Creative Tuesday: Art

It's time for Mr. Toast's Creative Tuesday's assignment!

This week's theme is "Art;" I hope it's okay that I waited till today to share the chair I painted in more detail as my creative entry.
 
I have shared some progress along the way... as there were many many hours dedicated to bringing this to life, but here is the final piece in more detail!
 
I am a huge fan of including a little surprise in each piece I do.  And yes, I am going to start right with the surprise.  I named the chair Daydream and found a fun related quote which I have inscribed on the bottom.
 
"Everything starts as somebody's dream!"

I never fully appreciated the effort required to paint something that is three dimensional. 

It was an interesting exercise in contorting and patience as I have designs that align on multiple sides.  It's a good thing this was a light chair!

The more I added, the more attached I grew to this chair.  To my Daydream. 

I love how wild and free it seems to stand there.  Taunting anyone to loosen up and let go!

It's almost primal with cave-like and tribal paintings covering several of the ladder rungs.

My artist supervisor was a critical part in assuring quality and completeness! 

And like most of my work, she also added a swish here or a dab there as her nose, tail, or paw got involved. 

I wouldn't have it any other way!

Really neat to see it against the rocks and trees!  It POPS!

A closer look at some of the details.  I tried to pull from the patterns in the seat fabrics to tie the wood and fabric together.

I couldn't be happier with how the quilting came out.  I haven't put my sewing machine away since.

Tribal bands on the uprights, swirls toward the bottom rung, and there is my lovie-pie. 

She was very interested during this mini photo shoot!

So, there you are! 

Another exercise in letting go, trusting myself, having a whole lot of fun at the same time!

And won't you check out all my fellow artists here!

La chaise est finie!!

Translation?  It's done! 

All of my wacky ideas and thoughts for what this chair could become have been brought to life!  A more detailed view and story to follow.  But, incase you were wondering... it's done, it's done, it's done!! 

Finishing a piece or project you are working on = happiness!

Quilting Rocks my World!

I know it has been all about this chair the last few days, but this is nearly the grand finale.  You guessed it.  I finished the seat!  I have put together lots of savaged bits of interesting fabrics, which turned out to be no small task as I had to decide on the desired shapes, sizes and placements. 

I used an original design for the 'pattern' and to be honest I don't think I'd be able to recreate it.  When you last saw things, I had a lot of pieces cut out and was beginning to join them.  Here is how the sewing started to shape up... 

I pinned additional pieces in place to get a feel for the size I needed to cover the seat.  I also started to get a feeling for how the painted chair and seat complimented each other.  At this point they still feel a little foreign, but I have ideas on how to tie them together.

Next step was to remove the old fabric covering and check out what the base looked like.  Can you believe I pulled out all these staples? 

I was pretty surprised to see that the fabric wasn't the original covering.  At this point, I'm not even sure if the seat and the chair started their life together.  Can you picture a pleather seat for this shape?

This is a great shot of my workspace to include my custom door-desk I originally showed you here.

I wanted to extra cushion on the seat with batting added between another layer of fabric... also, making this more of a real quilt piece. 

Once I had the batting in place and another flowing design laid on with pins I set out to again get the sewing machine humming.

And... fancy music, bells, and fireworks......

...here us the finished quilted seat in all it's glory!

A look of it on the chair...

I'm proud.

It beats my expectations for what I thought I could pull together.

Yup, proud is a good way to express this feeling!!


Tomorrow we will take a breather from all this creativity and I will share our trip to the aquarium!  Who doesn't love a good jelly fish or sleepy seal!?!

The Sneak of the Peak

Sewing machine has been humming along all day....

Yup, that's been my day.  And yup, I have a bit more completed, but not ready to unveil that till tomorrow.

Stay tuned loves!

Welcome Daydream

"Everything starts as somebody's daydream." L. Niven

So, I told you about the cool chair I am breathing new life into (for a charity auction).  Well, here is the first peek at what I have done with it so far.

Removed the original seat and sanded down the base. 

Then I began to splash color on it.  BRIGHT color!  At this point I started to scare myself, but I tossed that to the wind quickly and just kept layering.

Concern?  What concern?

Another view down the ladder rungs.

The more color that came out, the more I smiled ear to ear!

Mr. Happy got me one of his work lights, so I could continue well past sunset.  (Which... have you noticed... has gotten so darn early.  I really need to invest in a sun lamp!)

Here is Daydream looking all wild and crazy.  Just the way I like her!

Just look at that layering!

Loving how the lighting really helps change the personality of the chair.  She really goes from day to night look with ease!

And that's it.

That's all you get for now.

I still have the seat to finish reupholstering with an original quilt design.
I still have a ton of detail that I want to add on top of the color splashes.
I still have to remember to breath.  Inhale, exhale!
I have to stop thinking about whether or not someone will actually bid on this chair in the auction.
I have to finalize my artist bio.  I know!  It's getting crazy around here.  I have drafted my first artist bio!

Oh, and did I mention the head shot?  Faint!


More to follow.  Can't have you miss out on this one!

Chair Re-Do

There once was a chair...

... near a dog named Katie.

The chair had a seat....

... that smelled pretty neat.

The chair stood pretty tall...

... and that's not all...

... it was also going to get a fantastic makeover!

I have signed up to re-create a chair for a charity auction with Furniture Sharehouse.

I'm nervous.
I'm excited.
I'm energized.

I have unleashed that on the chair... and I have more pictures to share with you tomorrow, so you can see the progress!

Wish me luck!  Oh, and I tell you when my artist bio is posted too!

4th of July Decorations

Creating decorations for the 4th of July = happiness!

I got this idea from a Simply Living email (I think). It's just brown wrapping paper tied down with string and then I used stamps, markers, stickers, and decorative punches to create a festive table setting! The blue napkins with stars were from Target and I used a pinch of red ribbon to tie them around silverware. For extra party spirit I served homemade Sangria from Applewood's Blackberry wine (seen pictured on the table corner). Delicious!

The overall effect was a hit! Very festive and fun. Bonus... it was so easy to clean up the card table! Just cut off the strings and fold up the paper and voila... table is all cleaned up.