Project Saturday

From Plain to Just Plain Gorgeous!

I'm really into these wood jewelry boxes at the moment.

I have a L-O-V-E of antique/vintage tins like these:

(aren't they lovely!?)  So when I ran across these plain wood boxes I bought the last 3 they had and have been painting them.  (Other post here:  Painting Wood Boxes 1)

So I thought I'd show you all a little progress on the next one, and give a brief step by step.

Start with the plain wood box:

What I do to get the distressed look is to pick two colours that have a nice contrast.  In this case, I chose black and lavender.  Take one colour and paint all the edges and corners and allow to dry.  Then go over the whole box (but only LIGHTLY on the edges and corners) and allow that to dry.  Next, grab your medium grit sandpaper and sand it down, paying attention not to remove ALL the paint from large areas.

Now, I designed my own motif for the decorations, but you can use a stencil if you want.  Center and trace your design and choose the colours you'd like to compliment the background.  I've gone with black, slate and cream and plan to also use gold and *maybe* a hint of brick red later (I'm not done yet!)

Stay tuned, I'll go over sanding and varnishing next, and then on to lining the box and adding feet, too!

Be sure to go and have a look at my website where I display my fine art & day of the dead pieces.  Buy prints and originals as well as stationary there, too! Here:  Sherri Nelson Artworks

Work in Progress - Painted Wood Box Feb 2013

Flashback to Childhood

When I was a very little kid I wanted to be a wallpaper designer.  I hadn't remembered this until I got the strong urge to design and paint a 3D object in a classic style and began the project pictured below.  When I got part way through outlining the flower motif on this sweet little wood trinket box it hit me like it was yesterday.  All of a sudden I was transported from my current work space back to my grandfather's cottage where I remember leafing through a sample book of wallpaper.

I couldn't have been more than 5 years old but for whatever reason I can picture the scene like it was yesterday.  It was a neat memory.  I'm starting the second box today and will post pictures soon.  In the meantime, here's a bit of a progress montage of the first one, which I plan to line with fancy fabric and also to add hand formed 'feet' to.

Has this ever happened to you?  Share your memories in the comments section if you like!

Opening Day

They say that I should blog.  And here, here I am blogging.  I am not certain that I'll be of any significant entertainment value or that I'll even be particularly informative or charming.  We shall see.  

Forgive me today, because I'm just seeing how this whole thing is formatted, etc, so there will be playing.  And mistakes.  S'okay, because both are good for the soul.

Bones revealed. :)

and here's some of what I do