Very Large Kitchen Floorcloth

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This is a very large, custom  floorcloth for a kitchen. Since the shape is a bit special, I made a paper template to make sure it follows the contours of the cabinetry exactly.

 

It measures about 16 feet  long, so finding a wall to stretch the canvas on was crucial. Luckily I was able to do that!

The design is very simple, however a lot of measuring and precision was part of the process, making a solid pattern I then could go over the top of with a lot of paint and texture.

Lemons are a theme in the Mediterranean style kitchen and adjoining dining room. They make a nice addition to the expanse of painted tile design.

Kitchen Backspalsh

Just because I haven't updated this blog in a long while doesn't mean I haven't been busy!

In fact, I have had so much work to catch up on, and still do, I don't always have time, even intellectual time to keep up here.

I have a few projects to post, lets see how far I get.

here is a tile backsplash full of fun creative ideas, I completed this work over Christmas...that gives you some idea of how far behind in blogging I am!

The tiles are 8"x 8" and run along the counter top in this cute circa 1920 cottage kitchen. The whole house is undergoing a complete remodel. The project revolves around a variety of whimsical pictorial scenes straight from the client's imagination, alternating with bold black and white geometric patterns, slightly art deco; the actual finish of the glaze on the tiles also has a vintage feel to it.

This was a tremendously fun project to do.

Nature goddess, farm animals, wildlife and space ship feature here.

If only! Bio diesel gas station!

Diversity and unity in the community.

Hail storm! And Mr Wind.

I will post pictures of the tiles installed as soon as they are.

Big Catch Up!

I have had a very busy and distracting 3 weeks or so....my main computer broke about 3 weeks ago. Luckily, the data was saved, but all of my contact information and recent photos are on still unavailable until I get the new computer organised; it still hasn't been delivered!

Also luckily, I have access to a laptop which I am working here, now, and I was able to cobble most of my life together with it. No addresses, no pictures, no regular graphics programmes; its been tedious to cope.
Interestingly, the operating system doesn't support my beloved camera! ARGH. I had to get a usb camera card reader just to down load the pictures you see here now into the laptop. The sense of trauma and anxiety have passed somewhat, but I still have trouble locating where the pictures GO when I download them, and the filing system is just DIFFERENT. I don't like DIFFERENT on my computer, I want it just the way I had it, which was easy and quick. Oh well..... sigh.

Also this week, and just to add to the hilarity and chaos, my car broke, definitively. Not worth fixing. So all week I had to look for a suitable car replacement. Ugh. Really hard work. In the end it worked out OK, and I got a decent car...but what another big waste of valuable creative time, and it's all made my head throb.
Phew.
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In the meantime, one's work MUST continue....!
Here are some pictures showing the painting and sealing of the edges of the floorcloth I was working on at the time, it seems about 100 years ago:
Here are the two floorcloths rolled up and ready for delivery, along with some of the fabric samples I used for this and the tiles project......................................................................................

Also at this time I completed a project I began with two fabric window coverings Fabric For Window Treatment ...this is a piece of wood that will embellish the area above the shower door in one of the bathrooms.

Here you see the beginning of the layout, in chalk. Chalk is great for making lots of quick changes. After I establish the design in chalk (easy to correct over and over), I block it in with paint right away, and begin the process of finessing it into something finished.

Here it is finished. I hope to have a picture of it installed to add to this post someday!

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The next projects are about fabric. I have several fabric pillows to paint for a variety of clients. Here I am putting down the base colour to stretch the fabric for a series of bird pillows.And here I am blocking out the area for each pillow square. About 22" square each. Some of these will be backs and some will be fronts..

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And finally, the delivery of the floorcloths. You can see the tile back splash in some of these pictures. Also see : Tile Installation Day! They look great!

The weather was rather chilly for here, that week, (maybe about 58 F) and the floorcloths were stiff from the cold as I laid them out. They will flatten up over the course of the day. On a hot day they are soft and would just flatten out immediately. On a REALLY cold day, a hairdryer can soften a floorcloth perfectly, and allow it to lie flat right away. These floorcloths actually heated up quite well in the car driving to the destination in the sun. They were floppy when I took them out of the car. By the time i was in the house they had stiffened up a lot! Interesting material, isn't it?

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This is the platter shown un fired in an earlier post:

It didn't fit in my kiln, so I had to bring it to a commercial firing place and they fired it beautifully.

This platter will go in the same kitchen as the floorcloths and the tile back splash shown above.

As you might be able to see, its been hectic!...not only did my computer break, and then my car broke, I had a variety of disparate projects to start and finish the whole time. Maybe that's easier than a big long one. I don't know! But in the end all the work turned out great, and all that other stuff is OK, with setting up the new computer still looming as soon as IT arrives...

I will make a separate post for another event I participated in earlier this week. Stay tuned!!!

Tile Installation Day!

The moment of truth!

And the moment of satisfaction for everyone to finally see these tiles on the wall...even though the kitchen itself is not completed. I will try to get back to this post later, and add pictures from a later date showing the finished kitchen.

I am always very appreciative of the care and intuition that a good tile installer brings to the installation of these custom tile jobs. The tiles in a mural, particularly, are irreplaceable, and each tile has to be handled with utmost care. These guys did a great job.

Click on the images to see them bigger!

To see more of these tiles before installation, and even before firing (interesting) scroll down this blog page to December 23 2007, and January 23,2008.