Slow Boat to China

I've written before about my Aunt Kay. She was the fun one. Knowing she was coming for a weekend visit was like Christmas was arriving on Friday night. Not only did Aunt Kay have a knack for engaging us kids, she also was a woman of many different interests and hobbies throughout her life. She loved her canned beer, and she loved "puttering" away on projects. One of Aunt Kay's hobbies was playing the saxophone. I've got a great black and white photo of her, maybe in her twenties, somewhere playing her sax in the kitchen and her hair was up in pin curlers. I'm sure one of her "ciggies" was burning away in the ashtray out of frame. The other day I was poking around in my antique and vintage collection on my never-ending quest to downsize and reclaim that room in the house. I came upon a whole box of old sheet music. It was Aunt Kay's. There's probably over a hundred pieces in there and I sat down and started going through them. They usually have wonderful cover graphics, and I've framed sheet music covers before. I asked Google if vintage sheet music has much value and it was an interesting mix of information I got. In general, vintage sheet music is not that valuable; they're worth just a few dollars apiece due to the volume that was produced back in the 30s and 40s. However, if the sheet music is for songs by famous composers or performers (like The Beatles) it can be worth more, especially if it's a rare edition. Other types of sheet music that can be more highly valued is if it's related to historical events, disasters or heroes. Appealing graphic cover art is another feature of vintage sheet music that makes it collectible. There is some gorgeous art to be found on these fragile little 4 or 6-page pieces. I find the art deco influenced pieces very appealing. I decided I was going to create a triptych of images using some suspension frames I'd found in our upstairs cedar closet. Speaking of vintage, the frames were still sealed yet I found the receipt in the bag. I had bought them in Montreal in 2004. I wonder what project I had in mind. Suspension frames are basically two pieces of glass that you sandwich a piece of art between. Sometimes it's just held together with metal clips. These frames actually had beautiful wood outer frames that you dropped the sandwiched art down into and then an inner wooden frame that held them in place with little swing clips. A very nice design. A triptych is three related pieces of art. Often they're either included in one wide, panoramic frame or in three separate frames hinged together. Mine will simply be meant to hang right next to each other. Sorting through all the pieces, I chose two different colorways — three red and three blue — but ultimately decided on the red since I thought the three red worked the best together. Tough choice since one of the blue ones was particularly striking. The song title was "The Blue of The Night" featuring a romantic looking photo of Bing Crosby in beautiful smoky shades of cerulean blue. Maybe one day Bing will just stand alone in a frame looking handsome.