Shadows of the Past

It all started with a simple wooden box...

I've always loved shadow boxes - little time capsules of valuables and keepsakes that tell a little story. I remember first seeing them as a child in museums and libraries; books, locks of hair, remnants of a life locked away and preserved behind glass. According to Wikipedia, shadow boxes got their start in the military, particularly the navy, when they were used to carry the belongings of retired naval officers:

"Military shadow boxes were originally simple boxes in which sailors retiring from shipboard service carried their belongings ashore. Superstition held that if the sailor's shadow touched shore before he set foot upon it that he would suffer ill luck. By carrying his belongings, a metaphorical "shadow" of himself, enclosed within the box he could ensure he would touch land before his "shadow."" -Wikipedia

*Of course I can't help but imagine one of these tucked under the arm of Captain Wentworth as he steps off his ship, about to meet his long lost love, Anne Elliot...

"You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight and a half years ago. Dare not say that a man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant."
- Captain Wentworth to Anne Elliot in Jane Austen's Persuasion.

Ah but I digress, (it always comes back to Jane doesn't it?) I was telling you about my love for these little treasure troves... as fascinated by them as I am, I've always wanted to make one but never knew what to put in it...

Well, being as obsessed as I am with anything Victorian, and being intensely inspired by mixed media and shabby nouveau and steampunk genres and in no small measure being propelled by the fact that my mother's birthday was days away (she shares my love for shadow boxes) I became consumed with the idea of creating a Victorian mixed media shadow box centered around my mother's most favourite thing; sewing.

So I started with a fairly simple and inexpensive shadow box purchased at Michaels:

Even the advert paper inside the packaging tempted my Victorian sensibilities!

Of course my recent addiction to Chalk Paint - decorative paint by Annie Sloan meant this baby was getting a full-on make-under to really look as though it came from 1873.

I taped off the edges of the glass door with green painter's tape and got ready to paint!

I had wanted to use a colour called Old Ochre - a beautiful soft neutral colour that really gives a warm feel but sadly I was completely out! So I decided to get creative and mix what I did have to create a similar shade for my project.

Country Grey and Pure White in a 70/30 mix did the trick.

To begin, I applied a fairly even coat of my colour mixture (let's call it 'Pure Country') all over the inside and outside of the box (including the hinges - gosh I love the look of painted hardware!)Then, after it dried, I painted the interior of the box with Primer Red which I find has a delicious 'old Quaker barn' quality to it.

We are starting to see the outcome emerge!

I made sure to keep my brush strokes in the same direction and kept the red coat fairly thin as I wanted to lighter colour to show through. While the interior was drying, I applied a second coat of my 'Pure Country' mixture to the outside in thick, lazy, haphazard 'any-way-the-wind-blows' brush strokes. The idea is to achieve texture once the paint dries.

Yes my beauty, reveal yourself to me...

After applying an all-over coat of Clear Wax I sanded the inside red to reveal the pale colour beneath. I love this two-colour distressing technique, it really makes the piece look as though it's been painted and worn and painted and worn over years and years.

Then I applied my favourite part; the Dark Wax! I just love how this tinted wax by Annie Sloan completely creates the beautiful illusion of age, of years in an attic and the patina of being handled over and over again.

Look at that texture! My mishy mashy brush strokes did the trick!

I even love how my shoddy tape job resulted in some painting leaking under and onto the glass, it totall contributes to the look of the piece!

Once I knew the wax was nice and dry after 24 hours I began to add the bits and bobs I had collected for my mom to represent her love of sewing and quilting but also her admiration of anything vintage and Victorian! *Gosh no wonder I'm her daughter eh?

On the web I found some photographs of Victorian era ladies with their beautiful new-fangled (in those days) Singer sewing machines and printed them on regular paper in black and white. From there I simply used a glue stick (yes, the kind you used in elementary school) to stick them down and brushed Dark Wax over top of them to give them a real aged luster.

On a recent antiquing trip I purchased a case of antique wooden thread spools, some still wound with their original silk and cotton thread! I included these along with buttons and lace bits from my collection. I kept the colours of the threads and buttons within the colour scheme of the vintage Swiss patchwork potholder I purchased from Piorra Maison. Rich burgundy red, old golden yellow, rusty orange and naval officer blue (in honour of Captain Wentworth!)

 Finally, as a nod to my childhood adoration of miniatures, I glued a mini Singer sewing machine on top of the central spool as a focal point and a dash of whimsy...

Suffice to say, Mom loved her birthday present and I truly loved making it! In fact, it's put even more of a desire in me to make more shadow boxed in themes or "stories". The possibilities are endless, all it takes is an idea!

I think I could be persuaded to get crafty and do some more... perhaps while a favourite film plays in the background!

"I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never.” - Captain Wentworth to Anne Elliot in Jane Austen's Persuasion.

*He could enter my house anytime! *growl*...although my fiance might have something to say about that... oh well, better stick to making shadow boxes!

xox

The Story of a Maid and her Milking Stool

A few months ago I attended my first real antiques fair-type-thingy held in a convention building with my mother, my future mother-in-law and her sister. It was such an enjoyable experience! Of course I knew I'd love it - hello, it's ANTIQUES! There was a certain thrill in browsing the wares, comparing one stall/seller to another, learning whether the prices were better at this table as opposed to that, getting into a bit of "haggling"... Love love LOVED it and came away with a few precious treasures. One thing I didn't come away with was a particular milking stool that I fell a little in love with while there. It was tiny; narrow and short and wonderfully wracked up with chippy white paint and cracked wood... it was beautiful... it was also mucho expensivo! I mean come on! It was wracked up! With chippy white paint! And cracked wood! It was awful! *ooooh but it was boooootiful!* And the seller knew how much I loved it, so he wouldn't budge on his price...

Luckily my mother-in-law-to-be came to my rescue right as I felt my hand involuntarily sliding into my purse for my wallet. She took one look at the stool and said "My husband could make you one of those easy! Forget about this one, he'll make you one even nicer." So I reluctantly turned away from the chippy stool and the seller with a chippy chip on his shoulder (I'm not bitter at ALL!) and thought about all the other goodies I had come away with... and the custom-made stool that would soon be mine thanks to my future father-in-law.

Now when I say "custom-made" I really mean "custom"! I sketched out the stool for my father-in law, determined the size and even had a say in the design! Rather than go with the very basic straight design the original stool had, I opted for scalloped stretchers beneath the top and carved inset hearts on the sides! *Who can resist hearts and scallops?! It's just impossible!

Soon my little stool arrived all fresh and cleanly primed for me....

...ready for me to ATTACK IT WITH EXTREME SHABBYLICIOUS PREJUDICE!!!!

Now, if you've read my blog post from a few weeks ago (if you haven't you can read it here) , you'll know that I just started a new job at the most wonderful boutique called Piorra Maison and that we sell and distribute Chalk Paint (decorative paint by Annie Sloan) to DIY divas and divos across the land! It has been so inspiring to learn about and work with this paint and see the projects that have come out of its use. The more I saw, the more voracious I became for more! I bought Annie's books, looked at all the 'How-To' videos online and started buying brushes and sample pots of Chalk Paint in my favourite colours. All this with the intent that my very first painted piece would be my darling milking stool.

The tricks of my new-found trade.

I fell in love with a powder pink colour called 'Antoinette' (yep, as in Marie, how awesome is that?!) This colour is so incredibly soft, like a whisper of dusk cloud and I knew I had to incorporate it into my project somehow. I also fell in love with Annie's 'two-tone' technique; where you paint your surface thickly in one colour, let dry and then paint it over in another colour, apply clear wax and then sand off the second layer colour in certain choice areas to reveal the first coat beneath. I was originally going to put 'Old White' (a fabulous antiquey white) over top of the Antoinette... but my heart wouldn't let me cover the pink! I loved it too much! So, my little stool was destined to be pink!

First fresh (still glossy) coat of 'Antoinette' pink.

But it needed a little something more, after all, this pretty, posh little stool was nothing like that tattered ratted-up stool I had originally loved at the antiques fair. This stool was looking too sweet and innocent. I was steering too close to 'practically perfect' instead of aiming for 'perfectly imperfect'. My darling little stool needed some roughing up, it was time she learned the ways of the world...

So I waxed her...

...and splashed her with 'Old White'...

...and sanded her...

...and best of all...

...I rubbed her with Dark wax!

I absolutely LOVE how the dark wax turned her into a bit of a dirty little miss! I imagine a story behind this piece now; this stool looks as though it could very easily have been in a child's nursery at one time, clean and presentable, perhaps in the 1930s, but the onslaught of WWII took its toll on the home (in England of course) in which it rested and the little stool did not escape unscathed. Despite being stored in a shed for many years, its once bright pink luster now dulled by time and the elements, she still stands proudly, strongly, ready to accommodate one more little girl, one more dolly or teddy to sit at the tea party table.

Ok, so I have a vivid imagination!

My little battered beauty

She loves me, can't you tell?

Now, I've always loved the charm of anything 'pre-loved' - it's part of the reason I adore antiques so much but there's something to be said for the new, especially when it comes from the hearts of loved ones, created through their skill and ingenuity, with a little of my own flavour thrown in for kicks. However, I believe I have achieved the best of both worlds (and so can you) by turning the new into the seemingly old through artistry, a little paint, a little imagination and a lotta fun!

Take that chippy antiques seller!

And Vice Versa!

Hearts and scallops my friends... hearts and scallops!

Love from,

Me

xox

Inner Child, Inner Joy

 Today was one of those really satisfying days - you know, the kind that you feel really accomplished at the end of, the kind of day that you feel wasn't "wasted" (it's amazing how often we feel like a day was "wasted" - what a terrible thought but one that crosses my mind frequently). Today, however was the perfect example of a non-wasted day; a day where the balance of recreation and responsibility was in perfect harmony. Today was my "Sunday"; back to work tomorrow but I don't mind (in fact I'm looking forward to it). Days like this make you feel like everything is ok, no matter how many things there are still left to do, it's ok because you fulfilled today and it filled you. I don't know if it was my good mood or the mild, sunny, almost spring-like weather today (well, maybe not spring but there seemed a hint of something less wintery in the air) but at one special moment today I felt like a child again. It was only for a brief and precious moment; I had just finished the first coats of Chalk Paint for a new project (stay tuned for an upcoming blog post on that) and as I was cleaning my paintbrush in the sink, the afternoon sun streaming through the kitchen window, I looked up to see my crystal sun-catcher breaking the shafts of light into tiny rainbows on my cabinet.

Now this may seem trivial, I mean, so what right? What's the big deal about a few light prisms? But that's just it, it's so simple and the memory it invokes is so pure that that's what makes it so wonderful. In that moment, of spotting the rainbows of light in my kitchen, I was transported to my childhood.  In a flash of cerebral brilliance, I remembered how I felt the very first time I saw what happened when a crystal was turned this way and that until it was just so in the light to create my own little rainbows. I remembered seeing crystal sun-catchers dangling in the windows of my mother's own kitchen, of watching them twirl in the soft breeze of our "gallery room" - a kind of summer living/sun room with windows on three sides where we spent hazy July evenings and sweet August afternoons eating corn on the cob and hotdogs in our bathing suits, fresh out of our family swimming pool. For a split second I was seven years old again and all that mattered in the world was making time for a tea party with my dolls (and of course my beloved teddy bear) after school. For a moment I was back in a world where the half-way point of my day was measured by my coming home for lunch (thank goodness we only lived a few blocks from the school!)

As often happens with such memories, they are gone just as quickly as they appear but thankfully the feelings they bring with them can last if we allow them. We've all had such memories at one time or another but oftentimes we shoo them away or block them or enjoy them for a millisecond and then forget them. Why is this? If it's a good memory or a not-so-good one or even one we think is not worth remembering, it's still a moment in your own personal story. Look at how that one memory of rainbow lights led me to thoughts of summer fun and family love. And yes, even bad memories can lead to good thoughts too.

So tonight as you lay in bed, think back to how you felt as a child, all tucked in, cuddling a favourite toy, reliving what happened during your day and dreaming of what tomorrow holds. You're still that child... you're just, well, you know...bigger!

Have a joyful week my friends! 

xox