Featured this week are two items that I have been working on diligently for a few months. I can't tell you how thrilled I am that I have finally completed this dual project. The reasons are that the rug is woven on a large loom that is supported by two (2) sawhorses and because of the size, it had to be set up in the living room. As for the mirror, it was being worked on primarily on the dining room table and a raised garden on the lanai. Having both of these things out in the open did not make me happy. It looked like a cross between Santa's workshop and an old hippy commune. Not that there's anything wrong with either, but I don't like them operating together in my home. 😉
The first thing I started was the woven rug. If you've been reading my blogs, you know that I am not thrilled with this craft. If you missed my woven rug blog, you click the button below.
Once again, I chose to weave this rug because I could not find one with the colors or style that I wanted. I also had the fabric available, so that worked out even better for me. I must say that I learned a great deal from working on the first one, and I feel that this one came out much better.
Now onto the mirror which I am calling my 'offbeat hangup' and you will see why shortly. It started out as a plain wooden frame that Stephen constructed and then it was upcycled from a previous frame that I designed and ended up not liking that well.
After I painted on my design, I looked at it for a couple of days and decided that it reminded me too much of that 60s show 'The Dating Game' minus the 'groovy' flowers.
I normally like loud, bright colors, but it was waaaaaaaay too much, even for me! I did a little research and found that adding some burnt umber acrylic paint to a tintable glaze would tone it down. You can't really tell by the photos, but it did the trick. It actually made the painting look a little dirty - just the way I like it! 😆
Being happy with the toned-down results, I went into my embellishing mode. Some of the trinkets I used are as follows: old New Hampshire tokens, vintage buttons, old rhinestones extracted from vintage jewelry, a miniature hand mirror, old metal washers, a music box key, old keys that I embellished, coins, purple and yellow punched out paper dots, old jewelry, and wooden skewers that I painted and then added gold toned beads to the ends. For my black and white touches, I painted small wooden circles that Stephen cut out for me a while ago that I had hanging around.
For the final 'offbeat' touch, I had Stephen drill five (5) tiny holes on the bottom of the frame where I could hang some beads. The large wooden beads were painted in the same colors as on the frame; however, I did not use the tinted glaze on them. Then I painted three (3) coats of a triple ultra thick clear glaze on them, and I swear, it makes them look like glass! I will be using this stuff again when I want to add this specific touch.
So, without further ado (is there ever more???), I present to you my 'offbeat hangup'.
With a mirror like this, there's really no need to add any more to the walls. As a traveler on a minimalistic path, this pretty much concludes my decorating for this room.
Lastly, I would like to share three (3) things that I learned from this project as follows:
Never look down on a mirror! Trust me on this one.
Working with a tube of E6000 makes you feel like an orchestra conductor as you are constantly whipping your arm up in the air and twirling it to remove the thread of glue connected to the item you are gluing.
Some epoxies stink unlike that addictive Super Elastic Bubble Plastic I inhaled as a young kid. Oh. Wait. Huh. That may explain a few things...
Until we meet again next Wednesday, be safe and have fun every day!
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In order for me to keep this website FREE for me to utilize, I need to remove older blogs because I am bound to a set amount of storage. So, the blogs aren't mysteriously disappearing, they are unfortunately having to be deleted. 🙁
Beautiful! Your ideas are amazing! 🥰❤️
And with me eating dinner with this just inches away from my plate it may have been extra dirty. I am known to be a slight slob or a big slob depending on who's watching and there could be some spaghetti sauce splashed that is hidden and added to the garnish. Let's just keep this between us, what Debra doesn't know, well you know, the goose and the gander story applies. Peace out!