Sometimes, when the world is literally burning, flooding or otherwise turning to shit, I just have to retreat to shore up the internal defenses before venturing out to do battle once again. I’m not unique in this and in this day and age of virtual connectivity it’s easier than ever to keep one toe in the world while remaining physically separate from it. My home is my castle yada yada and all my stuff is here and I like the quiet so why bother with the wider world when its turned so inhospitable?
If I’m going to be surrounded by the same four walls might as well make sure that things are functioning the way they need to and if there’s a problem with something why not make it better? The William Morris concept of “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” can’t really apply to everything but why not bump the numbers up where possible? Marie Kondo and her idea of household items sparking joy is just a modern iteration of this.
I spend a fair amount of time at my desk and while it’s chaotic it works for me. I’m not in here every day or always while the sun is up so Hortense needs to live between the curtain and window so it can get the full sun necessary for growth. When the plant first took up residence in this spot I unfortunately knocked the first few nublings of growth off moving the curtain back and forth. So I took a chunk of tissue box and taped it to the pot as a shield. Useful yes but deeply unattractive and not even all that functional as the tape holding the cardboard onto the pot popped off on a regular basis.
More thought than I want to admit to went into a possible solution as a replacement for the taped on cardboard shield. I wanted something functional but not ugly. Nothing purchased because that was just silly. Something homemade from scraps made the most sense but what?
I was wandering through YouTube one night and came across a post about the Chicago rat hole and the concept of #dumbart. Not everything needs to be deep and full of meaning. Sometimes I just want to create and have fun with it and that’s okay. Between this and a recent conversation with the eldest about castles in Scotland the concept of a castle for Hortense was born. What better way to protect it from the depredations of the curtain?
Using some thin cardboard packaging I managed to force into a curved shape and with the thin chipboard of a file folder box I made an insane number of rounded edged blocks in two sizes, larger for the floor and slightly smaller for the walls.
Getting the flat chipboard to adhere to the curved surface took a bit of figuring out. The little buggers kept popping off. Tape is our friend and held things in place till the glue dried. The tape pulled a bit of the chipboard surface off when removed but once sealed and painted it just added to the texture and made it look less like a file folder box and slightly more like dressed stone.
Several layers of Mod Podge, paint and sawdust flocking later and Hortense has yet another new home. This one will keep it safe and in the sun, hopefully for years to come and I now have something more attractive than a ratty tissue box bit to look at on my desk.
Sometimes you just need to make dumb art that makes you smile.
The battles of the world can wait for another day.
