Hard work, long hours, satisfaction!

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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