Salvage

I was lucky enough to be asked if I was interested in looking through an old theater company's bits and pieces before it was all hauled away to a scrap yard.
I wasn't the only one there, so pickings were slim, but I found these beauties!
My idea is to incorporate them into my new studio somehow.

I'm in love with the green pediment and think maybe over the center of the built-in book cases MacGyver is building. Maybe...things do evolve. Too short for over the French doors, dang it.

Not sure about what to do with the 'sun ray' piece or the rainbow arch underneath it. They are both made of foam, are super light weight and can be painted to look like anything. Anybody got any ideas?

Just the beginning....

Feast your eyes on my new studio!

Well, my future studio. We have a long way to go, but I'll be keeping you posted and may be asking now and then for a little feedback on some design choices. This is the view leading back up to the first floor...you can see the staircase to the left and a hallway on the right.

This is the view standing by the staircase. There will be double French doors replacing the existing door, which leads out to a pretty terrace and a lovely view of our enchanted wood. 

The room is 27x17 and will be where I do most everything but jewelry. It's also going to be where classes are held and little art shows of my work and students as well.

The wide corridor to the right of the staircase will have a counter top and a hood vent where my kiln will live and the counter top will also be where any pyrography or anything smokey or fume inducing will be done since the venting will be good.

The doorway that you can see down the hall is a gutted half bath which will be (hopefully) transformed into a little jewel of a bathroom.
To the right of the staircase is another doorway leading to a really large room where the laundry is. It's also where my jewelry bench lives and is a home for the 2000-plus board feet of black walnut my husband is building things from. Including a fabulous 4 foot by 8 foot table I'll be using for teaching and making really big things on.

It's so exciting to begin this project...... I envision much laughter and creativity happening here!
I'll keep you posted!
Thanks for stopping by.
Lora

 

A little street of Cotswold Cottages

An old English village is such charming place to take a walk in. Most of the buildings, including the houses are built from the stone available nearby and although they all have that commonality, so many are quirky and individual, reflecting the personalities of the folks that live in them.

Let's just pretend we are strolling down a little lane, taking in the soft morning sunshine, the mellow stone, lacy curtains.
Maybe the smell of breakfast is drifting by.....
We know at least one household will have fresh eggs!

And look....if you peer hard enough through the windows....they've all got little messages inside! Well, you have to turn them around, but we are playing with wee houses and pretending.

Very nearly all the supplies came from the wonderful Alpha Stamps including the 'thatch' on the roof of this little cottage.
The houses themselves are little Mini House Shadowboxes in four different sizes and they are adorable.
The papers I used are from the Provincial 6x6 Paper Pad including the little messages, which are cute tags at the back of the pad.

Looks like somebody artsy might live in this one with it's swirly door and unusual roof shingles.

And speaking of shingles.......

The roofs on these houses are as individual as the the facades!
I used some doll house shingles on a couple of them, the letter roof came from chipboard Alpha Tiles
and the thatch is Sheet Moss I glued down with my fav glue Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue. Love that stuff.
I used scraps of Dresden Trim for trimming out the gable ends of the cottages and white acrylic paint went a long way for adding charming little dot details that made things pop.

I wanted the little message tags to look like they were floating, so after embellishing them, I mounted them on some wood scraps I had and glued them above the 'floor' of the cottage so it looks like they are suspended in air.

For a supplies list from Alpha Stamps click HERE.

Supplies:
Mini House Shadowboxes (no.'s 1, 2, 3, 4,)
House Jewelry Pieces
Decorative Window Set (1/24)
Windows 4 Panel Rectangular
Provincial 6x6 Paper Pad
Thin Looped Dresden Borders (painted white or brown)
7mm Flower washer 
Sheet Moss
Alpha Tiles
Copic markers (pumpkin yellow, salad, golden yellow)

Additional:
Acrylic paint
Matte Medium
Tiny scraps of G45 In the Garden and Country French Papers (window birdcage and sunflowers, chicken on the roof and the roof border on the orange house)
Scraps of old rub-ons from Basic Grey
Shingles from doll house section of Michael's

Thanks for stopping by!