Making Do

Plaster and Glaze Wall Treatment

Since 2005, we've lived in this small country cottage in rural Adair County, Oklahoma just outside town from the county seat of Stilwell.  Stilwell has under 5,000 residents.  Our bedroom walls were done in 1970s wood veneer panelling of fine quality.  But there is something about those panelling stripes that made us feel like we were sleeping in pinstriped pajamas.

Last week with the help of a friend, Dave Holbrook, we plastered over the panelling with plaster-looking texture, and primed it with a pinkish terra cotta colored paint.  We added a dark green glaze to knock down the starkness.

This photo shows one of the finished walls.  It was taken under incandescent light, and has an amber tint to the photo which is actually more salmon or peach in color.

I was happy to 'make do' with new texture and color rather than moving to a bigger newer house.  We paid off our mortgage this Spring and do not have a hefty mortgage payment burdening us during these uncertain times.  Sometimes little pleasures are the best.



Cowboy Skirt Canvas

Cowboy Skirt Canvas

I just got this cool setup of stuff that lets me put a design on canvas.  I found spoonflower.com which is custom-printed fabric, so for a few days I've been working on a design for a yard of the (expensive) fabric for a skirt.  I don't know if I'll ever actually buy the fabric--- it would be about $50 just for the material.  But the thought of  wearing a skirt from my own graphics is thrilling!

So here is my first canvas project.  Would you wear a skirt of this fabric?  Here are some of the design elements:  swirl from a tiedye shirt; Easter picture of our grandson, Kai, digitally altered; pics of Elvis (an art card I made), my mother with a feather headdress, and an art card with Frieda Kahlo and Dia De Los Muertos images (which doubles as a $45 train ticket and reminds the ticketee not to leave their coat on the train); stretched tiedye and some photophop stripes; Cherokee Language Exam study sheet repurposed as a collage background with a tiedye dinner nap medallion.  Voila!  Pop it into a frame and you've got a wonderfully wierd piece of lil art, 8x10 inches.

The canvas process lends itself to more conventional (and more useful) applications.  Send me your biggest version of your fave pic and let me put it on canvas so you can frame it and put it on the wall.  My services:  $18 plus shipping (and this includes optimizing and balancing the image).  Now I want to put all my old antique pictures of ancestors and family groupings on canvas!