I was just looking over my inventory for the Purple Painted Lady Festival. I was able to refinish and rework nine pieces over the summer and go to North Carolina on a buying trip. It is very satisfying to go down to the basement (where everything is stored) and look at what I did. It makes up for the many hours I put into it. I must admit I did not know how hard I would have to work. Prior to this, I worked on a few pieces a year as commissioned pieces or those I would sell on Craigslist.
I am really proud of everything I was able to accomplish. I am however a little nervous about sharing it with the public in such a big way. I am used to working with people and knowing what they expect or someone contacting me through Craigslist. This is different. I have put my heart and soul into some of these pieces and they will be out there for people to judge. On the other hand I am so ready! It’s like practicing for a big event. You do everything you can to prepare for it and then it’s game on!!
Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing with you more of what I have been working on. For this week, here is a wooden train I found at a garage sale that was in rough shape and deserved a new life.
- I had already started to paint, but you can still see how rough it looked. One of the wheels was missing on the engine and needed to be replaced.
- The train also came with peg people.
- I was able to replace the wheel and axel with ones I purchased at Michael’s. I finished painting the cars using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Abusson Blue, Emperor’s Silk, Versailles and a mixture of Antibes Green and Graphite. I like the way it makes them still have character and not look brand new.
- I painted the wheels black.
- I sanded all the cars and cleaned them off.
- I took my cue from the book “The Little Engine That Could” and went with a circus theme. I found these great images online.
- I decoupaged them onto the train cars. After they dried, I applied Annie Sloane Clear Wax to all the cars.
- Now on to the peg people!
- I used acrylic paints for the peg people.
- I had so much fun creating my circus peg people! The clown was the most difficult. I had to do it over three times because the first two ended up looking scary. I finally decided to forgo the mouth and that did the trick!
As a vendor for the Purple Painted Lady Festival we each were given signs to put out on September 1st. I put mine out this morning and it brought tears to my eyes. It just made it so real. It is really happening and I am going to be a part of it!
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