Shop's Closed, The Work Begins Anew

Well the shop has been closed and buttoned up for about a month now. Resigned as I was that the "season" is short , much like our growing season , I'm feeling a kind of ease that I did not feel May- Oct ( the months that the shop was open). Oh , don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the summer selling season. But it was more "structured" than I've been used to since retirement. And I really wasn't able to do the kind of painting that I love.

Typically I like to spend time with a piece of furniture, get a feel for what it needs and what kind of a reborn life it would like to take on. Crazy sounding? Perhaps. But it is the way I like to work------if I may be so bold as to compare myself with Michelangelo who was inspired to sculpt by how the marble spoke to him. ----Once I got working in the shop there wasn't enough time to spend in thinking too much about each piece. Pretty much, I had to get it painted to get it into the shop to fill the void made by the last sale; and do it quickly. Not that I'm complaining about that. Oh , surely not. But it did develop a mindset that left little room for contemplation. Now that I haven't those constraints upon me, it's taking me a little time to reset the approach. But I'm getting there and happily so.

This is my just-finished piece. Simple , but I think , oh so elegant. I wish that the camera could have caught the color better than it has. It's a dreamy purply-gray that is so soothing and still intriguing as it is neither this color nor that color. It is sublimely caught between the two. The piece was meant to be a bit different. But as soon as I was half done with it , I knew that the pendants on the underside needed to be silver. Then , of course , I needed to add a wee bit more silver , so I chose the turnings midway on the legs and crossbar.

Once that was complete, I thought ,"maybe a bit more silver". So I sampled a bit on the beveled edge of the foot. Immediately I could see that that was wrong, wrong. It meant , of course repainting that surface , but since there wasn't but a slice of it , that was quickly remedied. The Mister was called in for an opinion ( Oh I do feel sorry for him sometimes. I request his opinion , but if he gives me the wrong answer, it is quickly discounted. Fortunately he knows me well enough , and loves me well enough , not to take this to heart. ) He agreed. It was done. Now on to companion pieces........what fun.

This little candlelabra was found in a delicious state of rust. But I needed it for mood in a room in the shop last summer and so was painted black with a purple top coat. All I needed today was to add a spritz of silver over the previous paint so that some deep purple and a wee bit of black speckles through the silver. I now have plans for some of those chandelier crystal drops that I was given. But that will be for viewing later on.

Can't wait to see the whole vignette, but wait I must , for the other piece(s) have not been even decided upon. I.......think I have a ........chair ( a sweet little thing ) but that's all I'm telling right now. I will post again when it's all pulled together.

All for tonight. Sweet dreams, Cyth