During the post-Thanksgiving shopping weekend, one of my friends alerted everyone on Facebook to his warehouse sale. It’s the kind of pop-up where you go through a warehouse, maybe you find furniture or shelving or antiques or some other bric-a-brac.
He’s a good guy, I figured there might be something worth checking out.
I eventually left with this artwork. Spent a grand total of five dollars on it.
This is an advertising piece. You would receive this from a merchant, it would have the merchant’s name and address in the lower corner, and the side would display a thermometer along with a kitschy artwork.
So I’m thinking … I could turn this into something nice. All I need is to print out one of my legacy artworks, take out this goony Tudor house artwork, crop out a hole in my photo for the thermometer, frame it up, easy peasey.
A word of warning, though – if you ever get one of these vintage thermometer wall art pieces, look at the thermometer color. Anything that has a silver-colored inside is definitely a mercury thermometer, which can NOT be shipped due to mercury being a hazardous metal. However, the fact that the bulb in the thermometer is red indicates that this little temperature gauge is powered by alcohol, making it safer for shipment. It’s not as reliable as a mercury thermometer, but it does give at least a decent range of “is it hot or is it cold” readings.
This guy is also pretty small. The artwork is 8×10, but the little thermometer is actually 2 1/2 inches in height.
So … what to do, what to do.
I went through my archives, and pulled this image from 2022. This was my shot of the McGowan Hose building in Green Island – the one superimposed with a vintage postcard from 100 years ago.
I printed an 8×10 glossy copy of the photo, trimmed out that side hole for the thermometer …
And this actually turned out nice.
Take a look.
Sweet. It worked out well. I just have to remember a few things, if I ever do more of these.
- Make sure that the thermometer is an alcohol-based thermometer (should have red or blue or green liquid). Avoid the old mercury thermometer artworks (they would have a silvery liquid). You can’t ship mercury thermometers, and you have to dispose of them as hazardous waste.
- Print a couple of extra copies of the artwork you plan to use; you’re sure to mess up one or more cuts when you undertake a project like this.
- Have fun with it. You could create your own fantasy “Ye Olde Drug Store” piece and make an artwork that really stands out.
So, yeah. Another fun project. Whether I enter this in Competition Season 2026 is totally up in the air. But it’s nice to know something like this can be a fun daytime project for very little financial outlay.
Chuck The Writer 