Bark Art & A Coin

We ended last week by ripping bark off clay pots, bark that I had painstakingly hot glued to the pots and carved the pots with Colby’s and my own initials for our wedding reception centerpieces.  But I managed to salvage one piece of bark and had planned to frame it and add it to the gallery wall in the parlor.  Well, I just so happened to be cruising the home goods section of TJ Maxx and came across a pair of adorable frames for only $6 each that would be perfect for said bark art project.

They were just too adorable, and too cheap.  I couldn’t resist.

And I knew exactly what I wanted to put in those frames the second I saw them.  One…the piece of bark we had salvaged from the clay pots.  And two…a coin that we had found while demolishing our master bedroom earlier this year.

Maybe it’s not so much a coin as it’s a medallion of some sorts.  But anyway, it’s pretty cool and definitely a keeper.  Colby found it in the rubble that was our old plaster, bedroom walls.  He picked it up and somehow we’ve managed not to lose it in all this time.  It’s been living on top of the door trim in the bathroom for the last three months.  Weird, I know.  But that’s just how we roll.  Anyway, I got down to business framing up our new “art”.  First, by cutting the bark down to size/shape using the piece of paper that came in the frame as a template.

And cutting a piece of linen material that I had on hand, leftover from a few wedding projects, and hot gluing the coin onto the center of the material.

Easy framing piece of the project complete.

Then the slightly trickier part of the project…converting the table style frame into one I could hang on the walls.  It’s pretty easy and I’ve done it a few times before, but here’s the process.  Rip of the stand (it’s amazing how easy they rip off), and using a piece of twine or jute, feed it through the eyelets left on the frame and tie it together into a loop.

Trim your ends down and you’re good to hang.  And hang we would do in the parlor art gallery, the future home for our new art.  Here’s a shot of the gallery before we hung the new art:

And from another angle.

There were a bunch of places in this gallery where I could have hung the frames, since it’s a free for all kind of gallery.  Although I did carefully plan the gallery out with paper templates when I first hung it.  It’s a calculated random hanging configuration.  So I played with the hanging options a bit and settled on the big stretch of a combo.  It maximized my wingspan.

With the placements marked out on the wall, I nailed the picture hangers into the wall.

Do you like how my shirt matches the hammer?  I always try to coordinate my outfits with my tools.  Which is pretty easy since MY tools are all pink and much of my wardrobe is too.  Colby’s seem to be red (Milwaukee red).  Mine are prettier.  Anyway…we hung the art.

The guy on the left really isn’t that close to the mouse art.  It’s just a strange perspective.  It looks better in this pic.

I love how the small, round frames balance out a lot of the larger, chunkier frames.  While the new frames differ in size and shape, they do tie into the existing frames in their color and finish.  The metal color is very similar to the color in the deer head art and the new frame also picks up on the gray in the Town of Rochester poster fram.

I love the new art pieces in the parlor, especially since they’re both so sentimental to us.  You can never go wrong with framing items, even unconventional items such as bark, as long as it’s meaningful to you.  And personally, I think the stranger the art the better.  Get down with your weirdness…maybe even boogie with it a little.  It just makes for a more interesting, conversation piece.

And here’s our gallery from afar.

I think I’m closing the parlor art gallery chapter for good now.  I may switch out some of the art in the frames, but I think it’s finally full enough for my liking.  Speaking of which, I’ve been canvasing Etsy to find a print to replace the notecard that I framed in the center of the whole gallery.  It was supposed to be just a place holder but that place holder has lasted nearly a year now.  Whoops.  At least it’s a cute notecard!

Pssst…Want to read more about the art in the parlor art gallery?  Catch up on the gallery progress here with mouse art, here with the Town of Rochester poster and frame, here with flamingo art, here with the DIY deer head art, here with the miscellaneous pics, and here with how it all got pulled together and hung.