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!