tanda's workshop

After reading this recent thread by Domo1,
"I Need Some New Hobbies, What Are Yours?" www.abovetopsecret.com...
(which we enjoyed very much)
we thought it was time we shared a little about us.

We like to make things. As a matter of fact, that's what we do pretty much all day, everyday. We've been fortunate enough to turn it into a decent living.

We design and create custom frames. They are a combination of "off the shelf" products and other elements that we create in our shop.
Many of the houses in our city have transoms. For those of you who don't know, transoms are windows over the doorways in a house. We've made dozens of stained glass panels for transoms.
The president of a Christian biker gang once asked us to create a series of crosses that he presented to his members as Christmas presents. Here are two examples, they are about 14 inches tall and about an inch thick, cut from a single, solid piece of wood, then decorated with random scrap metal and some of them inset with stones.
Whenever we see a construction site, we scan for vintage lumber. If we find something cool looking we make benches.
If the wood is not suitable for benches we make other things like these goofy looking bird houses.
Once someone asked us to make a bird house to match their 1910 era Victorian home.
We heard a news story about someone stealing petroglyphs and that led to a discussion about fake petroglyphs. This was the result. We achieved this effect by peeling the paper off a chunk of sheet rock, painting the image, breaking the sheet rock, staining the whole thing with coffee then putting it back together and mounting it.We made this crazy frame for it and put it behind glass, sorry about the glare.
Mrs. tanda got inspired by the results and is working on a mandala that we will "vandalize" also. When she is finished with the image we will break it up, stain it, etc. The goal is to try and make it look old and damaged.
We made this table.
We made this grill for the yard.
Here's a peek at Mr. tanda's shop.
And a peek at Mrs. tanda's shop.
We love making things so much, whenever we are on a long hike, we usually stop long enough to make things like this.

We also do lots of photography but we'll save that for another thread maybe.

We love the Member Art forum as much as we love the Music forum and though we don't always post, we think ATS has some amazing talent.
You guys inspire us.

reply to post by tanda7


My mother once told me "Do what you love and the money will follow".

Looks like someone told you too.

The birdhouses are great. I like the irregular shapes.

The frames are quite nice as well.

How very creative and inspiring! Wonderful work! What I love hearing is that you do this stuff together. How awesome is that?

reply to post by tanda7


Wow, truly awesome and inspiring work. It makes me sad that you are planning on breaking up that mandala, it looks so beautiful and like a lot of time and energy went into making it. I wish you could make 2 exact copies, or copy it somehow, to have one to experiment with and one to save as is. But im sure it will come out as nice as all your other creations, for you seem to know what your doing. So I would love to see how it turns out. Keep up the good work

very inspiring. thank you for posting so many pics. im an artist coming out of a months and months
long funk

dbl post whoops

reply to post by tanda7


Hey you guys! That second frame is gorgeous and the doll house/bird house.

Mrs. Tanda7, I did'nt know you were an artist? That mandala is also gorgeous. I think it's wonderful that someone has an artistic, creative talent. Thanks for sharing another facet of your lives.

Also, Star and Flag.

Awesome!!!! I love your creations, unique and kinda funky too. I love the idea of making the mandala look old, I'm sure it will be beautiful especially aging the intense raw color! Love it!!! Be sure to post pics with the finished piece... please?

I agree we do have a lot of talent here, now if I can only stay off ATS long enough to finish some of my stuff...

SnF thank you for sharing your work, glad you're able to make a living doing so. Kudos!

Very enjoyable.

reply to post by Night Star

Thank you for the compliments.

...you do this stuff together. How awesome is that?

Very Awesome.
One day we realized that days go by and there's never more than one door between us.
For the first 5 years of our relationship our friends and family warned us that we shouldn't spend so much time together, 15 years later they just think we're weird. We are.

We feed each others energy and creativity. Our lives were nothing like this before we met.

reply to post by ImaFungi
Thanks Ima,

It makes me sad that you are planning on breaking up that mandala

Yeah it's very counter intuitive to purposely damage something as a part of the creative process.

We feel we must give credit for this idea to our dear friend Steve Bogdanoff. Steve creates these wonderful "vandalized" frescos. We were lucky enough to witness his process.

reply to post by DaphneApollo
Hello D-A, you are very kind.

Mrs. Tanda7, I did'nt know you were an artist?

You know, I never considered myself an artist. I rarely have an original idea when it comes to art.

Many years ago a client introduced me to his friends and said " I would like you to meet [mrs. tanda], my designer"
Since then I've had the confidence to say I'm a designer when someone ask me what I do.

Our main source of income is the frames. We make prototypes of our designs and we make art for them to help us visualize. I usually spend about 20 minutes making something similar to the clients art, I call them "mock-ups".
Here's an example.
Other times it happens accidentally.
One time Mr. tanda asked me to inventory his paint and test each color. This is the result of the test.Another accident, I was practicing a splatter experiment and this happened.I leave these laying around and Mr. tanda collects them and makes me sign them. The next thing I know he's framed them and they end up on the wall.
I feel totally in my element designing a look to accommodate art, but if you asked me to draw something I would panic.

reply to post by 2manyholes
Thank you very much,

I love the idea of making the mandala look old,

Please see our reply to ImaFungi a few post above this one.

now if I can only stay off ATS long enough to finish some of my stuff..

Combine the two! Show us some pictures of what you do. We are in and out so we miss a lot I'm sure. If you start a thread with some photos please send a PM with a link so we don't miss it.