Painting The Waiting Room -part 1

I am now beginning the saga of how I painted the waiting room of our new office. This all started in October of 2005.




Every Sunday I would drag my paints into the waiting room, clear out all the chairs and look at the bare walls, hoping for inspiration.

It got pretty messy in there at times. I didn't have a premade plan. Just the desire for color and something, well, not usually done.





Since we were beginning a whole new way of life, the Creation theme got a hold of me and I have been leaning on it ever since. Here is the birth of Adam and Eve.

Peridot Swarovski Set

It seems as if I need a lot of time to recover from my painting projects. It's been at least two weeks and I haven't had even one small impulse to go near a paint can.

Instead, I have been reading, watching old movies on Turner Classic Movie channel and cleaning my sewing room on the weekends.

The nice thing about cleaning out old stuff is that you rediscover stuff started that just needs a little tweaking to finish it off. I now have several bags of that kind of stuff.

This Swarovski crystal set was one of them. I had been wearing this sterling silver and peridot goddess pendent on a sterling silver chain, but it just didn't "pop". It mostly sat in my drawer looking pretty.






Now, with all the perfect shade of green crystals with an aurora borealis finish surrounding it, I wear it as often as possible. And the earrings and bracelet make me feel so fine!

Hand Painted Table & Chairs - at last!

Here they are in all their glory. A table and chairs bright enough to glow in a brightly lit waiting room.

I took this photo in the early morning when the sun was rising in the east and keeping everything way too bright. You can see that even the verticles aren't able to shut out that intense light.




My, oh, my, how the high gloss enamel reflects every ray that arrives!



This is how they sat in the coffee room waiting for me to make up my mind about what I was really going to do to them.

I watched them for about two weeks until I just couldn't stand it anymore. Sure they were OK. But not OK enough to stay that way forever.







And, of course, this is how they were when they were first born.
Pretty wood. Nicely shaped. Solid looking.

Good enough to use as they were for about 10 whole months.

Like a blank canvas for an artist,
sometimes one has to be blank while the inner workings build up enough strength to be born.

Handpainted Rose Chair - the last one!

Remember this? It was the first one I talked about. A very nice color. My front door is almost this color.





But this is the shade that I love the best. A deepened rose color that I never, ever tire of. The entire back wall of our bedroom is similar to this, only I did a color wash that makes the wall look like suede from a distance. And, I made a king size quilt based on it. I think I even posted some photos of it awhile ago. I'll have to check.




The final product.

I had more trouble choosing colors for this chair than I did for any of the others. I think because I just like it so much as it was. The deep shade of rose is my favorite color to be around in our house. However, it had to change to this to be part of the group, so it let me paint it over and over until it finally said, "enough".


I especially like the brush strokes on the seat of the chair.

They go sideways!

Stuff like that just comes up as you paint.

You just never know how it's going to turn out.

Turquoise Hand Painted Chair

I just adore this color. I have made quite a few pieces of jewelry with turquoise stones. It is so much like our South Florida sky. But, once again, as I looked at it for about a week, I just couldn't leave it be.





Aren't these colors great with the turquoise base underneath? I especially like the dry brush effect. It looks a little rugged, and not only allows some color to show through, it is a great technique to use on childrens furniture because you know it's going to get banged up.



I use a really scruffy "chip" brush and mix two or three colors on the brush when I paint. I start out with a deep color, mix a little white on the side and then use some acrylic paint from a tube for an even darker slice of color.

Since it's all water base paint, it is very forgiving and seems to go on nicely. When it dries there is still mostly the high gloss of the white and main color, so it is a shiny finish - mostly.

I thought about applying a polyurethane top coat for protection, but wasn't so sure it would protect the paint enough. I've used it on other projects and still find paint chipping off with use.

Oh well. Use is a form of flattery.

Hand Painted Orange Chair

This chair started out orange and then became something else.






And if you look closely, you can see little splotches of the orange still trying to peak through. It was a lot of fun figuring out what colors to use to add character to this little chair.




Here it is in the darkened orange stage. It was nice. It looked good with the other chairs in their solid color life, but as with all things that live, evolution must go on.
Stasis is safe, but not very interesting.






This is the baby orange chair with its' first blush of high gloss enamel. It's a very nice orange color. Not too red, not too yellow. Just right. Except it was born into my house and as such is destined to change along with everything else. I mean is anything ever truly done?

Hand Painted Purple Chair

And here it is. Kind of hard to believe isn't it? Underneath all that color is the darkened purple base. I just couldn't leave it alone.

So, now it's got green, turquoise, orange and yellow enamel first lightened with white and then dry brushed with the darker shade.

This chair just dances with color!




And there really isn't anything wrong with this at this stage, is there? The purple enamel with a darker purple dry brushed over it give it depth and sure is interesting to the eye, but as much as I like it, it told me it just wasn't done.

Sometimes the inner artist sure has a LOUD VOICE.



Our humble beginning. Oh how far we had to go and I didn't even know it. I hope this chair is happy now, because I am taking it into the office with all of its' siblings and that is the end of it's current fix up state of mind.





Now it is at the office and is waiting to be used by lots of little kids with sticky fingers, who will sit on it, stand on it and knock it over on a regular basis.








sigh.

White Wool Ease - Fun Fetti Hat and Scarf

It's finished! And, I just adore it. It was fun to knit, even using those awkward circular knitting needles. Once it's all on and the yarn is not twisted, it's fun to just be able to knit, knit, knit.



You can see the first Pom Pom I've ever made here in this side view. Cute! Fluffy! A nice balance to the rolled brim!



And now I am making a scarf to go with it. I'm using double strands again, but this time I'm using a pair of short, size 13, straight needles and just knitting every row making a loose, bumpy pattern that with be stretchy and comfy to wear. Both ends will have the Fun Fetti and I plan to make it very long so it can be wound around my neck more than once, or when I wear my long black wool coat the ends will be long too.

It's a shame you can't see the sparkles of the silver that is in this yarn. It makes the hat look like new fallen snow that is sparkling in the sun. I really, really like it. I just bought some more last week, 'cause now that I'm feeling better about those circulars, I can make gifts using it.