Paints, Palettes and Pigments!

In the spirit of "New Year; New You!" I've built my website on a new platform which has an integrated Blog platform.

To kick off the new Blog, I've written a blog post about my paints and palettes and how I've found and acquired some of my favorites.
Find new blog location and first blog post here.
Paints, Palettes and Pigments!

Hop on over to my website and check it out. You'll have to subscribe to a new RSS feed if that is how you receive my posts over here at Blogger.

Creation from Destruction

nmdart.com

Here is my newly finished studio sign. I really love the way it turned out.

As many of my projects, it was months in the creation, though actual time spent is far, far less. I probably put about two hours into making and assembling the components.

It all started when our household (and studio-hold) goods arrived in Florida summer 2015. I had a pair of tables from my grandparents' house. They have continually lost more and more of the decorative skirt that made me so fond of them. This move, however, resulted in the top cracked through and a broken leg.

Here is a photo of the remaining one, which is in better shape, (ha ha).

Being a packrat, I decided to disassemble the broken table. I'm saving the pieces of the skirt. Eventually, I'll use them to make one whole skirt on the remaining table. I think the turned spool legs will make nice candlesticks. That left me with the top. I thought it would make a great sign.

Previously, I have applied vinyl lettering to my studio wall. Considering the number of places that I have had a studio, it makes considerably more sense to have a portable sign. I could even take it to shows if that becomes a need!

Materials:

Table top (or similar box-shaped crate/drawer)

Table leg or newel

paint

foil or tin

two eye hooks

two hooks

two D-rings

picture-hanging wire

rubber tubing (I used 1/4")

wooden skewers or dowels that will fit in tubing

hot glue gun

glue sticks

scissors

vinyl lettering or more paint

First, I painted the table top and leg with some chalk paint that I had. My favorite watercolor brushes have a red stripe, so I accented it with red. I used heavy duty aluminum foil to make the ferrule, but I wish I had purchased some tin. (I may redo this part at some point.)

I attached the hooks into the bottom hanging edge of the "sign" and the eye-hooks into the brush handle.

I put D-rings on the back and ran picture-hanging wire across so that the sign will hang flat against the wall.

Now, to make the brush tip!

The end of the table leg I used already had a hole, so I used a dowel to give the bristles a starting place and stability:

I cut the tubing into the desired lengths. (I started at about 14", but by the end of the project, I liked the bristles closer to 9," so I wasted a lot of tubing.)

I applied hot glue to my barbecue skewers (cut in half) and pushed the into the tubing until the ends were flush. Then, I glued them to each other around the center dowel/tube shown above.

 I just went around and around until the whole square leg would be covered. I trimmed the "bristles" at an angle and shaped them into the round brush shape that I desired and then hot-glued the whole brush tip into/onto the leg.

I applied my name in vinyl lettering to the sign portion (from Single Stone Studios on Etsy) and put it onto the wall.

It's fun and quirky; I love it!

Nine Lovely Butterflies

(clockwise from top left)

1. Gulf Fritillary, Hanging On, 8" X 8," $100

2. Pink Cattleheart, Over the Andes, 5" X 7, " $75

3. Hecale Longwing, 11" X 14," $230

4. Orange Julias, Passion for Flowers, 11" X 14," $230

5. Dark Blue Tiger, 11" X 14," $230

6. Great Yellow Mormons, Sunset Ladies, 11" X 14," $230