Chair Faire finale!

40 feet of cotton cord, 6 colors of paint, a few dozen upholstery staples, 5 yards of light canvas and endless hours later...the Chair Faire is done! And I survived...but only just...

Being the procrastinator that I am, I was up late the night before finishing up the chairs because I finally took a mini me-day! Probably not the smartest thing or perfectly timed moment to make room for a life but it was VERY needed.  I went camping at the beach Thursday night and was running around visiting with an Italian friend and working all Friday afternoon (hence the lack of Friday Feature too), leaving late Friday night as my only time to learn to upholster a chair successfully. Oi vey. 

But I am pleased with the results! The canvas worked out lovely and was crisp and clean and waiting for me to paint on Saturday in Los Alamos. 

The Texan was knotted and tied and as lovely as I had hoped it would be. It was a pain to figure out which rope to use and then which design to do and then to make sure I had enough cord to actually execute the bloody thing. I used about 40 feet of cord somehow in the macramed and friendship bracelet-esche back of the chair. I love that bit! I ended up deciding to leave the base as it was, why fix something that's not broken? Plus, I love the little bits of the original paint still fixed to the strands of jute. 

 

The Cheap-O chair turned out I think to be my favorite of the two! Starting with a blank canvas on a chair was a very different experience but doing random paisley patterns turned out to be a ton of fun. 

Doesn't look too shabby for a $10 thrifted chair!

I'm still kind of in a daze that the Chair Faire is done. It seems like ages ago I found the first chair on my Texas roadtrip in a lovely little store outside of Johnson City. Now it's a macramed/friendship braceleted turquoise beauty! 

Unfortunately, neither of my chairs sold. I'm pretty bummed about this, considering how much time and money I've put into them (well atleast the Texan). I'm still going to try selling the turquoise Texan chair but I may be greedy and keep this little paisley gem for myself. 

Chair Faire part 1

Chair Faire is coming! And the preparations are under way! They may look like not too much right now but I have big plans for them! 

All the way back in March, I wrote about my travels through Texas and the discovery of my lovely turquoise chair. I bought this one with the intent of transforming it before the faire and putting it up on the silent auction. On the day of the festival, I will also be painting another chair on site! This second chair I found here in the valley at a thrift shop. 

The other day I finally started working on these two chairs. About time too since they both have quite the extensive to-do lists...and I don't exactly have a lot of free time on my schedule at the moment...

 

 

 

 

I only had time to get both of them sanded down. During which I probably inhaled a lot of  pretty turquoise lead paint...being properly masked and all...and of course wearing the appropriate shoe ware...oops.

It was a scary moment cutting out all the pretty weaving on the back of the Texan chair. But I'm hoping my replacement will be just as neat. There is still a lot to do but I'm sure they'll be a lot of fun. Especially since I have new upholstered anything before...eek!

In other (awesome) news, my illustration from waaay back for Watercolor Wednesdays is being used over at A Teacher Mom in a post about creative play! Hooray! 

More on these chairs soon. And more posts this week about all my kiddo projects! 

a chair by way of Texas

I found a chair. THE chair. Long story...to be exact, a 2 week long road trip was taken in order to find this chair, unintentionally! A trip through Southern California, across to Scottsdale, Arizona, through Alpine, Texas to Austin, Texas and then back again. During the 14 day trek I was led to Johnson City, Texas where I found my chair... but first, the road trip!

I first went to San Diego to visit my sister and partake in the treasured family tradition of visiting Margaritaville, aka attending a Jimmy Buffett concert! Then the travels East led to family in Scottsdale, Arizona and further West to Texas. While visiting Alpine, Texas (a quaint little town off of Highway 10 in waaay West Texas) I stumbled upon these two cute little birds that kept me company the rest of my travels.

Now this was my first trip back to Texas since I bailed out of the United States and went to Italy, so a lot of catching up (both with friends and my favorite food and coffee spots) was needed! My trip also coincided with SXSW, the epic music festival that invades Austin every spring. I got a little sketching in that will come soon but unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures until my return trip home....when I stumbled onto my chair and where I encountered all sorts of crazy weather, including rain in Texas, then snow and sunshine in New Mexico, within about 20 miles.

Okay, so the chair. I have been hunting for a chair for a month or so now to use in the Chair Faire in Los Alamos, California. I was invited to participate through my friend's gallery, The C Gallery, and finish creating my chair on site the day of the festival.

While travelling through West Texas, I stumbled into Pieces of the Past in Johnson City. The owner Kathy had an amazing collection of reclaimed chairs, tables, windows, doors and other vintage pieces. Among their collection I found my chair, a lovely turquoise gem from Mexico!

I was completely smitten with this chair at first site! I had something completely different in mind before the road trip but this chair won me over...I can't wait to get to work on it!

Also while I was in Austin, I was able to do a little thrifting at Good Will and shopping at Buffalo Exchange. I found this awesome crochet shirt at Buffalo and the most amazing backpack at Good Will.

They all just look so perfect together. Yay! And so concludes probably the longest blog post I've ever posted. Such a great little road trip, and even better weather to come home to! Now time to get back to work...