New Mixed Media Assemblage - Every Home Should Have One

I'm a bit of a hoarder, some of my friends are very exasperated by this, others love me for it!

So clue one I have a lot of odd stuff laying carefully put away in boxes, plastic storage drawers and old sweet jars.

Clue two I went to the auction and there, unwanted, was this large tray, bit like a printers tray but its not.

Clue three I've been following another assemblage artist Rebeca Trevino for a while. I love her work and we are blogger friends. This is a big homage to her style of work!

My head puts one, two and three together and out comes my latest work.

"Every Home Should Have One"

Its 24 x 15 inches, has over 140 items, vintage papers for the backing and has not even made a dent in the hoard. I hope you enjoy looking for all the little things. Perhaps you have some of them in your kitchen drawer?

The items date from the 1890's to the present day, all have been collected by me or given by friends. All have memories and attachments in my life. 

Here's what it looked like with out the items.

  I hope you can see that I have had to use blanks for the Y & H, time to get out and find some more Scrabble games. No More Nails has been used to stick all the big items.

This was such fun to make. Hopefully something will inspire me to get going on another one soon.

Painted Furniture and Decoupaged Mannequins

My little summer break from my blog is over. I've painted a whole bunch of items. This one I was very pleased with, made from reclaimed pine and painted with Annie Sloan Old White and Duck Egg Blue, stencils are ones from Jamie at Home and meant for use on cakes!

Inside painted and finished with some scraps of modern wallpaper. 

I Fell in love with some wonderful fabric by STOF bought from Mill Shop on Line French Linen well worth the £19.50 per metre. That works out at about £5 a chair, but it makes your item look a 1million $. The ribbon was left over from the last mannequin.

 

Another STOF fabric for six chairs ,that have taken forever, as there were over 800 staples to remove. One had 20 staples on each corner to hold the fabric down. I could only cope with one chair seat a day. Then the chair frames had to be repaired, new stretcher bars, missing wood filled, joints redone on all of them. Phew, then I have had to do two coats of paint on very fiddly carved fiddle backs. Just a lime wash and waxing to do. Nearly there now be finished by next week. 

I worked really hard on this chest of drawers for my Granddaughters 19th birthday. Annie Sloan Graphite and red car spray paint, over a net curtain. Dark wax, new handles from ebay.

We all loved the effect and I'm going to do some more, having learned a lot this time.

Two new mannequins, ebay what would I do with out you? This one has London Scenes and French Script and roses paper napkins.

She's still a bit naked here. I'm using a handy pasta dish to soak the Victorian paper in to make it more pliable. Very difficult around the bust to get a neat finish.

Here she is with her bodice all neatly done. The other mannequin has a different napkin and will have black veil lace from the Victorian era as a costume.

Just the fancy ribbons and bows to do now.

Lots been happening, on 1st September I shall be opening a 1/2 unit at at Bocking Antiques Centre selling my painted furniture, mannequins and an eclectic selection of vintage goodies. This a a fairly new centre, been open just over a year and has a younger feeling than some antique centres. There is another furniture painter there already who does younger style items so hopefully we will compliment each other and I will sell some things!

I've missed my weekly visit to all the lovely blogs. So now off to Hand Made Monday  on Hand Made Harbour.