Wordy Wood Sign

 A while back, my mom commissioned me to make a sign with a cool quote she'd found. I do like a good project, so I said sure! Then we began the back and forth to decide shape and size; horizontal or vertical layout.. what kinds of fonts to use.. all that jazz. I admit that I've been a little distracted lately, so this part was moving slowly. 

We'd decided it should be made out of wood, with the slat-look. So, then it was time to brainstorm options for what kind of wood to use. I was considering different options when, across my Facebook feed, there came a post in the local "Free to a Good Home" group about someone setting out some old wooden squares. It looked as if they'd originally been used as steps in an outdoor path. From the picture, it looked like they'd had been weathered beautifully and I thought this might just work for my project and it was definitely worth a trip to the alley to check them out. 

So I packed up the kids into the car and we headed out. The post didn't have super clear directions, just that the wood was in the alley and gave the cross streets. But for each general intersection, there are four branches of alley.. so we started driving up and down the alley, scoping things out. Turns out it was also garbage day, and the truck was in the area doing its rounds, so the clock was ticking! We went north on the two on the east side of the street then headed south on the west side... nothing. The garbage truck was in the last block of the south end of the alley so, after checking the north west side (still nothing), I zoomed around and parked just at the mouth of the end of the south west side and there, just a few houses down from the garbage truck, was the wood! I nipped in and snagged it all, quick before the garbage truck came. Boom! An exciting beginning, for sure. And, turns out, just what was needed to get the project kicked into motion.

First, step: decide the orientation of the wood slates:

Once that was decided, it was time to clean the wood and reconfigure the two square pieces into one, long rectangle.

The backing pieces were all old and falling apart, so I stripped those off and tossed them away. Then, I pulled out all the rusty nails and then soaked the wood in bleach and dish soap to get rid of any unwanted critters or anything else that might be growing on the slats. 

Then, after a good solid rinsing I left them out in the sun to dry.

While I waited for things to dry off, it was time to get serious about the design. We had talked about which words Mom wanted to emphasize, so it was a matter of picking fonts and finalizing the layout. First a sketch to make sure we were thinking along the same lines..

.. and then came making it pretty on the computer. I worked up two options and she got to pick her favorite. (she picked the top one, which happens to be my favorite too!):

By this point, the wood was nice and dry and it was time for reassembling! Since the original wood backing was falling apart, I opted to replace them with new ones. However, it seemed silly to put bright new wood against the weathered old wood without trying to match them. Happily, I knew just the thing: tea and vinegar treatment! 

Transforming new wood into old (looking) wood without having to wait years and years!

So pretty! With the backing pieces matching, it was time to attach get everything put back together. Real aged-wood on the front, faux aged-wood holding it together on the back; a blank canvas, ready for some painted words.

With a pencil and some grid-enlargement finagling, I sketched in the lettering:

Add a little white paint and, voila! Transformation complete! It went from this:

to this!

Upcycled, repurposed and beautiful. Success!

Playing with Earth, Color and Fire

 A few months ago, I was feeling like I needed more adult interactions. I found a pottery class here in town and it seemed the perfect solution - get creative (play with dirt) and hang out with grownups.. win-win! Sign me up. 

Pottery is a complex process with lots of different steps. First, on the potters wheel, you made your creation, dress it up with texture or handles, then let them dry (slowly so they don't crack):

Once it's air dried (leather hard), it goes for it's first trip through the kiln (bisque fire). Then, it'll be ready for glazing:

Finally, a second visit to the kiln for a glaze fire and boom!

Now, that's the typical path to pottery (you know, for beginners in a weekly class). Predictable, beautiful, very sedate. However, our teacher thought it would be fun to shake it up and organized things to set up a Raku firing - which is a whole other way to go. The first few steps are the same, throw something on the wheel, send it through a bisque firing and then glaze.... but then things go a little crazy. 

First, heat up the kiln, and set up metal garbage cans filled with newspaper, hay and shredded computer paper. Outside, behind the studio, is a little courtyard and an outdoor kiln, perfect for our little Raku party. 

Once the pottery is heated to red-hot, the pots are carefully taken out and put into the metal garbage cans. The stuff inside the cans immediately burst into flames, then a little more stuff is thrown on top, a little fan for the flames and pop the lids back on. Once the lid is in place, the fire sucks out all the oxygen and then it all sits and stews for 40mins.

Finally, carefully, the pieces are taken out and put into a water bath.. and check out how things came out!

Every piece comes out completely different (depending on where in the can it is, how the fire plays on the glaze and how well the lids seals) .. but they're all so pretty!

Raku is definitely quicker and you never know how things will come out.. there may or may not have been some fire that got into the bin holding the hay.. and the garbage can at the end.. but no people were harmed in our little party and we all came out with some unique pieces. There's even talk of trying it again and I'm totally in!

Cabinet Makeover - Part 1

 Way back in November, rescued this old cabinet from a curb. It wasn't very beautiful, but it was solid. All it wanted was a new coat of paint and it could really be great! So, thus inspired, I took it home.

Of course, November in Chicagoland is pretty chilly and not great weather for painting. So, while I couldn't really get down to the fun part, I decided to start the prep-work, in anticipation of warmer temperatures. I took off the doors, and had a little helper working with me to strip off the decorative fringe detailing on the edge of the shelf.

Then, I tucked everything into a corner of the garage and waited for spring. Happily, time keeps on keeping on and eventually we were back to warmer weather. So, I dusted off the cabinet and started plotting and planning. First came a primer coat. This cabinet had all the earmarks of an antique, so I didn't want to sand it 'cuz who knows what type of paint they had used originally. So, I used a strong primer that would cover it and, hopefully, keep any oils, lead or other stuff safely enclosed.

Next it was time for adding some color, but I had a little bit of a tough time making a definitive choice. I went to my local hardware store to get some spray paint, and they had a really light sea green that I thought might work... but, upon further reflection, I was looking for something with a little more pop. So it was back to the drawing board (and a bigger store with a larger color selection.) I found this one, and it spoke to me. 

When I'm spray painting, I generally use Rustolium 'cuz they make really tough paint (so it won't easily scratch) that covers nicely and lasts well. I hadn't ever seen this brand in spray paint before and I was intrigued. Plus, look at this color! Perfection. However, this store only had one can and I knew I'd need more than that. So, I ended up driving way out into the suburbs, to the next nearest store that had some, to find a couple more cans. My quest was successful and I was set to start painting!

Even with just one round of paint, I was loving how it was turning out. So far, I was very happy with my choice to use a new brand of spray paint. AND, it dries a whole day faster (24hrs to recoat vs 48hrs) which is lovely when you're an impatient maker like me. Though, my feet saw a little bit of action with the overspray.

Next, came the doors. The glass on the doors had some cool bubbles, so I wanted to keep those clear to preserve the details. So, I carefully covered it all before painting (next time I wrapped my feet with plastic bags to save my shoes and my toes from further indignities.)

Then the doors were primed and painted: 

Once the doors were fully dried, it was time to put them back on the cabinet, do some touch-ups and one final coat of color. Then, all that was left was to let everything dry and the outside (spray painting) was done!

Now, I am plotting and planning how to dress up the inside and maybe add some detail work to the outside. Stay tuned! 

Beautifying Things - the Outside

 Once the inside was all complete and the seal was dry, it was time to look to finishing off the outside! Some of the exterior pieces could be done, bit by bit, parallel to the inside. 

The picture frame that was to be the door, got primed, and then it was blue!

Then, all painted and sealed, it was only in want of a handle!

One of the signature elements of a Tardis is a little light on top. This whole project has been a DIY work of art, and so it only seems natural that the light be too. I thought about different ways we could make a light on top, did some research.. and then inspiration hit. I found a cute little glass jar that had a little taper to the bottom; a bit of retro look. Turn it upside down, dress it up and put a little light in it, and it's perfect!

Once the smaller bits of the exterior were done, it was time to look to the box itself. The joints and seams had already been sealed and patched, then it was time for some serious sanding.

Next, to achieve the board and batten look of a British Police Box I used a bunch of little strips of balsa wood. Measure, cut, then glue on!  

A little patching at the joints, another round and sanding and then, finally, it was time to tie it all together and paint it blue! Even with just a first coat, it was looking awesome:

Then, all blue and dry, it was time to start assembling the bits.

After a fiddling a bit with the placement of the magnetic closure and adding some waterproofing to the inside of the door.. all it needed was the sign out front....

I printed an "aged paper" background, then printed the words on top. Trim it down to size, laminate and voila!

At long last, it was officially done! 

Oh man.. it turned out awesome! My friend and her family love it! Good work, all around. Hooray for a great project done!

Redecorating

Amid all this covid-craziness, there have been all sorts of changes in pretty much every level of everyday life: Home church, home school, online meetups with classmates, family and friends.. At home this has translated into a few decorating changes around the house.

One of the things I learned during the first week of remote learning with my 1st grader, was that he works well with visual examples for math. We tried a couple different ideas, but then he was telling me about the way the teacher does math learning in the classroom, and she utilizes the white board a lot. I can see how that would be helpful, so I decided to make a little chalkboard area here at home.

This week was our Spring Break, so there's a little more free time for random projects, which worked out nicely. Next, to figure out where to put the chalkboard and see if I still had any old paint lying around. Handily, as a habitual craft-hoarder, I did have all the supplies necessary here already. I was a little worried that the paint would be to old and may be goopy, but it was good! Two coats later, we had a chalkboard.

After a 3-day wait for the paint to fully set, they had a good time breaking it in.

Also, as we're doing all this home learning, we've been doing a fair number of artsy activities. Moon is really a big fan of these and Townshend will come join us when the mood strikes. Most recently, we made these cute little jellyfish.

Moon and I each made two, and he was so excited only one of his ended up on the wall.. the other swims around the house and alternates between stinging and tickling people. Townshend wasn't into making a jellyfish, but he painted one and it turned out really well!

All this art making has lead to an art gallery growing on a wall leading to our stairwell.

It's a little different decoration than we'd had previously, but I'm digging it.