Calliope Part I: The Origin

Welcome to the Gypsy Mystery Blog!

So…where to start?

[Edit out long, rambling paragraph exploring possible ways to start].

I guess I’ll start with Calliope, since she’s pretty darn cool and folks love her.

She’s also been instrumental in setting me on my current artistic path, so it seems appropriate.

Me, Dore and Calliope

Calliope, Part I: The Origin

Who is Calliope, you ask?

Calliope is our gypsy wagon.

She’s a handmade, fully functional camper trailer and a mobile work of art.

She’s the brightly-colored, eye-catching, grin-inspiring product of seven months of dreaming, designing, building, painting, decorating and running to our various local hardware stores at least twelve times every weekend.

She’s the cherished lovechild born of the joyful melding of my husband’s impressive mechanical/construction skills and my own visual art talents. The product of a serendipitous synergy of creativity, adventurous spirit, questionable sanity, blood, sweat, tears, occasional bursts of cursing and copious amounts of sawdust and satin-finish exterior latex house paint.

Calliope began life as a Coleman pop-up camper trailer from the 70’s, and served well in that capacity for decades. We didn't take a Before picture, but she looked something like THIS. In 2010, a friend of ours offered her up for sale at a price that we could not resist.

Were we in the market for a camper trailer? Not really – but we do go to a lot of camping events, including a wild week in the Nevada desert every summer, and after years of tent camping, the idea had its appeal.

And my husband, Dore, is one of those types who grabs stuff he thinks he might do something cool with someday and piles it in the garage and/or driveway. Fortunately, he usually DOES do something cool with it, eventually.

And truly – the price was too good to pass up.

So – in the spirit of impulsivity and optimism, we brought old Calliope home. She came with the name, given to her by her previous owners, and it proved to be quite appropriate (more on that later).

When we inspected our prize, we discovered that Calliope had seen better days, for sure. Her canvas was ripped and torn, her cabinetry all but demolished. The only ones camping out in this old gal were a family of mice who’d tucked their nest in a cozy corner.

Clearly, we had some work ahead of us to make our new camper campable.

(Continued in Part II)

Check out the Calliope Photo Gallery: http://cristinamcallister.blogspot.com/2013/10/calliope-photo-gallery_31.html