool for devoting your life to art
and on and on it went. The Book the ARTISTS WAY , was life
changing for me.
I am 51 years old or young, whatever... my life has been
devoted to ART. Minored in it in Collage, ran two art
Galleries have exhibited threw out the US and even In Europe
when asked at a cocktail party "what do you do?"?
I reply "I'm an artist" it is who I am.

I could not help but feel genuine mixed emotions, I watched
my hits or views on my
phone go up daily, today now nearly 1500 views.
That's great on one hand.
People are seeing my work! I have to keep telling myself that
not everyone hates it or thinks its junk as Regretsy has implied.
I once said, its not my quote, but I certainly have repeated it enough
That notoriety is the best publicity!

We think of Van Gogh and other great artists who were
misunderstood and ridiculed.
I can hear them now at Regresty"'Well, you are no Van Gogh"
"No?" I can ask. "I very well might be" I will hit the bottle of
now legal Absinthe, look for the green fairy,
keep my ears in place and forge ahead with paint brush,glitter in hand
and tackle another phone.

Hip Horns

 

 

Find my work HERE

♥HIP HORNS

I painted them blue and filled in the cracks

I love taking old disgraced horns and bedazzling them. My father, an avid hunter, is horrified at what I do to them. I grew up with horns on the wall. I live in the Midwest, It is hard not to go to a local rural bar and not find heads of animals and horns on the wall. I never really felt good around them. when I first found a pair of horns at the junk yard I felt so bad, they smelled of mold and were in very bad shape. This deer lost its life for this trophy that someone now threw away. I spent a lot of time with that first set of horns.

since then I look for horns at yard sales and in the trash. I love giving them a new life an purpose. I like to put the feminine spin on them to be honest. They are traditionally so masculine and associated with much machoism . My horns are prefect for a girls room where she can use them to hang her necklaces , scarfs or hats.

I have been wanting to take a pair of horns and completely fill them with jewels. I did, with the help of my daughter. We did not randomly put them on but took our time and I think it paid off. It was very time consuming but really quite realizing  at the same time.

I could not resit putting on the ruffle lace. I think that it gives it the appearance  of a regal queen !

before lace,glitter  and  royal lace ruffles are added

One of my tables in my studio, I thought it looked very kitsch at the moment so I took this shot, since then several of these items have been incorporated int my work

Growing up in the Midwest, like so many,I was exposed to a lot of deer hunting. I could not bear to see my father bring home the animals, cut them up, skin them and then was forced to consume them at the dinner table. My poor mother tried in vain to make my fathers proud animal kill palatable. I hated it. Horns and animal heads, hides, furs, feet and shells adorned our home. I grew slowly immune to the initial horror of the heads and horns as part of my decor. I really dislike hunting as a whole.

From funkyfindzonline

Funky Orange Horns

The wood base is painted midnight blue with heavy glitter, outside is lined with orange cotton eyelet lace. The horns are painted orange with yellow highlights.. The base mount is gold with a strip of faux leopard fur. This is an unusual set of horns, on one pair it is a single horn while the other has three. I love making these, as a child of a deer hunter ,I lived all my life with various taxidermy on the wall. This horn was rescued from a dump. It required a lot of cleaning and preparation but was worth it. This was designed for a young girls bedroom or for the home that is decorated boldly. My Funky Horns are prefect for hanging jewelry, hats or scarf’s. It is my belief that by taking these old deer horns, I honor the life they gave by giving them a use. A hole has been drilled on top for hanging on wall.

                                           From funkyfindzonline

altered vintage deer rack is Funky Winter Green.

The wood base is painted brilliant green with heavy glitter, outside is lined with nylon lace ruffle trim. The outer most edge of the wood base has candy pink glass bead trim. The base mount is painted pink with sequin adornment. This is a symmetrical four prong rack of horns. They are painted white with pink tips. This horn was rescued from a flea market. It required a lot of cleaning and preparation but was worth it. This was designed for a young girls bedroom or for the home that is decorated boldly. My Funky Horns are prefect for hanging jewelry, hats or scarf’s. It is my belief that by taking these old deer horns, I honor the life they gave by giving them a use. A hole has been drilled on top for hanging on wall.

When I first found a small rack in a garbage dump... I was aghast! I felt additional pity for this poor animal , who gave its life largely for its horns, so they could be proudly mounted as a display of ones manhood .( Pure speculation , but there is an awful lot of pride in ones size of rack! humm? ) They were moldy , smelly and basically a shambles. I retrieved them from the junk pile (a favorite destination site of mine) and began to paint them, I loved recovering the center piece and added frilly bobbles. Needless to say when my father, or any man who values the sport of hunting saw them , he was irritated at best.

It soon began a another recycling passion of mine. I like to take these smaller racks that I find in the trash and revamp them with a feminine twist. I give them function. they can hang in any little girls room as a fun accent piece and be used as either a hat rack or they are great for hanging your favorite necklaces on. They are kitsch funky and functional .


I am attempting to honor the life of the animal by taking these discarded horn racks (they are using pathetically sadly small) and recreating them into HIP HORNS. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do making them

                               

                               From funkyfindzonline

dated 1978, these deer antlers have been given new magic life. Created with the thoughts of full dark and mystic moons of the African shaman this is my newest work. I love him. It is the first time that I have taken the antlers and given them a face, I cant wait to do another.

I used hand made silk screen papers from India,high quality acrylic paints,glitter, vintage buttons and lots of sunshine.

I suggest using these horns for hat racks or to hang your jewelry. I grew up with horns, daughter of a hunter. I don't like hunting at all, but love to rescue old beat up mounted horns and make them funky and fun.