A couple of years ago I was the high bidder for an enormous desk on a local online auction. It was custom made in the 1920's and consisted of 2 large pedestals with rounded edges, gorgeous walnut veneer, solid brass hardware and short, mid century modern styled legs with brass tips.
The top surface was over 6' long with weird angles, as if it was constructed to fit into an unusual space. Part of the auction Lot was also a vintage office desk chair with channel tufted back. All this for my high bid of $1.00. Now what do I do with it?
I thought about it for awhile before I decided what it would become. The chair was gorgeous, even though it was in rough shape. After realizing that I was unlikely to tackle the job of restoration myself, I posted it for sale on a local Marketplace. I think I sold it for $40 which was a bargain and $39 more than I had purchased it for. After a couple years of contemplating what to do with the pedestals, I sold them as well. The legs had already been repurposed on another piece of furniture. That left this large top surface of the desk. I decided to use it for an art project.
My husband cut up the desk top into 4" x 4" blocks. Broken or chipped veneer and voids in the wood were filled with bondo and sanded smooth. I painted the sides black and taped them with painters tape to keep them clean during the process.
At this time I was very interested in acrylic paint pours.
I decided to make two collections.
The first collection consisted of bright colours, red, green, yellow, purple, blue and neutral shades of white, grey, black and gold metallic.
The second collection used the same colour palette in each painting, consisting of mostly blue, green, turquoise, gold, white and some neutral shades. Each painting received a couple of coats of resin for protection and to provide that lovely glossy surface. They are suitable to hang on the wall or rest on a shelf for display. They look like shiny tiles and I love them displayed in a grid of 25 paintings.
When I have the opportunity to travel I often take photographs which have a particular focus such as doors, window boxes and cobblestones. While visiting Italy I decided to take a series of photos consisting of door knockers. I absolutely loved the aged patina of the brass knockers and wood doors.
Each photo was edited to highlight the colour and had the background removed. I love the graphic quality of the door knocker against the new black background. The photographs were printed to scale with my home inkjet printer on matte photo paper. Each photo was glued to the wood block and left to dry overnight under pressure using a piece of wood and 2 - 30 pound dumbbells. After drying, I lightly sanded the edges to make sure they were flush with the wood block. 2 coats of resin were applied and the dry resin was sanded to provide a matte finish. They can be hung on the wall or rest on a shelf for display.
The finished art collections are available on my website.
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