Western Metal Art

If you want to portray an image of self-reliance, independence, and adventure, western decor is your best choice.  After all what depicts these images more than the American cowboy?

Let your creativity run wild when it comes to decorating your home with western metal art.  Look for metal framed mirrors featuring running horses or the praying cowboy kneeling at a cross. 

Use a western themed magazine rack featuring rodeo events such as bronc riding or calf roping in your den or living room.  Give it a new use in your bathroom as a place to store your towels. Western themed wine racks, hat racks, or candle holders are all a natural fit for western style decorating.

The warm hospitality the west was known for will show in your home, making your guests automatically feel comfortable and relaxed.

Until tomorrow ~~~ Happy Trails

When you choose the unique, old west style of a by-gone era, your choosing rustic, primitive, log cabin or mountain home decor.  Oh!  What about western decor you asked?  If you really stop and think about it aren’t they all basically the same thing?

Western home décor can be as bold as a chandelier made of antlers shed by elk & deer, or as subtle as a beautifully handsewn western style blanket thrown over the back of your sofa.  I think you could change the word “western” in the beginning of the previous sentence to rustic, primitive or the others and it would fit just as well.

Symbols of the west ~~ such as horseshoes, spurs, longhorns, horses, and decorative wagon wheels are often found in western home decor.  The variety of western accessories made of horseshoes is almost unlimited. From table lamps, floor lamps, bookends, clocks & even a kitchen caddy to name just a few. Many of these also incorporate the cowboys spurs.  Wouldn’t you say that the symbols of log cabin decor or mountain home decor is the same?

My point?  Get what you want, what speaks to your heart, and don’t worry about what “name” or “title” someone else has given it.

Everyone has a choice in whether they decorate their entire home in one decor, decorate each room in a different style, or have an eclectic decor thoughout.  While keeping that in mind ~~ any bedroom should have a relaxing and cozy ambience.

Decorating it in western decor accomplishes this while also giving it a masculine feel.  You can use an abundance of rich and rustic colors, such as burgundy or deep reds, sky blues, forest greens, burnished oranges and gold, and of course warm earthy browns.  Is it starting to feel like the outdoors?  Ah-ha, you have country western decor!

Very often lamps are made of metal, uniquely shaped wood, or cow horns, and have design’s that are western in nature.  Using a cowhorn lamp is a definite masculine touch, while a stretched rawhide covered lampshade adds a soft glow created by the lamps light passing through the stretched rawhide.  The addition of a candle holder gives you even more of a cozy romantic touch, and the variety of available design’s is seemingly endless.

Until tomorrow ~~ Happy Trails!

A “cowboy” is technically an animal herder. In the days of the open range they herded cattle over many miles. This was called “Cowpunching”. One of these cattle drives was the historic Chisholm Trail.

One part of the cowboys job during these cattle drives was to identify the “Judas Steer”.  When they reached the end of the trail this steer could easily lead the other cattle to slaughter with no problems.  If a really good Judas was found he wasn’t slaughtered but used on another cattle drive.
 
Historically Ft. Worth, Texas was the last stop on the Chisholm Trail. Years and years later they had Chisholm Trail Round-Up Days in Ft. Worth to commenorate the Chisholm Trail, where people set up booth’s to sell their western accessories to both tourist’s and the locals.  We only got to set up at the Chisholm Trail Round-Up once because the finals rodeo in Vegas started just a few days later.  Vegas was one of our favorite rodeo’s to set-up at so we chose it over the round-up.

The last one was in 2001, after 9/11 the increased cost of insuring the event made it no longer possible. There is a Chisholm Trail Round-up in Lockhart Texas every year in June.  In 2008 it’s June 12th-15th.

Having a blog is a completely new experience for my husband (Mark) and myself (Mary).  But we’ve “met” so many new and interesting people through our customer’s at ArtisticMetalArt, that we thought it would be a fun idea to have a way to interact with our customers, sharing different ideas, thoughts, & maybe even life-changing experiences!

We don’t have a brick & mortar storefront, we’re entirely on-line, which gives us the time & freedom to go on “treasure hunt’s” for different and unique western decor ideas.

We personally choose all of our own products ~~ and changes are made to many of them.  Something as simple as changing or adding colors to the Texas Barn Stars or as complicated as covering a barn star with a Brazilian cowhide and putting 100 star studs around the outline of the star.  Painting and adding western concho’s to a metal bar stool made from a tractor seat to “dress it up”.  Item’s like this are only available at ArtisticMetalArt or at one of our distributor’s.

Adding his own personal touch to a product always means something special to Mark.  It gives him a sense of accomplishment  and happiness to create whatever he’s doing ~~ and a part of that happiness comes from the knowledge that others will see and enjoy it!  Handmade items seem to have a timeless appeal.

We would love to hear from you, our customers, past, present, and future, on what you would like to read about, talk about, or learn about.

The ever popular Texas Barn Star is used in almost every state, including Alaska. We have even shipped one to Germany & Spain plus several to Canada and Alaska.  After spending twenty some odd years painting professionally, Mark paints each & every star as if it were going to hang in or on his own home.
 
The five point star inside a circle is found on the Texas state quarter, the state seal of Texas & also on the badges of the famous Texas Rangers.  The lariet encircling the design on the Texas state quarter is symbolic of the cattle and cowboy history of Texas, as well as the frontier spirit that tamed the land.
 
The Texas state flag displays a single star against a blue background with two horizontal stripes of red & white. The red,white and blue represent bravery, purity and loyalty, respectively. The five-point star is rooted in American folk art.  Aside from Texas, the star inside a circle is a well loved symbol of the American west.