Thursday, May 20, 2010

Labor of Luh...uhh...Labor Powder Room


Ok, so I am pretty happy with the results, but I put a pantsload of work into this seemingly teeny tiny powder bath....and I only spread it out over like 9 months. Yay me.
Month 1: Fret over how and what and when and how much to spend and how and what and when....( You'll notice a turquoise and brown glazed piece of pottery in some of the pictures.  This was my "inspiration", but I also wanted it to resemble both tiger's eye and copper without being too coppery and glammy)
Month 2: Purchase supplies, fret over purchase because sample boards looked like chalky poo...not exactly my vision.
Month 3: Sand down existing texture, begin smoothing and prepping...stand and stare and fret.
Month 4 and 5 and maybe 6: Ignore uneasiness in the pit of my tum tum and ignore the bathroom itself...close the door and work on Halloween projects.
Month 7:  Bite the bullet and just go at it.  Sanding, texturing, taping, priming, base-ing, blending....panicking.
Month 8:  Begin venetian plaster...troweling and burnishing and hating.
Month 9:  At some point I got my "Aha!" moment and realized what I needed to do to transform chalky poo into rad gorgeousness. *Ahem*  So I put on like 3 more layers of Venetian and Highlights, hand burnished and then stained over it, waxed and buffed and buffed to a high polish with my friend the electric buffer...and then troweled on a wax mixture of real mica flakes at the midline and drizzled down into plaster and polished again.
Baby revealed.

(Big D bought and hung the super neato edison squirrel cage bulb pendant from this company out of Seattle called Rejuvenation http://www.rejuvenation.com/ ...they still use people to put together all the parts and make your order to spec...lots of cool reproduction and vintage inspired lighting and hardware.)

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Morning To Evening

I know I know...I can't believe it either, I finally "finished" a painting.  I have a supply hoarding problem, but I'm making myself get over it and push more texture and quit letting my ideas get all crusty and gather dust.  I used glass and metal beads and a good bit of resin and slickies.  You can hang it in all four directions and allow it to mean all kinds of things.  For me, its the morning, the day and the evening of your life.  Its your connections to family, to nature, to the earth and sky...the sun and moon. Embrace it all and celebrate before and until the sun finally sets for good.
You want it, don't you?? Well, too bad...it's already sold:).

Tree Jeans

My favorite neighbor of all time asked me to paint up a special pair of art jeans, Elaine (and Bill too!) (they just left us in Soco for a peacful retirement in New Mexico...I literally cried after saying goodbye:(...)
I knew she loved my tree obsessed art, so I came up with these.  I miss you guys!!

Another Rodent!

This paper sculpted sweetie won't be fitting into any tiny nooks and crannies of the house.  She stands at like 14 inches and was maybe 30 or so in diameter (I forgot to measure, so she may have been bigger)  She has a removable glittered up flower and a spring forward heart.  I made her with lots of detail and care...looking forward to doing some more mache soon.
Click on the pics for a closer look.

Leather! Ya, I'll paint on that too.

Gots me some leather paints in the mail...can't wait to do more projects.  Here's a vintage purse with a variation of my birdie logo and a thriftstore belt with my beloved lizards to start.  Throw some moo-lah down here: http://www.scatterbirdie.etsy.com/  I sure do love beggin' for cash.

Jack and Roses

Not the booze kinda Jack, but I'd take that too.  My Canadian cutey commisioned a special pair representing a Jack and Sally kinda luuurrve...lotsa extra painted roses were a must.

Mice and Rats and Rats and Mice

More hand-painted mice and rats.  A Skirt, a dress...and patches for pillows...or whatever.

Cave Painting

Just was messing around with textures and the idea of primitive forms. Buy the sucker here: http://www.rarebirdart.etsy.com/

Sealife jeans

I had a request on my etsy shop http://www.scatterbirdie.etsy.com/  for sealife creatures with that same sweet, playful demeanor as the mice characters using bright turquoises, blues, sea green, orange, iris, and orchid pinks and purples.  She was overjoyed with the result:).

Yoga Blocks


12x12 self standing, stacking or hanging wood panel boxes featuring my favorite form of torture.  I hock my wares of enlightenment here: http://www.rarebirdart.etsy.com/

HIppy Peace Jeans

Groovy.