A small Glitch

The platter, which you, my dear bloggers helped me paint, went into the kiln yesterday morning. All looked good until we had a 6 hour power failure. My kiln reached 468 degrees. It needs to fire to 1823 degrees Fahrenheit. So back into the kiln. Keeping fingers crossed.

In the meantime, strawberries are in from California. Cooked up 2 batches of strawberry preserves before the power failure.

Labels affixed, ready for the Farmers Market.

These images represent only a few of a group of tiles I painted recently for a kitchen in Kentucky. Do you recognize the "Strawberry Thief " tile? I used the image for my strawberry Jam label.


And, my fancy new computer has arrived. A young college student came by and hooked it up without a hitch. Now I have to relearn everything.


This morning, our dishwasher door sprung a spring. Just a few little glitches. Nothing serious.


Wishing you all a day without glitches (sp?)


Gina

Color choices - help me decide

Ready for the final color and then this large Platter will be fired in the kiln

I'm trying to decide . . . should I leave the background white? Should I add a little color? And what about a border?



Should the background be blue, or what about yellow? What do you think? I would love to know.


Gina

Burning the Ditches

Smoke travels a long way in our valley. So not to alarm our neighboring farms, we first call the Sheriff.

We have to time the burning just right. Before the ground-nesting birds build their nests. The wind has to be just right and come from the south.

Burning weeds and underbrush is a very efficient way to clean an otherwise wild area.

It only takes a few days and the burned area is emerald green and ready for the birds and countless other little creatures to take up residence.

Gina

Stencilling walls

Several of my friends have asked about my "Fresco" technique. It is quite simple. First you paint or stencil a perfectly good image and then you mostly destroy it.



Stencil or paint image onto surface. Let dry. Mix 10 cups of builder's sand to one box of joint compound. With trowell scrape mixture over stencil, leaving a few spaces "open."

With plastic kitchen scrubber (the orange ball type) remove as much or as little of both the stencil and the joint compound for desired affect.

For best results, scrub hard. The sand helps. To enhance the antique look even further, mix a watery solution of beer and several colorants and apply to area with large natural bristle brush.



I believe that this image appeared in "House Beautiful" magazine, many, many years ago. Not only the stencil but the walls appear to have been treated in a similar technique as described above.

Gina

Stencilling, a different way

Several of my friends have asked about my "Fresco" technique. It is quite simple. First you paint or stencil a perfectly good image and then you mostly destroy it.



Stencil or paint image onto surface. Let dry. Mix 10 cups of builder's sand to one box of joint compound. With trowell scrape mixture over stencil, leaving a few spaces "open."

With plastic kitchen scrubber (the orange ball type) remove as much or as little of both the stencil and the joint compound for desired affect.

For best results, scrub hard. The sand helps. To enhance the antique look even further, mix a watery solution of beer and several colorants and apply to area with large natural bristle brush.



I believe that this image appeared in "House Beautiful" magazine, many, many years ago. Not only the stencil but the walls appear to have been treated in a similar technique as described above.

Gina

Color - Mood Altering

Need a color lift? Paint a Lamp shade.






I have painted every one of my lamp shades. Either on the inside or on the outside. And all of my wall colors I have painted with at least 3 different shades of color, one on top of the other, leaving open spaces for each individual color to come forward.


Some colors are difficult. Green for instance. Green needs a lot of natural light or the room will feel like a dungeon. Yellow is another difficult color. It can look brassy and needs to be calmed down. I always start with a color that is darker and livelier than the end result should be. The adjustment is made with the next two color applications.


The walls are glowing. The mood of the room is changed with the flick of the light switch. Complexions improve. Faces soften. The sun is always shining.

Gina