Stag Chest...

A little while back {couple of weeks} I finished this piece.  I almost complete forgot to add it here as I've been busy working out finishes or working on 'wee' projects.  It's a great little storage chest that I was offered by a fellow trader.  I figured it would be a pretty good piece for trying out some more stencils and as it was pretty drab in it's original condition, a lick of paint would do it no harm!

I found an image of a stag head I liked and then simply went ahead and transferred it onto some acetate type paper for cutting.  I used the stencil on the reverse for the opposing heads, sealed the whole body of the chest with 'poly' {sanding between coats} and then finished the top off with a good sanding {going down the grades}, wire wool, couple of coats of 'poly' for protection, and finally, two coats of wax {one coat of Fiddes Light and one of Fiddes Rugger Brown}.

As the interior was in good condition, I cleaned it out {dust, debris, spider webs!}, fine sanded and gave it the once over with some Topp's medium.  This gives it back some colour but also add's a lovely fresh polish smell.

Now I just need some lovely toning tweedy type cushions to rest on it...a roaring wood burning stove, comfy armchair etc, etc!

Incidentally, if a piece has a 'makers tag' like the one below, I often like to go and research it on the web.  Often there are fascinating social histories attached to them.  In this instance, it was pretty interesting to read about C.W.S Ltd {the Co-operative Wholesale Society}...

Update:  Oops!, I forgot to mention, this little guy went to a fab new home quite soon after it made it's way to the market :)

A Bit Late to the Party, But...

Porcelain Pens! Well, I've seen brilliant examples of porcelain doodling all over the internet and was intrigued...of course. Whilst I'm certainly no Da Vinci {as you might have noticed!} I do like a doodle and these pens seem pretty perfect for that.

I was enthusing about them at the market with a fellow stall holder {yep, L!} who suggested we replace our cha mugs with some spangly new ones - adding some embellishment to establish cha mug ownership! Here, here. Also handy 

for noting your cha requirements for whoever is tasked with catering the round!

Anyhoo, they arrived today. L's off with the red and I pinched the black. Too impatient to plan a design, I nabbed a spare plate and the geese stencil from yesterday to see how well the ink worked. Not bad, is the verdict. Fine point works well & is great for hand written script and it can be used on glass too. Endless possibilities.

Now, sit aside for three days before bunging in the dishwasher. Let's see what happens.

{Update...Fantastic! I propped the little plate up on the large old kitchen dresser I have on sale at the market for decoration and a lovely regular customer went right ahead and bought it!}

Time for Some Colour...

Next up {whilst I work out what to do with la grand tableau!}, is another small project: a wee bedside table. My sister-in-law picked these fab wee ceramic buttons up for me while they were here in the summer. I'll be using the red paint {summer pudding - ironic really!} plus one of the red buttons to finish the piece.

Geese Finale...

and the stencil worked! No bleeding or smudges..just nice crisp lines. Contact paper is great for this kind of one off job. It's laborious but worth it. You don't need to go back and neaten up the edges...and, if you're careful when you peel it off, you can just stick it to some transparent paper and use again at a later date.

Colour Block Table with Geese Stencil

Here's a little peak of a table top stencil I'm working on just now. Usually I try and leave the tops of pieces alone and work to preserve them {sanding, staining, sealing and waxing} but sometimes the wood is just not in good enough nick {deep gauges, stains etc} and is hard to restore to a good finish.

Take the large table I've been working on. It looked great...fantastic solid wood legs and a heavy wood top. Alas, on further inspection {peak underneath} it turns out the top is a veneered fiber board of some sort! Whats the problem you ask...well, if you want to sand the dings, wear and tear and poor stain job off the edging...you're left with a weird chippy fiber board texture. Not great.

Whilst I paint furniture, I mostly prefer to paint only the wood that can't be restored well {thin veneers with chips and bubbling etc}. So, in the case of the large dining table, rather than painting over the whole top surface because the edging is bad, I want to incorporate a design that allows as much as possible of the wood to show through. Right now, I'm puzzling over the best design.

In the meantime however, I'm using the stencil shown here to finish off the top of the wee block colour table I'm working on.