Deco Style Curio Cabinet Completed

Here is the finished piece...it will eventually be placed in the very pretty Master Bedroom; I will be able to take a picture of it in its correct location and context, to post here later.

Antique Curio Cabinet

Here is quite a change from many weeks of fabric painted with shells and birds! On the day I started this piece, in some ones's home, I forgot my camera, so I don't have a "before" picture...however, it was sort of dark olive, with generic pastoral scenes on the sides.
Not any more!!!

The inside is lined in gold/bronze velvet...and its old, and looks very cool with the metallic tones being painted on the outside.
The plan is to make it look sort of "Art Deco"...but not in an historical reproduction way, since its not an Art Deco piece of furniture.
I am having a great time working with the metallic (as ever!) and with the textures.

Cloud Room

Back in the spring, I painted the wall of this house with very light wispy clouds while it was being comlpetely remodeled. Click on the key words, at the end of this post, and you will be able to see those older posts describing the mirror and walls being created.
Here is the room, and the house, completed, and looking very serene!



These are pillows made from my painted fabric.

And here is the partially silver leafed mirror I painted in February.

Here a length of my fabric is being used as a curtain to close off the closet instead of a clunky door!

And last, but not least, one of my ceramic painted plates empolyed as a useful catch all by the front door!

Silver Mirror

I painted this mirror frame last week, but didn't get very good photos of it during the process, so let's just cut to the chase, and show the final touch: applying the silver leaf.
The background on the frame is painted in shades of metallic silver, and the leaves and flowers , being non metallic, stand out sharply. It is a nice effect.














Silver leaf in very, very thin sheets is applied to a sticky surface, sometimes I use the traditional terracotta ground, which seems to add to the depth and brilliance of the leaf.
After it has set a while, the excess leaf is gently brushed away, with a soft brush. Too much brushing or too harsh a brush can scratch the silver, even right through.

I used many coats of solvent based varnish to give all the silver

an amber tint, and it makes the whole piece look aged and mysterious.

Delightful.

Chinese Cloud Border

This dining room border is in the same home as the previous post's kitchen border.
The Chinese motif is in keeping with the oriental furnishings and decor .The ceiling light , with its alabaster shades, is on a dimmer switch, so when the lights are dimmed, the clouds look very mysterious and luminous. The whole thing is painted with metallic paints. A beautiful and exotic effect.

Tray Ceiling in Kitchen

Here is quite a change of pace!









After several projects based on realistic depiction of the natural world, here I have a purely geometric design project, with lots of beautiful metallic paints to work with.

These metallic surfaces are always so hard to photograph!
But the pictures here show quite well how gorgeous the ceiling and border turned out.