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Old views of making and living with folk art
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Folk art ship
models
This detail of a steroview documents children crafting folk art ship models. Folk art by definition is somewhat childlike and we often forget that crafters of all ages enjoy crafting hobbies. |
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Button mosaic
A frugal crafter recycled old buttons into a folk art object, into a picture of the church at Where Away, Bull Shoals. Arkansas. Using found or scavenged materials is characteristic of much of folk art. |
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Spool stand
A rustic view from New York State's Thousand Islands with a stand made from discarded and recycled thread spools. Spool stands are fairly common antiques and provide us with lessons in crafting art from waste. |
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Folk art wind
toys
"Windmills and oddities from "Way Down East" A. W. Weatherby, Hammonassett River, Madison, Conn." information on postcard |
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"Cayuga
County Totem Tree (wood carving)
This curiosity of Southern Cayuga (NY) is situated at Barber’s Corners, one mile west of Scipioville, and three miles east of Levanna on a well cut lawn. It was carved out of the trunk and lower branches of a good-sized tree in the summer of 1911 and 1912 by George E Carr, a soldier of the Civil War of 1861 and 1865. This Totem Tree might be called one of the wonders of the age as the phrase "Nothing like it" can be applied to its many unique features. The idea was borrowed from the Totem Pole of the Alaska Indians, but it is much more artistic in its execution, the inequalities of the tree and branches being carved into such figures as suited their shape. There are forty figures on all sides, consisting of animals, birds, portraits, etc., which are painted in various colors to make them prominent. The tree is about eighteen feet in height and is viewed by many strangers who pause to give it more than passing notice." Information from postcard |
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*1924 George Carr's Totem Tree and Other Curious Things by Harry R. Melrose, published by George Carr, Union Springs, NY. 12 page pamphlet with 11 photographs |
| "Man apes and
alligators, sea monsters and snakes, rabbits and horses, vampires and
owls - a collection of freaks such as no circus ever could assemble -
are serenely living together on a little farm in the Finger Lakes Region
of Central New York.
Some of the creatures are on trees, others curl about posts or the pump handle and still others leer grotesquely from the hedge fence."* Today there is a great interest in roadside attractions, folk art environments and outsider art. This pamphlet documents that we share those interest with our forbearers. George Carr would likely be characterized as an "outsider artist" though we have no knowledge if any of his carvings have survived, other than in "print." |
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Toothpick model
of a fort
Real photo postcard view of a fantasy fort decorated in American flags and birds Possible made by George B. Higgins of Saint James, Montana out of toothpicks. Matchsticks and pop sickle sticks have proved a popular material for a great variety of craft projects. |
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Toothpick model
of a Ferris Wheel
Vintage photograph with the following information on back - " 34" high, 26" wide, 16" width, Feb. 1 1932, Otto Witt, 4 1/2 x 2" carriages, 12,500 toothpicks." |
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Detail from stereoview of Victorian parlor with seashell encrusted stand with model house (foreground) and seashell encrusted plant stand (background). |
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the above images are from the Tramp-art.com Collection |
