Paolina

Opposed to ‘Difficult Child Syndrome’ (see last weeks post) occasionally you find a piece of furniture that tells you EXACTLY what it wants to be.  Case in point: this piece that I bought on-line.  It’s a weird piece, because the back of the upper portion has been expanded by about four inches (I have no idea why).  I’m also pretty sure that the wood detailing wasn’t original to the piece.  It didn’t really matter to me, because the moldings were damaged.  It took all of two seconds to pull them off. Two coats of Old White ASCP and we had a blank canvas.

See? it’s just screaming for an image to be put on.  I’ve done several posts on image transfers, and how I do them (I’m sure there’s many other ways/techniques out there in Bloggersville, but I just figured out what feels comfortable for me). Once you get the hang of it, it is really easy.  It’s just incredibly time consuming.   I won’t torture you with the steps on image transferring again, because you can see them on the blog.

Now, I know some people probably don’t appreciate naked ladies on their furniture.  (I did have an experience of a store owner not wanting to carry a piece of mine purely for that reason – exposed nip nips).  I say embrace the nipple! (figuratively speaking, of course). Now I’m not suggesting that you get carried away and start doing image transfers of ‘B’ rated porn stars named Ginger on your furniture (although I’m sure she’s a lovely person); but I also know that this is a country of the free. So – if it floats your boat – go for it.  Go Ginger, ra ra!! I’ve come to understand that some people will love what I do, some people will hate what I do.  It’s all OK, peeps.

Personally, I prefer classical art.  I am a sucker for Pre-Raphaelite art.  Especially if it involves the female form.  Know why? ’cause chicks rule.

This piece needed Paolina Bonaparte.  So after a few days of my life that I’ll never get back, my old piece looked like this You can see the tiles (I had this printed in four equal blocks).  I seriously think that the girls at Office Depot hate me now.  And if they don’t – they should.

I prefer to do my image transfer prior to painting.  Looking at the actual image on the piece, helps me figure out what color to paint it.   The statue of Paolina is of her sitting on a marble chaise lounge, and the marble has gold detailing.  It’s spectacular.  I decided on a mix of Graphite and Old Ochre ASCP.  But I wanted a big Wow inside, so I went with Emperor Silk.  Wowza!

As I mentioned earlier, it’s not a ‘fine’ antique.  It had it’s quirks, and by quirks I mean it was less than perfect.  I don’t like working with furniture that is ‘untouched’.  I love a piece that is old, and battered, and worn: been ’round the block a few times kind of thing.  I can relate to those pieces.  It also gives me a lot of freedom about what finishes I can do on it.  I love doing crackle, and aged and textured finishes.  I think they all add character.  I definitely wanted this piece to look ‘lived in’.  The gold detailing is there to mimic the gold in the original statue.  I used two different shades of gold: Modern Masters (you know how much MM makes my heart sing) Metallic paint in Warm Silver (which really looks like a very pale gold) and Rich Gold.  The nice thing about these paints is that they are water-based.  The image is crackled all-over.  I’ve posted about this before, I use MM crackle which is a two step process.  What I especially like about this crackle is that you have a choice of using the dark enhancer over the light areas  and a light enhancer over the dark areas; so the crackles show up more against their background.

Here’s a picture of it nearly done. It’s not a great photograph because you can’t really make out the contrast/detailing etc. But you get the idea.  I could have been quite content finishing here.  But I wasn’t, because I’ve heard about Efex moldings.  And I was DYING – like almost in physical pain – waiting for the right piece to fall into my lap to use them.  Enter Paolina.  Sigh.

If you paint furniture and you haven’t tried EFex moldings, you have no idea what you’re missing.  Someone had an ah-ha moment and figured out that people were looking to add moldings to pieces: easily and cheaply.  My final vision for Paolina was to have the piece look as though the image was behind a frame.  It would soften the image, make the image appear as though it ‘belonged’ there, and it was also another way of adding more ‘glam’ to it, in the form of gold detailing.

I choose C20 Shell and Leaf.  Just enough detailing and at $11 a corner, a complete and utter bargain.  I used four in total.  I think I have quite an addictive personality, and these suckers are not going to help me. Seriously, this could become a HUGE beautiful problem for me!  I ordered mine from Robyn Story because she’s awesome. Plus she’s got free shipping on them now! But it really was because she’s awesome (but the free shipping did help.  I can not lie).

These are really easy to use.  You basically apply them with Dap contact cement.  Just be careful  not to get it on your fingers, and then put your fingers together.  I don’t want to talk about it.  What I actually figured out is that it is a good idea to position your molding on the piece, where you know you want it.  Then get a pencil and draw around the outline. You will need to put contact cement on the molding AND the piece of furniture.  There is no room for error.  Seriously, this stuff sticks like crazy.  I said I don’t want to talk about it.

I decided to paint my moldings with the Emperor Silk ASCP prior to gluing them on.  I knew that I was going to paint over the red with more gold, so I wanted to make sure that I didn’t mess up and get the Emperor Silk on to the image.  They worked perfectly.

And I mean PERFECTION.

My piece of furniture needed Paolina.

And, in turn, Paolina needed the Efex moldings.

And I needed to pat myself on the back.

Because seriously – this piece of furniture stinking rocks.  And I don’t care who knows about it.

{insert catchy ending phrase here}

Diane aka The Paint Factory

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