Starting Over In Georgia

If you haven't heard already, we have moved back to the Atlanta area. Since we have moved lots has been going on and things have been busy with personal things like doing some remodeling in our new home, birthdays, and getting ready for the next school year at new schools.

As for business and creativity, well, it has been crazy there as well. 

I have been photographing random things to practice my editing skills, since my studio isn't up and running yet. I have been working on trying to get it in order as soon as possible becasue busy season is coming soon.

 

I have been working with digital add-ons, overlays and textures for my photography. I think I still like to make the actual items for my photo shoots, but I know if I can't get it in real life I can add it later.  

Digital wings added

Now onto the good stuff. Here is this fantastic, vintage, bookcase? Shelving unit? Whatever it is, it is fabulous. I know it is at least as old as I am because it was in my closet when I was a child. My mom was an extreme couponer before it was a thing. We are talking the 1970's couponing here people. She had boxes FULL of proofs of purchase from all kinds of food items, to send in for coupons. Every cubby had a box and every box was full, and organized. I told her if she ever wanted to get rid of the bookcase, I would take it off her hands. Now I will use it in my studio. But before I use it I wanted to fix it up some.

 

The piece has several coats of brown paint on it, several layers of dirt and dust (from being in a garage for 25 years, after being in my closet for 10), and several screws and nails in it. I patched up the holes and cleaned up the dirt and dust. 

  

I really didn't want to paint the entire piece and I wanted to keep some of the original color so I decided to dry brush a medium to dark grey over the entire piece to blend the browns and hole fixes. I also added some bun feet to get it off the floor for easy cleaning of the floor. This is how it came out. I love it and it goes perfectly in my new studio. Which, by the way I will do a post on my studio reveal when it is finished. 

 

Beautiful, right? I put a coat of clear furniture wax to seal and protect the finish. I have several pieces I am repurposing. The next piece I am working on is this amazing piece. I found it at a local antique market while shopping with a friend. I had started pulling out all of the little drawers when I remembered I needed to take a "before" picture. There are drawers that fill the entire piece. I'll be posting soon on what I did with this piece and the fun things I found inside some of the drawers.

   

I am also happy to say that I have some space at Woodstock Antiques. Located in the metro-Atlanta area Woodstock Antiques and Consignment has some great finds that now include my Lily Mairi line of jewelry. I have other exciting news that will come later too! Follow my blog and like my Facebook pages Lily Mairi on Facebook and Jennifer Griffin Fine Art Photography on Facebook to keep up with all of the new adventures and projects happening.

 

Seeing Something Beautiful In the Not So Beautiful

I have always been one to use what I have. Mostly due to budget. I also like the challenge of it. "How can I make this Early American Ugly couch look like something I actually want to sit on?"

I also like to see how things works, how I can accomplish the same "look" on a piece of furniture, how can I create the same effect and so on. WIth this in mind I had a cheap, not necessarily ugly piece of furniture that I wanted to make into something that I could actually use and was strong and substantial. I also wanted to try Amy Howard One Step paint that can be purchased locally at Woodstock Antiques and Consignment

So with my pile of pallet wood in hand I got to work, on a few pieces actually...

Here the before of the piece I had wanted to do. It was one of those cheap press board bookshelf things. This image is actually nicer than the one I had, I had forgotten to take a before of it. But you get the idea. 

After 2 coats of the One Step paint (no prepping needed at all!), and a light distressing. Then added some pallet wood trim and some old fence finials that have been hanging around my project bin for YEARS. 

Since we are moving, I'm not really going to be able to use it right away, but you get the idea. I LOVE it and it will work well to organize my finished products for my products in my online shop. The paint itself is wonderful. I believe it is my fave for non-porous surfaces. The texture of the paint is silky and divine. As it sits open it gets thicker. It cover extremely well. 

Here are a few other projects I worked on. I used Them Two Birds milk paint, Amy Howard One Step and regular acrylic on these based on the colors I needed/wanted.

                   Before                                                  After

These are glass and resin and the paint stuck like I was painting raw wood! 

                  Before                                                  After

What I did with one of the candle sticks.

I have 3 more pieces of furniture I finished and a few other projects, I just haven't phoyographed them yet. I will update later on with those images. 

There is something beautiful inside everything. It just take a little TLC sometimes.