Beauty of Beginning

April Showers, Beauty of Beginning

March did start out like a lion and ended like a lamb.  Seems like we did not have our typical early spring, but I have known it to snow at Easter.  And my grandmother said that if there was thunder
in February that there would be frost in May.  So we will be testing this folklore but my Grandma was the most perfect (yes, I am predigous).  We have a cold spell that we call dogwood winter and another cold spell coming this week.  I don't know what winter this is called, maybe blackberry winter

This past month, I fixed the chairs from January's blog.  I made the stencil more intense
and reapplied the darkened wax.  The stenciling does show better.  I am happier with them
and feel that they are ready to sell now. 

I had a "happy" accident this past month.  I drop a can of paint (Duck Egg) and made a
big mess.  In the process of trying to clean it up and save some paint at the same time,
I scooped up what I could in my hand and sloaped in on this tray table that I splashed
in the accident.  I used my "Skylar's Lace" stencil to add a little decoration.  I think it turned
out really cute.  I have redone several of these tray tables.  They are fun and quick projects.

In March's blog I tried the back lite canvas that I was not happy with, so here is my
second attempt.  It works better that the first canvas but I am still not satisfied
with the results.  So I am hoping that 3rd time will be the charm.

The last project that I got done this past month was my ugly light.
 My mom picked this light up somewhere, yard sale or side of the road, who knows.  I cleaned this poor thing and painted it copper and rewired it.  It looks better and that's all I'll say about that ;-)














I have started the doily light that I have re-pinned on my pinterest boards, if you are interested in looking at it. I hopefully will have my first one done by my next
posting and hope that you will come back to see the results.

March - In like a lion

We have all seen on the news the devastating storms.  I was blessed
and thankful that my family and ourselves were spared.  I do worry that
this is the beginning of an over-active spring.

I have not done much artwork the past few weeks.  I tried my hand at
pyrography and filligree craving on a large 40" diameter gourd.
I have to harden my gourds because finding thick gourds locally for
carving has been difficult.  I hope to try some more in the near
future but still my favorite activity with gourds is creating baskets.

I was recently inspired by the decorating blog apartmenttherapy.com to recreate a backlite canvas in my own style.  I used foil instead of paint to fashion the exterior of the design.  I fashioned a box to contain the light and the light was 20 bulb string of mini lights.  I like it sorta.  It will take a bright light to make the design to show up well and it has a heavy feel to me.  I am going to redo this project to get the lighter uplifting effect that I want.  So you will see more in the near future. 

If you want to see the orginal inspriration for this project, I have it pinned on my
www.pinterest.com boards.  Pinterest is a really fun site for ideals and inspiration.
It contains just about anything a person could be interested in (food, photography, design,
clothes) and gives you the link to find the items.

Creating the frame box was the hardest part for me. I don't know how a person manages keeping
those 45 degree angles together properly so you can nail them.  All of mine are off between alittle and alot.  It is not painted in the pic.  But I am in the process of putting a silver metallic paint on it.  Right now I only have it primed.  You will see the finished frame box on my next visit with a different canvas. 

If anyone can instruct me on how to hold together 45 angles, I would appreciate your comments. 
Please stay safe and see you soon.

Celebrating Winter trying Chalk Paint

It is finally winter here in Kentucky.  It has been a mild season till this week.  Not enough snow to play in but temps are down.  We are staying in, keeping the fire going and staying cozy. 

I am so excited about these last projects, I have been working on.  The frame that I spoke of in a previous post, turned out very nicely.  In the pictures, you still see the chiping on the old frame but I (personally) don't think that it hurt the looks. 

I cut a mirror to size and did my favorite antiqueing finish to it. I used the "toile" design lace and etched a branch acrossed it.  Mercy! It is hard to take pictures of mirrors when you do not want to see what is in the reflection. 

I used the Annie Sloan Chalk paints for all my latest projects.I use "Provence, Duck Egg & Old White" in different combinations.  I am also trying the dark & light waxes for the finish coat.
The antique frame and chairs are painted in only Provence.  I applied dark wax to antique and the used the light as top coat. 

These chairs were received separately, thinking that they were the same until I got them together.

One started out white and the other brown.  This allow me to compare the coverage of the paint. This paint claims that you do not need to sand & prime.  I used several coats on both the light and dark chair to get a good coverage.  I have to say that I cleaned and scrubbed the chairs very well.  And I did some sanding on the brown chair due to the varnish coming off very badly.  But I did not sand them completely  smooth, leaving alot of chips and dents.  You can see these on all the projects.  If you want a smooth finish, I still recommend sanding.

 
I used the "Duck Egg" ASCP, to stencil the chairs.  I wanted the stencil to look worn.  I may have painted it too light.  When I put on the dark wax to antique the chair, it covered the stencil more than I like.  The stenciling is very hard to see in the photos.  The stencil that I used was a romantic "Springtime in Paris" for Royal Design Studios.  I really like the quality of their stencils.   I also took the mirror and glass workshop where I learn to antique mirrors thru Royal Design Studios.

Below are several projects I have also been working on.  A small reproduction medicine cabinet that I have had for years.  AS with everything in my log home, it was dark wood.  So I painted it "Old White" ASCP.  The inside was backed with a red calico material, I have painted it with several coats of an unknown "aqua-turquiosy blue".   Not "Annie Sloan Chaulk paint". And I also refinished the mirror.  I am not too sure about the outcome of the small mirror.  I may have to replace it and redo it. Sometimes I get carried away and overdo.  Here are some mirrors that I diy-ed a custom finish and frame for.   The far end has a silhoutte that has a rusted finish. 



 I normally go to my local Lowes and have them cut my mirrors.  But I really should get a glass cutter for these smaller projects at least for convenience.  Would make it quicker to make changes.  I look forward to doing and finishing my projects using the ASCP.  I have several small things that I have started.  I will place more pictured in my facebook album or etsy shoppe when and as completed. 

I hope you all have a fun Valentine's day

A Variety of Art Interests

I am study about my blogging. So according to "Hubspot" those who blog have 55% more website visitors. So I most definitely have a lot a learning to do (LOL). But anyway, for those whom
have read my humble blog, I hope you have gotten to know me better and that I have made your days a little brighter with my dialogue.
As for what I have been up to in the past couple weeks.....

I completed a basket since I last communicated with you all but not yet embellished it. It is a new style for me cause it has the wire handle. I haven't been able to figure out the best way to attach the embellishments. I feel like it is sort of plain with out them, as it is right now. Maybe you could help me. I would love to know what you would might think about embellishing the basket. Some of the things that I have considered is 1.drilling holes in the upper band of the gourd, 2.tying cording with embellishment dangling from the handle, 3. working the embellishment thru the weaving. I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on this, so please leave comments.

I had a mishap this week with one of my favorite gourd baskets. When I list items in my Etsy.com shop, I will enjoy them around the house till they sell. Earlier this week, I found out that this might not be so wise. I was moving the swirl cut gourd basket (pic in an earlier blog) and knocked it off the shelf. It broke. There goes the time, materials and most of all the caring that one puts into creating any piece of art.

I have also been spending time learning a new technique.
This small apple gourd is my first carving project and I
hope that my carving of gourds gets finer. I also used
a gourd to make the leaf and then put one of the battery
operated candles inside. This was very fun to do.
Learning the control of the carving tools is hard to do.

I have been reading some of my favorite blogs since I last wrote. And they connected me a couple of new sites. One is Design-seeds.com, it is a wondersite for color exploration. It has given me some new ideas. I really like the old tin colors combinations. And plan on using some of this combinations. I just purchased some of the new chalk paints from a local distributor " Liz Douglas Design" and am currently trying it on some pieces that I am going to upcycle. But I have only just started them and will show you the results in my next posting.

According to what I have read, the prep for this paint is minimal compared to acrylic or oil base. So I have put the first layer on an old frame that I have. It is a plastered frame that is chipping away. I cleaned and sealed it hoping to stop the chipping. I also created some molds for the decorative corners and used paper clay to repair the missing parts. There is still some plaster missing but this will give it more character, I hope. So come back in a couple of weeks to see the results.

The other is the Gourd Art Enthusiasts forum (if that is what an "ning.com" is). The gourdartenthusiasts.ning.com provides a connection to those who grow and manipulate gourds into art forms. I enjoy making my gourd baskets and bowls but some of these folks are really wonderful sculptors. I enjoy the detail and beauty of these pieces. This site has a lot of information on growing and creating art with gourds. It hasn't seem to help me decide how to decorate my latest basket though ;-) It does give me so many ideals that I just don't know what to do next.

Some times when trying to decide, I will just paint a canvas. I painted the one below (a Jerry Yarnell pattern) and it is going to be part of an art display at the Clark County Library during the month of February. We have a great library that is dedicated to the arts and so many other interests. Our library does a lot with our community. I hope that yours does also. When going to college (so many years ago), I did not have time to read for enjoyment. I started checking out audio books and listened to them on the hour drive back and forth. I still do, I put them on the surround sound and crank it up so that I can listen to it while cleaning house, working on the computer or working on one of my projects. I really like to have one when traveling. And I still listen to them driving back and forth to work. I hope you will make the time to visit and see what your library has to offer. You are also welcome to come to Clark county and visit ours ( www.clarkbooks.org ).