Painter Girl

Front Entry Hall: Wakefield

Continuing on (finally) with the recently completed projects at the Wakefield home, today we visit the Front Entry Hall. In it's previous life (left), it was a lackluster off-white.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's not a lot of wall space because of the large opening to the living room off to the left and the stairs to the second floor, on the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I started out with a soft, orange/gold toned glaze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, I used Cutting Edge Stencils, Anna Damask pattern.  This was a stencil design I had not used before, so was eager to try. What I always love about their stencils is the "topper" piece included with these all over repeat patterns, making the ceiling line much easier to stencil.  This short topper piece eliminates the experience of the larger stencil folding over and resting on your head while you attempt to stencil right up to the top of the wall.  My hair truly appreciates being glaze free!

 

 

This stencil works up quickly, as it is a one overlay.  I used a gold metallic paint, mixed with a little glaze.  Well, to be honest, I mixed it with Bella Magic, which is one of my favorite products.  I have been mixing it in with just about every product I use these days.  I may even try it in my coffee.  No, just kidding... but it does greatly improve the application of plasters when troweling and paints when stenciling.  I buy it from Kathy Carroll over at Faux by Kathy. It does not seem to be listed on her site anymore, but if you call and ask for it, they will help you.

A little side note... While I was stenciling these walls, I was very, very close to running out of the gold paint.  I kept thinning with the Bella Magic because I needed to finish these walls that day and there was no source anywhere near for the gold I was using.  By the time I finished, the jar was so clean it looked like I had washed it out! Don't do as I do.  Buy more paint than you need.  I tend to do this with gas too.  I rarely fill up until the light comes on in my car, and even then, I'll drive for quite a few miles before pulling into a gas station.  I guess I like living on the edge.

This picture really does do the finish justice, as it shows the metallic paint with it's subtle glow.  The glaze underneath is also very subdued, just giving the walls a little depth and movement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are two large door openings on one side, so I wrapped the pattern around onto the face of the each opening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, when you enter this home, you are greeted by warm and welcoming walls, vs. the previous look.  It makes you want to come in and see what else is going on in this house!

 

 

 

A Little More Progress With the Shades

 

 

I'm using a combination of metallic paints and foils to further embellish these shades.  I know I showed you how these foils work at least once, but I thought I'd give another quick overview.  Here, I have already applied the sizing and it is ready to go.  I've placed my sheet of foil over my designed and burnished with a stiff brush, so the green foil comes off the sheet,transferring to my canvas shade.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is what is left on my shade...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...and here is what the foils sheet now looks like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm using a little of this "Extreme Glitter" from Plaid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I applied it over a stenciled scroll with a liner brush.  It goes on white...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...but dries clear, just adding a little more sparkle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cast of paint characters I used for these shades.

 

 

 

 

 

With the painting piece is done, I will glue on some Swarovski crystals and attempt to adhere these pieces to the shades.

 

 

 

A Little Help

So what I basically did for the Peacock and Butterfly room was to stencil the silhouette shapes of the peacocks, vines and leaves.  I created all the large silhouette stencils for this room myself because all I needed was the basic shape, no details.

Here are the 3 peacock silhouette shapes I used:

 

 

 

 

 

 

After I had the silhouettes on all of the walls, I knew just who to call to add the details!

Chris Smith to the rescue!  Chris spent 3 painstakingly days embellishing all the peacocks and leaves!  Using a variety of small scale stencils and freehand techniques, the flat silhouettes came to life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don't you just love the blue tape all over her top?

Here are some of her creations:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly, I added the gems.  I went all out for the peacocks, but because I had already put about 1,000 (literally!) gems on the butterflies, I decided not to gem the individual leaves.  I just added sets of 3 gems to each stem.  I ordered 1 gross (1,440) of each of the three colored gems I would use  for both of these rooms, so that's 4,320 gems! In the end, I probably had 500 left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        

I loved the way this room turned out and truly appreciated Chris's patience with all the detailing!

Tomorrow we will look at the Tropical Room.

The Peacocks and Parrots Series

Oh, yes... I know I have once again shirked my blogging responsibilities, but I have just been too over scheduled to find a minute to pull together a post.  I have been dying to show you the latest rooms I have had the pleasure to work in though, so I vow to carve out an half hour each day this coming week to put my fingers to my keyboard and write this Peacock and Parrot Series!  A long time client of mine recently had twins and needed some extra space in the house, so the attic was reconfigured and two huge bedrooms for the oldest girls in the family were created.

One room, I refer to as the Peacock and Butterfly Room and the other is the Tropical Room, featuring fish, parrots and palm trees.  I'll start by showing you the Peacock and Butterfly Room.  These rooms are big.  I spent three weeks between the two rooms, so I will need to break the work down in sections as I post. By the way, over 3000 gems were used between the two rooms, so get ready for a lot of bling! ;-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above, you see the "before" shots.  At each end of the Peacock and Butterfly Room, there are these sloped walls.  They are not mirror images, but both have the slanted walls.  The photo to the far right shows how the room connects to a Jack and Jill bathroom, with the Tropical Room on the other side.  I started by putting a soft glaze over all of the walls, which you will vaguely see in photos to follow.

For both end of the room, where the walls slant, I used Cutting Edge Designs fabulous Butterfly Dance wall stencil.  This stencil has a great placement of small to large butterflies, making it perfect to scatter on a wall, very quickly.  I used metallic paints for all of the butterflies, and applied gems to each. I did initially try using some foils, but found this too time consuming for this particular project, so abandoned that thought after doing a few! 

The color in this photo is truer to the actual rom color.  This shows a good portion of one of the slanted walls.  Later, you will see a full shot of these slanted ceilings, when I show you the Peacock and Vines on the adjacent walls. 

Peacocks and Vines tomorrow!

Mermaid Bathroom

Here is a quick, fun project I recently completed for a client.  The homeowner had a picture of a Mermaid she really loved, so it was adapted to fit her colors and space.  Years ago, I bought Linda Buckingham's book, Projection Stenciling, and learned this easy way to stencil.

I first projected my image onto a large piece of paper.  Next, I taped it to the wall and cut out sections at a time to stencil, replacing sections as I went, to keep a clean edge abutting the next section. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you use a sharp blade and cut lightly, you do not cut into the wall. I use this method when I just want to block in color and then do a lot of free-hand painting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here she is, completed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you look closely, you will see that I added some tiny gems around her ear and at the tips of her fins, her eye, and the eye of the fish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the opposite wall, I added four more fish, one for each of the homeowners children.  The three fish near the Mermaid represent each of her sister's children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, I added a few gems on this wall too!

Fish Folding Screen, completed

I put so many crystals on this folding screen, that I lost count!  The fish scales really lend themselves to the gems.  You will be able to see the details better in the close up pictures that follow.  All photos were taken before the screen was assembled and delivered. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is one of the fish.  I used clear and two different colors of blue crystals, in 2 sizes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is better look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the top portion of the panels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's an even better look at the gems. Remember, there are three fish, so I did a LOT of gluing!

 

 

 

Lion and Tiger Folding Screen

Ok, I hope I am back on track here with my blogging!  Here is the update on the Lion and Tiger Folding Screen I last began posting about.

  Here is the completed screen, but the panels are not attached yet, just standing next to each other, in order.

For this project I used two two stencils:  the Moorish Trellis by Royal Design Studio and Birds On A Branch by Cutting Edge Stencils.  I eliminated the birds and just used the leaves with the latter stencil design. 

This folding screen differed from my previous screens because it was made from three, solid panelled doors.  I found it much more difficult to work with this type of panel and more restrictive when it came to laying out and working on the design...  Not to mention, because they are solid, they weigh a ton! 

I used A LOT of Swarovski gems on this one!

 

 

A closer look at the center portion of the screen.  All of the leaves were done with a combination of metallic paint and foils, then the gems were added.  Only the eyes of the two animals received gems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wider shot of the center.

 

 

 

 

Leaves!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Closer look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bottom portion of screen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gems worked really well for the eyes, giving them just a little sparkle!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ready For Their Close Ups!

With all three panels finally completed, I stood them up in my studio for one last photo shoot before I wrapped them up for delivery. 

 

I zoomed in on the details of each dress, so you can hopefully get a better idea of just how much the Swarovski crystals enhance the gowns and accessories.  I ordered 1200 assorted gems for this job and used every single one of them.  I always think I have ordered enough, but in the end, wish I had more to play with!

 

 

 

 

This is the bottom part of the above sash on the green dress.  The longest part of the sash utilizes Goldens Glass Bead Gel over gold metallic paint.  All the Gals shoes also have the Glass Bead Gel with additional gems to coordinate with their outfits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The red dress has these large roses at her hip.  The shading is not showing up in this pic, but it does look quite dimensional, which is why I did not want to cover it completely with the gems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is her bracelet. Remember the foil I had used underneath that I showed the other day? The foils really help to add to the bling of the gems!  Her left hip and arm are only washed out in this pic because of the flash and crystals.

 

 

 

 

 

I love how the Glass Bead Gel worked on this gold dress!  It almost looks like gold lame'.  To further highlight this overlay of the dress I outlined with gold crystals and then added the beaded at the hemline... and her shoes, of course!  She is my "elegant gal".  I really love them all, and try not to play favorites!

 

 

 

 

I ended up doing a chevron pattern on the bottom portion of each panel.  I used a light purple foil, then taped out the chevron pattern with blue tape and applied the Glass Bead Gel to every other stripe.  Once dry, I added a crystal at each point. This photo does not do the color justice. :-(

 

 

 

I did a 1.5" border around this, using a gold foil and glazes, then shaded a bit. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now it was time to transport them to their new home (sniff, sniff).  I carefully wrapped them and loaded into my car.

 

 

 

 

 

This color in this photo is actually very good!  Here they are, trying out their corner.  You may recall this living room from earlier in the year.  The walls you are seeing in the background are padded fabric, meticulously hung, with self covered cording at the ceiling line, baseboards, and all edges!  There is only one, long wall that does not have the fabric and I did some stripes on it.  You'll see them in the next shot.

 

 

It's quite a long room, so this is just about one third of the length. The lamp on the table in front of screen is way too big and just does not go, so I had to convince the homeowner to swap it out.

Luckily, she was on board with that and quickly brought in this smaller lamp that is blown glass with a beautiful embroidered silk shade.  It really goes well with the dresses.  The only request my client had was to add more crystals to the chevron pattern, so I will order 600 more and outline that pattern.  I said good by to the Gals, knowing that I'll be back to visit soon.

 

Details

 

Now that I've blocked in all the colors, I begin to work on some of the shading and details.  I decided to periodically stand the 3 panels up together, in the order they will be put together, to make sure they are flowing nicely.  I did not do that with the 3 Geisha Girls and discovered when it was way too late, that one was really a bit too small in size and should have been adjusted. :-(

 

 

Now, remember... NONE of these panels are anywhere near finished!  This is just the work in progress.

 

Red dress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Green dress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gold dress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More shading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I ordered these three rolls of foils from Prismatic Studios for this job, thinking I'd use the gold for the background, but decided it was just too dark of a gold and too harsh looking.  I'll use all three of these, but much more sparingly than I had originally thought.

 

I used the dark purple foil for the background of the headband and earrings.  I will be adding gems over this later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Same with her bracelet.  Gems to follow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used the lighter purple foil on the sash that is on the green dress.  Again, gems will be added here later.

 

On the gold dress, I have an overlay piece of the dress taped out and have applied glass bead gel in a striae pattern.  This is to make it look like there is a sheer beaded fabric over the bottom portion of the dress.  I also added the bead gel to everyones shoes, for more glitz!

 

 

 

It has taken me forever to come up with an idea I really like for the bottom portion of these panels, but I have finally found something that I think I will really like.  This is just the basecoat... don't panic.

1920's Gals Take Shape

Now that the panels are all primed, I dragged them up to my living room, the best place for me to set up my overhead projector.  The panels are hollow, very light to transport... thank god!

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the overhead set up.  I actually worked off of two different overheads, because I swapped out dresses, last minute... for one of the gals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back down to my studio, I begin blocking in the color on each panel.

 

 

Here are all three gals, in progress.  I will be using a mix of foils, metallic paints, glass bead gel and gems.