Mini chest in situ

 

Hello friends 

I cold welded the legs onto the chest with a 2mm layer of cold welding J B Weld an American product that I cannot stop raving about since I fixed my 20 year old ironing board.

Ok so In the real world, you know that awful place with traffic jams, queues and bad hair days, the powers that be have decided that I need to launch myself as a commercial artist….  What do you say to that?  The terror of the blank canvas is an understatement for starters, then on top I have so many other things on the go.  But, and it’s a big but, the cogs have been turning on this topic for some time now and I’m gradually working larger and more 3-d.  There are other challenges too, but they are drivers, rather than detractors.  But the main thing is, that being creative and finding new ways to get things done is the best kind of freedom, IMO.

So my head is currently in about fifth gear with what I was thinking about in the background that now needs to be given more life.

So I’m working on the second mini-chest now and have been turning ideas over in sketchbooks etc for about a month.  The heatwave we’ve been having with no air con in the house has slowed things down.

I know I want to laminate collage again if I don’t use oil paints but on the other hand chest 2 could end up with flat oils, I don’t know yet because I need to make samples and see which I’m most happy with.

Because basically I employ myself and I’m not always sure how well I can do something but will have a go at virtually anything, within bounds.  I can see the mini chest in my head and I can turn it around and change it, but then the reality has to match it or beat it.  If cannot do either and it ends up a disaster, you find even a disaster can offer up some hope or hint at a solution. Like when my ironing board collapsed under the heaving pile of domestic bliss, little did I know then that cold welding would springboard me into the world of furniture upcycling!  

Oh well I have to go now….

P.S. The Celtic dog needs a background now of laid silver thread.  The mermaid needs a new head to be stuck on, so that piece will need to be more 3-d, which is good because the sun and sky could be a lot of fun that way.  I’ve been alternating lots of my clothes because I wanted to save money, but when other family members found out what I was doing, they started giving me their things too!,  I was knitting a beautiful French jacket for myself, well that’s on hold too.  I would like to paint my shed, but think I will only manage the sleepers around about.  The Path I planted up is looking good but involved a lot of watering this year. 

Handles fitted and now for attaching the feet

 So pleased to say here are the handles …

Ok so the handles were really ok to fit in the end.  However, the feet have been giving me problems.  I need to delve into the friendless world of carpentry to get those right.  Nothing makes me more annoyed than furniture you are scared to move because the legs are precarious.  I want hanger bolts M6 size and T- nuts M6 too.  

I have to go now because I had a really bad night where I think my parents gave me Covid.  I’ve been coughing for most of the night and feel like a zombie today, oh dear the effort of it all!  Also our road is regularly visited by a very large badger that raids our food waste bins the night before bin day.  I have met this outsized miniature hippo of a badger face to face, I don’t know who was more scared of who but let me tell you they are weird looking close up, to be sure.  His coat was very coarse and his head was the most odd shape, but saying all of that, his Mammalian gaze was just as engaging as a cat or dog.  I was pleased to see he was so big and fat and wondered how old he was.  I put him at about middle adulthood because his shoulders were immense.  No cat or dog walks around with shoulders like that!  Well of course I shrieked when I saw him and he jumped in surprise which made me smile afterwards, but I didn’t hang around because I felt uneasy at the thought of his dental profile and jaw strength, kind of thing.  I have a very very vivid imagination.  Not that it does me a lot of good, on a day to day basis, but at least I can make it serve me well for these artistic projects.

I came across an old sketchbook the other day where I had scribbled “I hate art”.  I remember doing that, because I could see what I was sketching and I remembered that my friend had almost head butted me in a car park, because she was getting divorced and I sketched various trees at her allotment.  I never saw her again and I forgot all about the trees, but I remember thinking that art had only really caused me pain and didn’t get me any money, made me lots of enemies and consumed large amounts of time that could have been spent studying to do medicine or accounts, my two other loves.  

I’m going to stop there because I’m starting to get weepy, which is so feminine and stupid.  

If I had  been born a man I would have had the strength of my convictions etc, instead I have been “born into the slavery of being a girl”.  

Anyway, there are two things that I have never felt or experienced in any way, one is being bored, the other is being lonely.  Which I am noticing now is extremely useful.

Faux patina update

 When they say ‘the material suggests’ it really means go with the flow…so I did.

Turns out this chest of drawers has a subtle theme and is about the memory of dreaming as a kid….more later.

So the drawer fronts were distressed with sandpaper and made to look vintage.  As I worked away I couldn’t help associating the look and feel of old maps with old worn atlases that we used to have in school and that’s when I decided the edges of the frame should look like old school desks.  So then I worked away at distressing the front of the drawers with felt tips, paint, a Stanley knife and latex paint to look like old school wooden rulers and desks.  I really like that association and it makes me remember dreaming in school of all the places I hoped to travel to in years to come.

Then when I came to do the legs, I decided to use a metallic paint that lends itself really well to pearlised patina.  I arrived at all these decisions basically because I had certain problems that I had to address, especially as the piece has to fit in my bedroom.  I didn’t want the little chest to come out too far forward in the sense that the colour was too saturated and bright.  

Then after all that gold paint around the top and the sides and the aged map, I realised the feet or legs had to somehow link up with the crystal handles and pop as it were.  

What do the feet remind you of?

Correct, merry-go-round horses at Fun Fairs!  I think that association is something I just couldn’t ignore and so I maxed that one out.

So now my big thing is varnishing the piece, fixing some edges down with stronger glue, then attaching the feet and handles.

Alas, the template I made for the drawer handle holes was far from perfect and I had some cold sweats with those.  I still need to work on that.  

I am breaking down each section to be worked into half hour slots.  I find this really helps me to make consistent progress and dispenses with indecisive paralysis, because all the thinking time is done away from the item.  If my template had been completely symmetrical then I would’ve finished by now.  I’ve marked up the top and bottom of the template now, so hopefully for the next set of drawers I won’t have all this bother.

Faux patina gold chest of drawers

 Ok so things have moved on.  Here is the finished surface.  It took four sessions to build up the complexity.   I used various tools and different light sources.  The more I worked on it, the more it looked like metal.  Halfway through I worried I would never pull it off, as they say, because it began to become muddy.  That’s when I realised I was working light to dark, dark to light, dull to shine, then shine to dull, then finally back to shine, if that makes any sense. I like the way the tissue paper texture no longer looks like paper but the undulations, crevices and fissures of a prehistoric intergalactic explosion, as in how all gold was originally formed.

Now a funny thing happened to me twice, if you eva….

I showed a guy a photo of the Celtic dog while we were having dinner with our families in the country and he didn’t believe it was embroidery??

Then two weeks later I go to the coast with my friend and show her the picture and she too cannot understand or believe it’s embroidery, at which point I started heartily laughing.

QED ppl !

Celtic dog & Spanish Turron

 Bit more progress.  I like the way the head reminds me of Viking figureheads.  I need to do the next leather section very carefully and decide if anymore black outlines need to be enhanced.

I also made some almond, egg white and oil Turron at the weekend.  I hope to do a YouYube video about that but as it’s the Summer and there is so much to do.  It’s a very old Persian recipe where you form ‘nut dough’.  The taste is insane.  It took me a fair while to perfect the recipe, I used an Alicante praline, which I then ground down and then made a Turron blando, or Jijona recipe.  You are boiling the sugar syrup till the last stage of plastic, just before it becomes glass.  Then you allow it to cool for 10 mins, then you roll it with all the other ingredients.  It’s very similar to Halvah with one last essential difference…..more in the video 

Faux patina bedside table with lion’s paw legs - stage 3

 No time for many words today….Ok so I used a wallpaper knife to trim down the very stiff excess edges all around the item.  This is very easy to do as long as you hold the blade at 45 degrees to the edge and  use the edge as the guide.  It’s a lot of fun doing that part, but needs practice on the back first.

I made a template  with my tri-square for my drill holes, as it saves so much time.  As you can see in the picture below, I didn’t remove the original handles, I simply turned the drawers round and used their reverse.

The legs and the handles that I chose for the piece (pictures next time) cost me about £20.  The original drawers cost me £11 at IKEA.  I left the product code label on in case anyone wants to try to source them).

I decoupaged (PVA glue to drawer, then over image while all still wet) this vintage map that I bought on Amazon (link provided next time) in sequential order, so I can jumble the drawers or have them look like a proper map depending on mood.  I think this way whatever people say, I am ready for them…

For all decoupage and wallpapering you need to smooth the surface down after glueing.  For the decoupage I sized the image first with a thick layer of glue that I then wiped off with a soft cloth, waited two minutes and panted over it again with a proper first layer of glue.  I find this creates a very smooth surface to leave to dry.  Creases and quasi bubbles do reappear whilst drying, but you shouldn’t touch those, as they will smooth out in the later phases of drying, 

I don’t think I will glue anymore layers, but will polyurethane varnish ( water based so it’s labelled ‘Quick Dry) as I love the results with that product, as the item will be chip and scratch proof.  As I did for the recent cake table (see last post), where in the end I varnished it 3 times.  You can varnish so quickly if you maintain a wet edge and use a very soft brush.  Can I say, I also did a light sanding before each varnish layer.

Marie Antoinette cake table finished

 I am pleased to say this small occasional table is finished.  

I decided on Matt clear polyurethane varnish which allows most of the chalk paint patina to remain visible.  The shells took much much longer than I imagined but I think the overall reproduction feel to it works, which is a nice reward for all my efforts.

I am very excited about something else on the horizon now…. what can I say, Pinterest is responsible, don’t blame me, blame Pinterest….more later…

g2g xx

Celtic dog 4 & other stuff

 Ok ppl, here is a close up of current WIP and the area photographed is one inch square !!

I gave him a black collar with gold studs, to suggest a leather article. Although very little leather work survives, Celtic, Saxon and Viking leather work was very ornate and there are a couple of examples on display at the Ashmolean museum.  I’ve couched some silver thread too. Will be doing more of that but will probably bulk it up somehow?

Next is the progress I recently made with the Marie Antoinette garden cake table. 

Next is stage 2 of the bedside table with faux patina.

So I BIN Zinssered it as a base layer for wallpaper.  I used 1000gms paper, which is lovely and thick. I made sure there were no air pockets and will wait the full 24 hours before I cut that to size.  

 

Celtic dog 4 and next item to be upcycled

 Apologies ppl, but no time to speak….

Celtic dog 3

 Ok so here is the progress I made re all.

I decided to spread wildflower seeds around this wasteland that I’ve cultivated, to which I will add wild bird seed.  I’ve done this before at my mother’s and it works.  Basically in the bird seed is a lot of wheat and as wheat is a nitrogen fixer, you find everything benefits that is growing nearby.

I decided with the door to strip the lacquer off the furniture and polish it.  Although this means in the winter it will tarnish much more frequently, I just prefer the brass to look like gold and not like it did with the yellowed lacquer.  Removing the lacquer to get back to the bare metal was easier than opening a bag of crisps - you basically paint it with neat nail varnish remover aka 100% acetone.  

Then the stumps were so heavy, they broke the handle of my garden refuse bag, so there’s another job added to the list.

Not over the moon with the Celtic dog progress.  Looking too predictable.  Will be pulling some out and adding more blue.

Oh well have to dash off to hold down the day job.  I will be visiting an archaeology museum soon, that should be good…

Celtic dog update 2

 Here is the next instalment and the original design that I flipped. 

The colours I decided on were inspired by The Book of Kells.

I’d like to draw your attention to the two areas of solid filling worked in opposing directions, where you can clearly see how densely the stitches stack up and create a very flat surface that reflects a sheen, or light, even with the very cheap cotton I’m using.  Also, I’m noticing that if you work in one direction the stitches look more like mini chain stitch, but if you work in both directions, as they did back in the day, the stitches look more like split stitch and stack up even more densely.

The work takes a long time because each stitch covers 3 strands of ground fabric.  Sharp points, curves and straight lines can all be worked easily.  For the dog’s paws I had to go into the previous stitch, instead of the end of it, to create even tighter curves, which is also something I picked up from staring at Opus Anglicanum work in close up for a long time.

The black outline is a guide only, I’m still working out if I want that to be more apparent in the end?  

I seriously underestimated how long this piece would take and had hoped to finish it for the Diamond Jubilee, as the first kings of England were Welsh.

Remember ppl, it took three women 25 years to complete a set of vestments for the Pope back in the day….

I’m working in sections now, instead of long lines, as a way of seeing faster progress but it’s not as hypnotic to work as the previous way of working.  What I will say though, is that even though it takes a long time, it’s very very addictive - so be warned!

My personal view is this stitch most likely came to England via Byzantium religious textiles and not from secular French purses.  

Apologies if the photo’s aren’t clearer, my hands are a little unsteady due to painting my front door and sledge hammering about 12 tree stumps the last two weeks.  I’m so pleased both those arduous tasks are finito.

Celtic interlaced dog

 WIP using Opus Anglicanum Stitch