Fine Finials

 I have said over and over I will not curse the rain.  Last year we had unrelenting drought.   However, the past several weeks of rain and chill have driven me bonkers.  

I am an outside girl.  Happiest in the sun.  But I am not going to complain about the rain.  

I will do inside projects and disregard the set of unfinished chairs in the living room.  

So I chose a finial project to "Rosemary".  If you have never "Rosemaried" anything, go over to Villa Barnes to see how.  Here's a post on Old World finishes from Rosemary. Be sure to read several posts. You will be hooked!

 I was inspired to create some sort of metal-zinc-galvanized type finish by  Deborah at  Green Willow Pond (Old World Finishes)  and  (Faux Zinc Travel Case).

Finials cannot be fine without some embellishment from Karen at The Graphics Fairy.  

I picked out a bird in a laurel wreath.  Sorta reminds me of Noah!

Took the image to Pic Monkey and colored it and put a frame on it and resized it and ... well, you get the picture.

I had these finials and the blocks under the bed.  I am still being a good little crafter and using up my enormous stash of supplies.

Those four blocks are the last of ten I bought about two years ago.  They are the feet from a sofa and chair.  I wish I could find some more - they are excellent for fine finials!

The two acorn finials do not match, but are close enough.  The other two do match. 

 The main ingredient in Rosemarying is gesso.  You can find this in the art supplies.  I buy a big container of it because I use it to prime many things.  It is a bit expensive - use a coupon!

A foam brush works best - the gesso is thick.  It is not necessary to get in all the cracks.

You are after a distressed finish.

 All eight pieces primed with the gesso.  Since I was going for a metal-zinc type of look,  I mixed some gesso with black craft paint to get a dark gray.

After that coat, I threw some more gesso in the mix to slightly lighten the color.

Instead of painting with the foam brush, I dabbed the paint on and gently wiped off with a paper towel.

See the difference?

Here is one base distressed on top of the others which are not.

This is a messy step.  You will have the gesso/paint mixture all over you.

Yes, that is my dining room table I am working on!

I covered everything with waxed paper.

 I was admiring the progress and loving the look of the finials and taking pictures when Chucks walked in and asked what happened to the no working on the dining room table rule?

Did he really think that would last?

 The hardest part of the project was screwing those darn finials into the bases.  There was already a hole drilled into each, but I have the raw skin to prove the holes were not big enough. 

You can see from the pile of sawdust, I broke down and drill out the holes to make them larger.

 



Should have done that first.

 I Mod Podged the images onto the bases and applied a coat over the tops after drying.  I follow with two coats of a satin craft varnish.

In my not-so-humble opinion, the finials are very fine indeed!

They are metal-zinc-galvanized looking!  (Choose one!)


 

 A close-up of the bird image.

Mighty fine finials you have there, ma'am!

I was watching Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Killer (or maybe it was Vampire Slayer - I never remember titles!) while working on these.  It was a surprisingly good movie if you like vampires.  Very clever!

 

GATSBY ALERT!

All of you Great Gatsby fans.  Go the the Thomas Cooper Library (University of South Carolina) website to view F. Scott Fitzgerald's ledger.  They have scanned the actual ledger in his handwriting and have transcribed it.   I have spent hours reading through the book with notations of his expenditures, how much he was paid for The Great Gatsby and other works, and the lists of parties he and Zelda attended.  Go see for yourself!  Read the ledger here!

I am pulling more stuff from under the bed.  Regular readers, this is always a rare glimpse into surprise finds surprising me all over again!

See y'all!

Roosters and Hens - Wooden Poultry!

 I bought these yard roosters and hens from an estate sale months ago.  I promised the daughter of the man who had made stacks of various wooden animals and people I would treat them with dignity.  I ended up taking home seven chickens and several little Dutch garden girls.  I wish now I had taken the little skunks, too.

So now they are art pieces to be displayed inside.  It did not take much.

 The man was a pretty good wood worker, but the paint job was a bit garish for me.

In the photo you can see the the left ones have been sanded and the right ones are in the original paint job.

 This is dunnage.  It is scrap wood in various lengths used for home improvement stores to stack the lumber shipments.  

You can find it in the back of the store - usually in the free pile.  One of the big boxes makes you pay $1 for a length of it.  

It has been routed down the middle of one side.  It makes for perfect bases if you are not picky about appearance.  

Chucks cut up three lengths, and I have this whole pile plus a few more pieces.

 I measured my chickens and made sure the bases were long enough for support.  The chickens already had metal stakes.

Notice I did sand these wood pieces smooth.  Then I painted them with Kelly Green Folkart paint. 

It looked grassy.

Out came the stamps and the Archival ink to stamp "poultry" on one side of the bases.

 My favorite number is nine - just because.

So I stamped "NO. 9" on the opposite side.

Then holding each chicken to its base I marked where the stake would need a hole.

Then drilled the hole.

Some chickens needed two holes for two stakes.

A liitle more tricky as one of the holes had to drill at an angle.

 Once I had used E6000 to adhere the metal stakes to the bases, I realized that the kelly green was too bright and some distressing was in order.

As it has rained over five inches here in the last several days, sanding was out of the question.

My house is already full of mud and sand from the animals running in and out.  I do not need sawdust, too!

I took out some Folkart linen paint and faked it.

Yes, I faked it.  Even my husband was fooled and said it looked just like I sanded it!

(Please no jokes about my husband!)

(I am just kidding - make all the jokes you want!)

 The roosters and the hens make a cute display in the dining room, but they have made the trip over to the booth.

There was a lot of clucking about them as they rode in the cart from car to booth.

I know at least one hen has found a new home.

There seems to be some gossiping going on between the roosters and the hens.

I guess it involves faking it.

The distressing!













See y'all!











I'll be at Jennifer Rizzo's Fabulously Creative Friday Linky Party

I'll be at Donna's Funky Junk Link Party!