Thank you, Mr. Edison

It had been way too long since I had done any work on canvas. So I pulled out the largest canvas I had on hand and began the piece of work I am calling Thank you, Mr. Edison.

First I randomly rolled on three colors of paint.

I already knew I wanted a second chance working with a stencil I purchased from The Stencil Library.

I missed the curve (learning curve that is) on the first try and that was months ago. It was definitely time to have another go at it.

Once the background was dry I stenciled the first sheet of a three part stencil that looks like this.
The first time I tried this I had the stencil flipped to the other side.

That resulted in some problems with the next two sheets of the stencil. They didn't line up and although it is probably able to be salvaged, it's just not right as you can see in the next photo.

When I did this one, I painted it on fabric. I was totally oblivious that parts of the background need to show through this pattern and that they would have to be painted back in after the first stencil sheet had been completed. However, I think I recovered from that part and matched the fabric colors quite well. Unfortunately there were a couple other little technical slip ups.

I contacted the wonderful staff at The Stencil Library and received a speedy reply with links to helpful tips for this stencil. So if you are thinking about trying this yourself, you might want to check out the following link.

http://designinspiration.typepad.com/design_inspiration_planet/

Check the sidebar for archives and go to one or all of the following for samples of this stencil.

November 11, 2008

March 12, 2007

August 21, 2007

So back to the project at hand. The second sheet is where the background color is reapplied. As I mentioned earlier, my background was actually three colors overlapping and that would not have been a problem. The real problem was that I wanted my chandelier to be black and the overall stencil background is first painted black with sheet one. As we all know painting any color over black produces a different effect than painting over white. (Sometimes that learning curve shows up again and again) In the end it all worked out fine but it was a little tedious getting the reds on black to look like those on white background.

This shows the third sheet of the stencil which is where the highlight color is applied. I used gold size to get a sticky coating and then applied silver mica powder.

It created a nice effect with the black of the chandelier.

Because I had other plans for the open areas left on the canvas, I placed the stencil off to one side of the canvas.

I took a set of architectural drawings I had, singed the edges, and then stained them a bit with tea.

Then I arranged them around the chandelier and glued them to the canvas with the edges overlapping.

I made sure to include the lighting schedule and the electrical drawings from the plans.

When every piece was glued into place and dry, I applied a gray wash over the drawings only.

I followed that up with a very small stenciled chandelier.

Actually, I liked that idea and scattered a few more here and there.

The final step was to apply a coat of wax tinted with black ink to the entire canvas.

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I love beautiful lighting and the sparkle it brings to a room. It truly is to a room what jewelry is to an outfit. If you have ever dismantled a lighting fixture, you know there are lots and lots of parts, some decorative and some functional, but all very important to the design. Go back a step further and think about the planning and installation that goes into the wiring of a home so that fixture can actually work. It really does develop an appreciation for what happens when you flip that switch. And although I love candle light, I'm very happy Mr. Edison gave us a choice.

ONE YEAR LATER:
We had a very late heavy snowfall today and I could not resist a little fun in the snow. I thought it fitting to add it to this post.