Our First Workshop of the New Year

Like all of you I'm excited to be starting a new year and I'm excited to announce our first workshop of the year.

Remember the clock case jewelry box? Junk find.

It's called Junk Camp for Beginners. Over the holidays when I would tell my friends and family what I was doing with junk these days they looked at me a little funny. So....I thought I'd give others the opportunity to catch the "junk bug" and join me in the studio for an afternoon. I have to warn you. It's addictive. You will never be the same again. 

I've already told you about all the "good junk" I have stored under my work table, in the stove house, in the barn, behind the tool shed and even a piece or two behind the tractor shed. To the naked eye, it is only junk and the typical things you see around farms, but to me I see art supplies.

For those attending, this may be the cheapest afternoon of fun you've had in a while. I know, we are all running a little short after shopping, eating out, partying, and splurging more often for Starbucks in December, but this mini workshop is a DEAL. Registration is $10 and the cost of the class is....what ever you decide you want to spend. 

We are setting up bins with junk ranging in price from $0.25 to $25.00. You choose how little or how much you want to spend on your project. We also encourage you to bring your own junk to swap with other participants. 

We will supply tools and materials for manipulating or connecting your junk into art objects...functional or decorative...large or small. It's up to you. Cool? We think so. I will have new projects on hand for inspiration and I will help you to see the potential in the items you choose to work with. 

When is this workshop?

Saturday January 22, 2011.

1pm - 4pm (you know I am NOT a morning person, and too, I am most likely going to be out yard sale(ing) until noon.)

Where is the workshop held?

Free Rein Art & Design Studio (upstairs studio in Ranch Dressing Handmade and Vintage)

1882 Kennedy Farm Rd

Thomasville 

How do you register?

Online click here 

Or call, text or email. I will pencil you in and you can mail in or stop by the studio with your $10 fee. All of our contact info is in the sidebar.

Is there a deadline to register?

Yes, January 15th. The workshop is limited to 6 students. If we should have more interest, I will offer the class the following Saturday as well.

When you register, be sure to leave me all of your contact info for further instructions for the class. I will send and email or post card before the 22nd. 

Have I left anything out? Ask any questions in the comments section and I'll clear it up for everyone. I look forward to hearing from you and am really excited about the workshop!

Talk to you soon!

It's a GO! Free Rein Art and Design has a new look.

We've officially re-launched our website as of midnight Tuesday and are so happy to have all that behind us! It's a simple design with a cleaner appearance than the version we've been sporting for the last few years. Now all that is left to do is get in the studio and produce new work for the new website!

This is our new back ground...I love the bright yellow...so different from what we had.

Normally, I wouldn't send you away, but today, I'd like you to take a look and see what you think. If you find any bugs please tell me.
You can find it at Free Rein Art and Design

Shop Update Saturday June 5

I hate that I haven't taken the time to post anything here the last couple of weeks. It's just so easy not to!...to keep plugging on the project(s) at hand. I've started two new floorcloths, both small thank goodness, since I have NO room to work in my studio. It's packed full of new things I've made for the shop and with  things I've brought in from the container to work on.

I've decided not to post pictures of too many items until late in the summer because I am already getting requests for things I've shown on my Facebook Page. This is wonderful, but at the same time, I need inventory for the grand opening.

As far as Rick's shop, he's come a very long way since I last reported. We've had the floor poured, he wired it a couple weeks ago and he and Sam insulated the walls last weekend. All day Monday and Tuesday evening they put the plywood up for the ceiling. That was a hard job! He's working this weekend at his day job, will be out of town next weekend and has to work again the following weekend...so we will once again be at a slow pace. Next is plywood walls and painting them and sealing the floor...then moving day. Then I will paint the walls of my shop while he builds the ramp and railing.

I have my floorplan for Ranch Dressing planned out, the paint bought and I am sitting on go. I'm starting to get impatient and a little panicky...until I realize I'm not really on anyone's schedule but my own. IF, we are not ready by September...God forbid....it will NOT be the end of the world. Surely, by Christmas! I will just put away the cool Halloween things I've made and save them until next year. But, I sure don't want to!

I will leave you with a quote I like. It sums up what we are trying to convey with our endeavor here...

"Style has nothing to do with money.  Anybody can do it with money.  The true art is to do it on a shoestring." -Tom Hogan, co-owner of Chartueuse (An upscale thriftstore in NY)

Oganizinig 101

I have been organizing like crazy these last 2 weeks. The studio, the website, the blog...and a little in the house.

I put myself on a schedule a couple of weeks ago and it is working great! I feel more satisfaction at the end of my day now rather than that feeling of never completely accomplishing anything. If I'm going to do everything I say I'm going to do I HAVE to be organized.

When I volunteered at the zoo's wildlife rehab center, we were extremely organized. The entire organization runs on volunteers with only 2 paid employees. The same people are rarely there two days in a row and the place runs like a top.  Lists were the key. There was one for daily, weekly and monthly jobs. I loved it and always intended on getting my home and studio on such a schedule.

This is NOT my nature...or it hasn't been until now. It may be that "age thing" again creeping up on me. Whatever the reason, though, it's working. I'm on a daily/weekly schedule so far...the monthly, I'm working on. I like this feeling of knowing what to do and when to do it. It's not like it used to be when someone else dictated my time or even when I had the gallery open and had to be there when I really had other things I'd like to do. This time it feels right and easy so it must be "meant to be".

So, the blog has some new features now, if you want to take a look. I found that you can add stationary pages (I'm always the last to know these things) so I listed my new services and workshops that will be available in September when we open. Yes, we can safely say we will be ready by then. Finally!

They are listed under the banner at the top. Let me know what you think or if you have suggestions for workshops etc.

Identity Crisis

The title of my post today is in jest but it could be an actual theory if I were to stop and think about it long enough...but I won't do that. Who has time for contemplating these days?

This image of chaos has been evolving for months now and only since my husband suggested to me last night that I "may be having an identity crisis" that I realized it looks like I truly am all over the place these days. My studio looks like an explosion occurred leaving things from one end to the other.

I know the importance of branding and doing that one thing and doing it really well. The experts continue to teach these first steps to success. For over 20 years I've essentially done the "one thing"....floorcloths... and my brand, Free Rein Art and Design, is established. When I look back at my accomplishments they far exceed any first thoughts I ever had about painting rugs. I just wanted to sell enough to afford to stay at home with Erin until she started school. I never knew that before she would be a year old my floorcloths would have been featured in Country Living Magazine or that the year she actually started school we would build a new studio with the profits from my sales.

Now, our daughter is on her own, we have a son in high school and I am about to turn 50. Time flies when you're having fun! I guess it's really going to jet now that I'm having major fun. I almost feel like I should be apologetic that I'm not painting so much anymore. This time I've had to wait for Rick to get his shop built so I can begin working on my store has been a blessing.

I have found that I have unlimited resources from the trailer for being creative and I am thrilled that so much that may have been thrown away will be recycled and re-loved. I am first a designer by nature and degree, and secondly an artist. Below is a couple of boxes I have on my work table this week. They are almost finished and will be available in the shop this fall...possibly in my etsy shop as well if I find more string boxes. On Wednesdays, I will be featuring what I am working on during the week. I'm trying to make myself some sort of schedule so I will post more regularly.

Wooden Cigar Box (from my junk swap partner) decoupaged with selections from vintage 1960's travel brochures.

Inside lid still has original cigar logo

Banjo Strings box sealed with poly with marbles for feet

 Lid and bottom fitted with old sheet music

So, if you have wondered if I still paint, the answer is yes. I have begun accepting commissions again and have work scheduled on my calendar for June. This means a busier summer since now we have to begin working on the store rather than working from it as previously planned. Due to the time constraints I will not be traveling to Wyoming to exhibit this year as I had hoped either but nonetheless I am very excited about what is happening here on the home front.

I hope to in the future continue to design and paint floorcloths, but too I want to be a designer on a daily basis and do more than that "one thing". I think turning 50 does something to us that says it's okay to do it our way and the heck with what the experts say. If I want to design a belt today and an rug tomorrow who's to say that's incongruent and won't work? Not me. I feel like diversity is essential today.

What do you think? Diversity or that one thing? There is no right or wrong, I suppose...just whatever works for you.

A Clock Case No Longer

Today's post is NOT about guitar catalogs! I've almost sold them all thankfully and am moving on to more fun things. Today's post is about the clock case project I've been slowly working on. As you can see in the photo above it's finally finished.

For me, the best projects evolve. I can't usually just walk out to the studio and make something in an afternoon. It has to grow into something. With this clock case, I let it sit out for a month while I worked on other things and when I was out and about either in the trailer or shopping for my usual art supplies or junk...I  kept the box with so much potential in mind. Eventually I started collecting things I liked and then began to put them together until they evolved into a jewelry box.

I am not sure what happened to the photo of my before shot of the clock case...but, just to give you an idea, it was mildewy brown and black with an oxidized alligator skin finish....and smelled musty.

I first put a wash of green blue paint over it and continued with several coats until I liked the intensity. This sealed up the "stink" and was the beginning of the new finish. I love how paint works with old oxidation. The texture is wonderful visually and after a very, very light sanding it's considerably smooth.

For me the solid color was just too much of a good thing so I then gave it a light wash of linen white and let it seep into the grooves to highlight the design in the wood...SO much better.

Since I don't speak French I have no idea what the label is but to me it looks feminine and maybe like a powder box top. I got it from The Graphics Fairy after I had already painted the box. It was an almost perfect match, so that really sealed the deal.  I love how the graphics on the glass door frames it too.

I'm sorry this is horribly out of focus, but I wanted to show you the pull...it is part of an earring and I epoxied it to the door front.

This brooch came from the same estate and just seemed to fit the bill for some added oomph to top.

Inside behind the label is a piece of textured wallpaper I got from my Junk Swap partner a couple of months ago. It was the perfect solution to hide the holes where the clock fittings once were and also to brighten up the background so that you can see inside when it's closed. I am considering putting a tiny light inside for nighttime display. To the sides I've put in 4 coated hooks for necklaces or bracelets.

I removed the shelf supports from the top and moved them to the bottom of the case and added the shelf for the ring posts. They are simply dowels inserted into holes and glued up. I finished the top with nickle studs painted with gold leaf. On the front of the shelf is brown velvet ribbon which is the same trim as on the boxes below.

These were as much fun to make as the jewelry case. They are paper mache covered in paper and sealed with poly. The lids are painted and embellished with jewelry-like stickers for scrap booking or card making. the insides are also lined with paper and velvet for holding small pieces of jewelry or earrings.

 I am working on two smaller coordinating boxes to finish out the space inside the case. Since they have been such a fun project on their own I will be making more to sell individually. 

All in all this fancy froo froo jewelry case not going to hold a ton of jewelry but more likely to hold what someone wears on a day to day basis during the week. The basics. So, it's really intended as a place to put "regulars" away at night and find them quickly the next morning....or it could just be used to display treasures or family heirlooms.

So, did anyone guess correctly a few weeks ago when I showed the supplies? Did you know what it was going to be?

It will be for sale at our first open house sale this summer along with lots of other recycled items I'm trying to save from the landfill. I hope to see you then!

Hand Painted Spring Placemats and Table Runners

Happy Spring! We had a beautiful day on Saturday and I worked outside all day enjoying the sun on my skin...something we haven't felt around here in a very long time. It was a wonderful day.

 While I was pulling out the dead in my herb garden it reminded me of a series of table top pieces I designed about 16 or 17 years ago for Lexington Furniture's Weekend Retreat Collection. It's a beautiful classic pattern that never goes out of style so I decided today to pull it out of retirement and offer it once again on my website for Spring, Summer and Fall  2010.

They can be totally customized with your favorite herbs, with or without sunflowers, in all shapes and sizes. The heart-shaped herb wreath on the placemat is also available as a circular wreath. The possibilities are just endless and that's the beauty of hand painted accessories.

The Ivy pattern was a major design in the 1990's when Waverly introduced the ivy wall paper and fabrics. We actually built the studio with the profits mostly from the Ivy floorcloths and tabletop pieces. I retired the pattern completely in 2001  because I just couldn't bear to paint another one. Now, I look at them with fond memories and too am bringing them out of retirement...for a while. I believe I will update it somewhat if I keep it open.


All the tabletop pieces are created on a #10 weight canvas, primed, hand painted with acrylics, and sealed with 5 coats of acyrlic poly. They are hemmed and cork backed to protect your table top.

For complete ordering information click here to go directly to the ordering page on Free Rein Art and Design.