Des Pommes et Des Poires

OF APPLES AND OF PEARS

MIXED MEDIA ART

On the fourth hour of pouring rain, I felt the need for a creative outlet - a mixed media piece of art, I thought.

I had picked up dunnage at Lowe's.  Scrap wood that has been routed down the center of one side used to support lumber.  The pieces are usually in the cull pile.  (You do check the cull pile at Lowe's and HD, don't you?) I was using them for a future folk art piece and had Chucks go ahead and cut up all the pieces in 6, 8, and 12-inch lengths.

I also had three pears and two apples left over from a wreath from several years ago.  Last year I had used them in my booth for fall decor.  I was tired of using them and felt they had another purpose in life.

 

Funny side story - last year a mother and her son were browsing in my booth as I straightened.  She asked, "Do you mind if he has that?"

When I turned around to see what she was talking about, her son was attempting to take a bite out of the apple.

The mother was horrified and quickly left.  I was amused the rest of the day.  If only his name was Eve...

 

I painted each of the fruit and the wood pieces white.  It would have been better to use gesso, but I could not find mine and was not wading through the water outside to go to Hobby Lobby.

I used the crowned bee in a laurel wreath image from Karen at The Graphics Fairy.  I printed the image nine to a page on regular copy paper.  I cut the images very close and then use Mod Podge in the "regular" way.

I gave both the bases and the fruit several coats of satin craft varnish.

I save scrap pieces of lace even if it is dry-rotted to use on art pieces.  I had enough pink lingerie lace to fit around the large piece, and some green and cream trim for the two smaller pieces.  I used a medium weight gel medium to hold the lace on. It holds better than the Mod Podge I have available to me.

These will take several hours to dry.

Which, of course, I did not take in consideration when thinking this would be a quick project!

  Well, those apples and pears cannot go around with just a bee on them - they need embellishing.  Something snappy.

I got on Pic Monkey.  (Which lengthened this project considerably!) I used a French frame from The Graphics Fairy and printed des pommes (of apples) and des poires (of pears) in each frame.  I printed these out nine to a page on 110lb. antique ivory paper.

I used aluminum duct tape to reinforce the backs and to wrap around the edges.

I glazed them with Folk Art taupe metallic paint.

 More bling, please!

I used an architectural paper to punch out circles to fit the bottle cap charms.  (I buy these already with a jump ring attached.)

I randomly chose four numbers to stamp on the tag.

8 3 9 5

(It adds up to 25 - I would like to say that has some significance, but I would be lying!)

These are my favorite number stamps.  I bought them from Pretty Tape on Etsy.  First of all, they come in this teeny little wooden box.  Then there are the teeny little numbers along with a tiny cell phone, carat weight symbol, slash, dot, and asterisk.

(She sells great washi tape, too!)

The pears each received a charm. I used E-6000 to make sure it will not fall off.

Each apple received a tag with "des pommes" and a charm.  Just because they are more specialer!

(No, the apples were each mounted on a base.  The pears all shared one base.  Yes, that is information I should have given you earlier.  Things would have been clearer.)

The three pears sat on one base with their "des poires" tag tied around the middle with white jute twine - the same I used for the charms.

I used E-6000 to glue the fruit to the base.  

One of the apples from the top to show off the silver bling and that beautiful distressing!

Des Pommes

(Of Apples)

Des Poires

(Of Pears)

From a distance the pears look like rotund French men with a smirky smiles on their faces.  Are those silver berets they are wearing?  Sorry, you should not make fun of your fruit!

See y'all!

  .