Painter Girl

My Week Ahead

I've been busy meeting with clients and working up sample boards and proposals this past week.  Here are some of the finishes that will be used in an upcoming project:

for the kitchen-

a lightly textured glaze with aged vines

 

 

 

 

 

for the foyer-

a faded Damask allover repeat pattern over a soft glaze

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

for the family room-

same slightly textured multi color glaze as kitchen, minus the vines, plus an accent wall with a gold toned polished plaster

 

for the powder room-

a faux multi-colored plaster done with paint, stencils design on door

for the basement family room

two half walls done with this Moorish Trellis design over a solid background, no glaze

 

I also am in the process of creating another folding screen that will have a seahorse theme, as it will reside in a house on Cape Cod. I wish I could say I have the sample boards all worked out, but I'm actually struggling with them a bit.  I finally worked out my background finishes though, so am able to make a little progress with these panels!  I hope to finish these panels by the end of the week and deliver them on Saturday.

Last week I spent a fair amount of time working on 2 sample boards for my client who wanted me to do her little boy's room while they are away on vacation starting March 9th.  Unfortunately, my phone calls, emails and text messages have gone unanswered, so the sample boards remain in my possession, unseen.  I finally had to book that time slot with another job or lose those billable days.  I don't know why people cannot just send off a quick email or leave a message saying they are postphoning or whatever.  I know people complain that a lot of contractors do not return their phone calls or show up for schedule appointments, but I am not among those.  I feel everyone's time is valuable and I try my best to accomodate schedules.  In return, I only expect to be treated the same.  If I had known this job was to be postphoned, I would have used my already stretched studio time to work on other projects and I would not have to juggle my March schedule around to fill in the time slot held for this job.  Ok, enough complaining.  This is a long time client of mine, so I will just suck it up and move on.  It just feel good to vent a little bit! ;-)

Lastly, I created two fun sample boards for a powder room and kitchen.  One features an overscaled damask repeat pattern, white on deep blue.  The other is a plaid, for an accent wall and backsplash.  I had intended to photograph them before I brought them over to my client, but forgot to do that and now they are gone.  I'll have them back shortly and will show you later.

 

Creating Some Lampshades

I have these three shades to transform for a client:

 

 

I have 2 of these              

 

They belong to the 3 bases I showed you the other day:

 

 

A little searching on the net, yielded this great YouTube with instructions showing how to create a pattern for the shades:

 

 

 

Next, I moved from my warm, comfortable dining room table, down to the dungeon, aka, my not so warm and comfortable studio in my basement. I am using RocLon® Mulit-Purpose Cloth for my fabric.  I base coated one large piece with 2 coats of latex paint, cut out the shapes using my patterns,  then glazed (obviously allowing some drying time inbetween). 

 

 

For this shade, I used three different leaf stencils I created a zillion years ago.  As you can see, I still am not cleaning my stencils, just reusing them as is.  For those of you appalled by this method, please feel free to come and clean all of my stencils for me. :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the shade on the right, I used a stencil I had on hand from Cutting Edge Stencils, the Poppy Allover.

 

 

For the panelled shade, I used a small scroll stencil I picked up at Michaels.

This is as far as I've gotten so far.  Today I will be back in the dungeon studio embellishing these designs. More to come....

 

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.

 

New Folding Screen

I thought I'd move on to the latest folding screen I am working on, since there is little to report on my front hall project.  Remember the Geisha Girls, on the three panels?  Well, I have another folding screen,  exact same size and shape to play with.  Yay!

This one is going to feature 3 Gals from the 1920's.  A fabulous fashion era, with lots of beading and glitz.  Perfect for these panels!  At first it was to be fashions from the 30's, but once I started doing the research, I could see the 20's was much more in sync with my client's style.  She has two chairs from the 1930's in her living room, where this screen will reside, so that is why she initially thought about doing something from that era.  We poured over a lot of dress styles and both agreed, the 20's would be a lot more fun.  I bought this book with CD from Dover Press, which has all royalty free images to use.

 

Here are the three Gals we choose for the panels. The colors will be altered.

 

 

I set about the arduous task of removing the existing fabric from each panel, i.e. pulling out a zillion staples!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, I peeled off the paper liner and cleaned all the glue off with TSP, rinsing it all well.  Of course, I have no sink in my studio, so this meant several trips upstairs to my kitchen for clean water and back down to the studio.  My previous source of water was always from my top loading washing machine.  Unfortunately, that recently died and I made the maybe not so wise decision to get a front loader instead, completely forgeting about this handy source of water when I'm working!  I do love my new front loader for laundry though, and I guess I'll eventually catch on to the idea of filling up a few pails of water every time I'm working down here now.

Here they are, all primed and ready to go!

 

The Folding Screen

Oh yikes!  This week has just gotten away from me and I had no time to post more about the Folding Screen Project until just now.   I last left off with the screen panels on my table in my studio waiting for me to get to work.  I had already projected my images on the top portion of each panel, upstairs in my living room, where the light was better for this.  Each panel will have a different Geisha Girl image on the top 2/3rds of the screen and the bottom 1/3rd will have a foiled and gemmed panel. 

I made a rough mock up, to scale, on an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper for my client, so she could get the general concept I had in mind.  This screen is going in the Master Bedroom I recently completed, so she understood the same foils and gem colors would be used and the theme would tie in with the Gingko leaves on the accent wall.  While I used a projection method to get the size I needed for each Geshia to fit on the panels and still be in proportion, you can find Geshia modellos at ModelloDesigns.com and also Geshia stencils at the Stencillibrary.com. 

This blurry photo is the only photo I have for a "Before" shot of the screen.  It was covered with this fan fabric print.  As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to put the Geisha Girls on it.  I found because the panels were each so narrow, that I could not put one large one on each panel, but would have to size them down a bit and come up with something to fill in the blank spaces.  Whoever covered this screen with the fabric did an incredible job.  It was meticulously sewn and also stapled with no less than a zillion staples.  I had to pull them all out with pliers and then discovered there was also wallpaper liner adhered to the luan, which needed to be stripped off.  The prep work seemed never ending!

 

 

All the work for the panels was done in my basement studio, so you know what to expect as far as what my studio looks like.  It's a far cry from an artist's light and airy loft studio!  But... the commute can't be beat, the price is right, and there is certainly no worry about spilling paint anywhere!  Oh, and the best thing about my studio this time of the year is the fact that it is very cool.  Of course, it is also very cool down here in December, when I'm wearing gloves and 3 sweatshirts to stay warm.  In this photo, I have based the bottom 1/3rd of each panel with a copper metallic paint, in preparation for some copper foil.

 

 

 

 

 

Applying the copper foil.

 

 

 

 

 

Finished foil....

 

and right off the bat, I've made a mistake!

In the Studio

I have been spending the past week or so, working in my studio.  While I usually dread working down there (basement), it's a great place to be when it's in the 90's and very humid out!  I will just give you a hint of the 3 projects I have going and elaborate more throughout the week:

 

1. A folding screen, with 3 panels.  Here you may be able to faintly see the sketch I did on the top half of this panel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.  This a light that gets hardwired into a ceiling.  It was off-white.  I'm not sure I can make this look good. :-(  I suggested the homeowner throw it out, but she likes it and wants me to give it a try.

 

 

 

 

 

3.  I wish I took a "before" picture of this little clock. It was  a dated faux marble. There is some hope for this one! :-)

 

More tomorrow.

So... Why No Blog Posts Recently?

If you are indeed, still checking in to see if I've come around to put up a new post, I whole heartedly thank you for being a faithful follower!  I have a few things on my plate this month that are leaving me with little time to crank out new posts.  Trust me, it's not that I don't want to...but there are just so many hours in a day, as much as I hate to admit to that little fact.

So, what has been consuming all of these hours, you may be asking?  One great time sucking item on my agenda, has been to get myself registered to begin taking some classes online at Lesley University.  It's been a very slow and frustrating process.  Phone calls are not returned, paperwork has been lost.  This results in more paperwork for me and more follow up phone calls.  I wish I had a dime for every time I was put on hold, transferred to another department, or my favorite... disconnected.  I decided some time ago, to return to school for my Masters in Science Education (K-8).  I'm not ready to leave the world of decorative painting, but I do have a deep fascination for the sciences and totally enjoy my after school Mad Science classes I teach twice/week.  I'm thinking I would like to be able to design and implement some after school Science programs for this age group that combine art and science... the science of art, or the art of science... so to speak.  Going back to school is a step in that direction.  Because ALL of the classes will be online, I will be able to keep the same schedule I have now, only more frazzled!

I have also been developing some new concepts for my PetMats.  I had to let the PetMats slide after the holidays so have done no new PetMats nor any promotion.  My former next door neighbor, Lisa Cohen, who is a wonderful photographer, called me with a proposal I could not refuse.  She knew about my PetMats and this fit in nicely with her new foray into pet photography, SnapTails.  She has arranged for us to have a little opening, March 2nd, from 6-8 pm at Durty Harry's in Charlestown, MA.   Durty Harry's  offers  "Do It Yourself" dog wash stations, as well as gifts and treats to further pamper your pooch.

I'm very excited about my new PetMat designs.  While I will still be carrying breed specific PetMats, I am introducing a line of pet quotes PetMats.  Here is a sneak preview of a few:

I will have these, and more, on my Etsy site shortly.  As always, a portion of all sales will be donated to Angel/MSPCA.  More about this event later next week.

 

 

In my studio, I'm up to my eyeballs in mirrors these days!  I have 14 of these huge mirrors from hair salon that I am redoing.  Here is a "before" shot.  The salon owners want them to be a very dark brown now.

 

 

I've rearranged my small, messy studio to be able to accommodate 4 of these mirrors in one room and 1 more in the adjacent room that is normally just used for laundry and household storage.  It's hard to tell from these photos, but the mirrors are about 3' wide by 4' tall. They are lightweight, made of molded styrofoam, but very awkward to move solo.  Luckily, it's school vacation week here and I've been able to recruit a few of my friends who are teachers to give me a hand transporting them.  I'm doing seven at a time, so I don't leave the salon mirror-less!

Of course, the ever ominous task of preparing for my 2010 tax return looms large! Here's where I'm at... still entering numbers into my spreadsheet and hoping for the best. (which would mean I hit the Lottery, a zero in a million chance since I never even play!)

 

 

The Perks of Being Self-Employed

I had a little sign project to do for the VW dealership where I did that mural and giant VW logo a few months ago.  I had also added this signage on the wall. This picture to the left shows the "before" shot.

The dealership felt customers were still confused as to where to wait for service when they first come into the showroom, so I was asked to come up with another sign option to put here.

 

I did a rough sketch on my computer and emailed it over.  Because this is a very busy hallway with little room for me to work in, I proposed the sign be done on canvas, like the mural, and then installed.  It would cover up the previous signs, so no re-painting/prep work to the wall would be required.

 

 

 

In my studio, I base painted the canvas, taped out areas, and cut some lettering to be stenciled.     Then, I looked out my window and saw all this beautiful snow and the sun shinning, so decided to go for a little cross country skiing.

 

 

 

 

 

A quick drive over to Habitat, a wonderful wildlife sanctuary, only a few miles from my house, and I was ready get a little exercise.  I came home two hours later and did a some more work on the sign. 

 

 

YouTube Debut

With a lot of help from my good friend,  Tom Flynn, Susan Siefer and I made our YouTube Debut yesterday!  Tom came to Susan's studio to film us working on the panels for the foyer.  Yes, the same foyer of the dreaded scaffolding fame.  Now please be kind with your comments.  It's the first time we have ever attempted anything like this and we were both quite nervous about being in front of a camera.  When we look at it now, we just have a good laugh at ourselves and hope you do at least get some sense of what we are doing! 

In the video you will see us in the final stages of creating our panels.  For those of you who are interested in this process, we are using RocLon canvas and custom cut Modello™.  We purchased the foils for this project locally, from the New England Institute of Faux Finishes.   Recent posts have shown us working on these and you will find more resources listed throughout those posts.  Happy viewing!

For those of you in the Boston area, Tom Flynn offers Video Production Services and can be contacted via email here.

Spring Fever

With Spring bulbs peeking through the ground and longer, warmer days, I'm in high gear with a few Spring projects around my own house.

My family and friends always ask me how I manage to get so many house projects done.  It's not that I'm so thrilled to paint my own trim or touch up walls, etc., but since I am usually already in paint clothes it does make it a little easier!  On days when I am working in my studio, which is in my basement, it is even easier to tackle a small project while I am waiting for a layer or two to dry on a sample I might be making.

I started out thinking that I would just paint the inside of this recessed shelving, my favorite color in the Benjamen Moore Aura line, AF-430, wasabi green.  When I removed everything from the shelves, I realized a little caulking and patching was going to have to happen first.  So out came the Ready Patch,
the  joint
compound and caulking gun.

Well, now that I had all that out, I thought I might as well do the wainscoting too, at least on this one wall.

Then I decided to include this one door too. :-)

This is as far as I got.  This is an old kitchen, so I had to do a lot of caulking!  Most of this will just need a fresh coat of Linen White, like I said, the interior of the shelves will get some color and I decided to do the entire door in chalkboard paint.  I always hang my calendar on this door so instead I am going to paint a giant, blank one month template in white and then just fill in with chalk each month.  That way, I can make the squares BIG and have plenty of room to write in each square.  You know, how those little calendar squares are just never big enough?!  More progress on this front tomorrow.

The studio project I am working on is this set of four cabinet doors that belong to a client's built in wall unit.  I'll do the doors here and return to the client's home next week to complete the project.