Halloween Window Display

Dancing in a red dress, out on the wiley, windy moors, Kate Bush eerily sang the haunting tale of Wuthering Heights…
Heathcliff, it’s me–Cathy.
Come home. I’m so cold!
Let me in-a-your window.

Inspired by the Emily Bronte novel and an Elena Originals Cathy Doll, I set about making a haunting Halloween window display.

Started off by sketching Cathy onto tracing paper then transferred her to brown cardboard. Used stencil knife to make a Cathy stencil.

Lightly glued the stencil onto a large sheet of butchers paper and made a black acrylic paint and water mix (1:10) and sprayed over the stencil. The ghost of Cathy, tormenting Heathcliff to his dying day…

The brown cardboard bled into the backing paper. Cathy was turning into a vampire!

A banner and a bunch of hanging garlic later and this is what will greet my trick or treaters this year!

Next post will have photos of Halloween decorations and a few how to’s. Here’s a taste..

How to make little witchy hat, click here…

http://mykidcraft.com/little-witchy-hat

Cowboy Craft table

I looked down at La Mesa disapprovingly. It looked back up at me, all doe eyed and floral flanked.

Its’ beetles, bugs and butterflies sparkled silver in the afternoon light…

Hmm. You do not do, you do not do, anymore black shoe (aptly put Sylvia Plath), however I am not talking about a black shoe, but a mesa…a table… specifically my daughter’s craft table. Appropriately whimsical when she was a toddler, her daily reminders of what a big girl she is, made me soon realize that it was time for a craft table makeover. I refurbished this table about a year ago. As she will be sharing it with a brother within weeks, it manned up in the nick of time! Out with the reindeer and in with the raw hide.

HOW TO REFURBISH A KIDS CRAFT TABLE

This was originally a plain pine table that I refurbished into a girls craft table: see Oct 2012 post ‘Doe a Deer.’

Firstly I painted the table top with left over house paint (Kosciusko Pebble) and rubbed it back to a light white colour before spraying with one coat of copper coloured spray paint. Randomly rested horse shoes on table surface. In the absence of real horse shoes, cardboard stencils would suffice.

With thick brush strokes, painted dark blue oil paint round the horse shoes, diluting the paint with linseed oil for quicker and thinner coverage.

Dabbed a cloth in methylated spirits and randomly rubbed back dark blue paint on table top here and there to reveal light blue and copper colours underneath.

With a stencil knife and book covering contact, drew and cut out Yee-ha boots. Peeled paper backing off and placed sticky side down onto clean and dry table surface before painting stencil in with lime green oil paint.

Just add children and chairs. H-yah!

Sebel Stak-A-Bye Chairs

When was the last time you saw a Two Tonne Welsh woman advertising outdoor furniture?

In 1947 Tessie O’Shea, a Welsh entertainer and actress was at the height of her fame and the spokeswoman for Sebel Stak-A-Bye chairs. These pressed metal chairs with sweeping tubular legs were Sebel’s first chair. Having freshly disposed of their war time ration cards, the British were ready to come out of their bunkers and into their gardens. Their “cheerful colour contrasts” and “almost indestructible plastic finish” made them an instant success.

To this day Sebel still operates from its original site at Bankstown, NSW, Australia. Established in 1947 by Harry Sebel who emigrated to Australia from post WWII Britain, he started Sebel with his father David, a metalworker Russian emigree. The production of these chairs ceased in 1958, however with the recent revival of vintage mid-century furniture, they’ve made a comeback. You can’t pass a cafe strip from Newtown to Newington that doesn’t have a Stak-A-Bye out front!

These are mine. They stack nicely and serve well as extra outdoor chairs. The blue ones are a bit flaky and as am very pregnant it will be a while before they see a fresh lick of paint. However, with a cushion or two they do just lovely.

Pre-pregnancy I did manage to refurbish a set of Sebel Hobnob Junior chairs from the early 70’s. I bought these second hand. They were a sickly looking crayon pocked, toddler sticky set of peach chairs. After a thorough soap scrub and hose down I set to transforming these chairs to accompany the kids outdoor table. Getting the chairs to a shiny new Plastic Fantastic look was no small feat.

HOW TO REFURBISH OLD WORN CHILDREN’S PLASTIC CHAIRS

Step 1: With paint brush coat down every square inch of plastic chairs with Grip Lock Primer. I used the White Knight brand.

Step 2: Once dry I tried a variety of spray paints however found that Killrust in a can works best. Spray even strokes starting at the top and work your way across left to right on your way down. For more intense colour and better coverage of primer, spray paint evenly one coat at a time. Wear a face mask as this stuff really stinks and can render one devoid of smell for a full day. Despite all this it was worth the effort as gone was putrid peach and in came a combination of bright yellow seats with silver legs, silver seats with canary yellow legs, blue and deep Indian red plastic chairs.

This is what they look like around the kids outdoor table.

 

A Day Out at Hazelhurst Gallery & Gardens

On February 24th Hazelhurst Gardens celebrated their 13th Birthday. This place is a garden, cafe and regional gallery that hosts all sorts of interesting events, from Art Express to Children’s ceramics classes. I was lured in by a spray painted mural by Beastman (see original post on “Spray Painting” my vintage patio chairs… https://speckledsydney.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/refurbishing-vintage-patio-chairs).

Was pleasantly surprised to see the mural and to find that the garden was kitted out in bright balloons, bunting, and a dozen yarn bombed trees!

Fairy floss and mini cupcakes were in abundance. Reverse garbage had a tent for kids craft, clowns were balloon making, women were weaving and jazz was playing. Inside, the gallery was filled with all manner of crafty people selling their wares and an interactive weaving wall.

What a great place, we’ll be back again!

https://www.facebook.com/hazelhurstregional

Refurbishing Vintage Patio Chairs

Recently in Melbourne we stumbled across Hosier Lane, walls filled with bright street art from sidewalk to skyline. It’s amazing how transforming spray paint can be.

And so, once again I find myself turning to killrust in a can. It’s extremely durable for spray painting outdoor furniture. I painted these vintage (50’s?) wrought iron chairs several months ago. There were four Vintage Iron chairs in total; two tubs chairs and two rocking chairs. All were in a flaky and slightly rusted condition, so washed them then sanded them back to smooth surfaces. Spray painted them with one coat of Killrust in brown before painting 2 coats of liquid Killrust in Vintage Green. 

Until recently these chairs were a place where pillows went to die, foraged from sofas and armchairs. Now we have matching Pillow Perfect outdoor cushions in a retro birds and vines print.

These puppies are plush! 5 inches of padding and a beverage of choice make for a perfect weekend spot.

If you live in Sydney and would like to see some street art in the making, head to Hazelhurst Gardens, Gymea on Friday the 15^th of February, 2013. Starting between 10 – 11am, Beastman will be spray painting a mural, where it will remain until April 1.

http://www.sutherlandshire.nsw.gov.au/Arts_Entertainment/Hazelhurst/Whats_on/BEASTMAN_mural

I would love to go, but find it increasingly difficult to get out of these chairs!

If I were a Peacock Painter

When you look back on your life, and ponder the choices you have made, do you have one that you wish you did differently? The one that REALLY stands out from all the others? The shining beacon of all clangers?

The big one for me was NOT being an audience member on an Oprah show. Not just any Oprah show but one specific one. Over 2 years ago she did an ‘Australia’ piece. They were looking for Aussie butts on seats for a story on ‘Up and coming Australian Designers.’ Sadly I declined the chance to go as had just moved to Chicago and didn’t know anyone I could entrust my daughter with. The offer of leaving her with hair and make-up just didn’t cut it! Turns out the fashion story was a pfaff. We found out later that in her last episodes, Oprah went out with a bang! And this was one of those…. every member in that audience reached under their seats and found they had won a trip to Australia!

….if I could turn back time…

In my next life, this is another thing I would love to do…..to be a Peacock Painter! Since 2008, this amazing group of women have made annual pilgrimages to Morocco to stencil the Peacock Palace, a boutique hotel in Marrakesh.

 Some of their beautiful stencil work

Alas, a schmuck like myself has to contend with stencilling furniture and childrens décor.

Below are photos of my efforts using stencils in a much less exotic manner!

Rock Lobster!

Dr. Suess, Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll and Roald Dahl all wrote nonsensical stories and poems. Nonsense writing can often be alluring because of its’ surprisingly deep meaning:

“Be who you are and say what you feel,
because those who mind don’t matter,
and those who matter don’t mind.”

And at other times from it’s complete lack of it:

“When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles
and the bottle’s on a poodle and the poodle’s eating noodles…
…they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle
bottle paddle battle.”

Nonsense literature is a beguiling form of storytelling as humans desire to find meaning everywhere, in everything, even when none exists. Songwriting is also a form of storytelling, and so is open to nonsense lyrics.

The B52’s wrote a hit song in 1978 called “Rock Lobster.” It’s jam packed with nonsense lyrics, bopping, banshee shrieks and beehives to boot.

We were at a party
His ear lobe fell in the deep
Someone reached in and grabbed it
It was a rock lobster

Indebted to the joy of nonsense poetry and the humble rock lobster, I refurbished a plain timber set of chairs “Rock Lobster” themed.

HOW TO REFURBISH TIMBER CHAIRS

I had previously painted the chairs in an Indian Red indoor paint which was not holding well in the great outdoors.

Sanded off the flaky bits and repainted all chairs with a more durable Cherry red liquid killrust.

Loosely glued doilies to chairs and spray painted over them with Indian Red killrust in a can.

Loosely glued handmade coral stencils to chairs and then spray painted over them with killrust in a can in Ocean Blue.

Loosely glued the lobster, crab and puffer fish stencils to chairs. Painted inside stencils with oil paints.

Now my BBQ setting is all ready for summer snags and sizzles!