Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Finished projects

Doesn't it feel good to finish a project? I have had several going at the same time and finished two of them this week. (Actually three, if you count getting the quilt hung.)

This morning Reva brought me a big bag of corks and I got right to work and finished up my wine cork board this afternoon.


They are hard to discern in this picture, but Judy sent me two lime green corks and a nice blue one. Great little jolts of color! So, thanks to my friends, this project is now complete, and as you can see already has a few things pinned to it.

The other project was a bigger one. I decided I wanted to paint a big flower on the wall in the small bathroom. I used a photo I had taken of lilies in our yard last year for reference and drew my giant lily in Illustrator. I enlarged it and printed it out on my printer—lots of sheets that needed to be taped together. Taping them on the window helped me see through each paper to properly line it up with the others.

Once it was up on the window I traced over it with a dark marker and made a few edits to the drawing while I was at it.

Then I transferred the image to the bathroom wall.


I wanted a very flat, graphic painting, so I started by outlining the drawing with taupe paint, then started filling in one color at a time.


Here's the finished mural, seen as you come in the door.

The bathroom is pretty small so it was hard to get a full-on shot, but here's the view from the john!

P.S. A couple of people have asked how I transferred the drawing to the wall. When it was taped to the window I flipped it over and went over the lines on the back side, with a soft pencil. Then when I taped it to the wall I traced over the lines, transferring a small amount of the pencil graphite to the wall—just barely enough to see.

17 comments:

  1. Your giant flower is rockin' awesome!!

    jane

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is amazingly wonderful. I am still in the thinking process of painting mural on a big empty wall in the kitchen - it is sort of a hallway, but open to the kitchen, behind the bar - leading to the guest room, studio, laundry room and guest bathroom. I don't want to hang anything on it because of the kitchen "smudge" that gets on stuff - but a nice mural would be my idea of heaven - fairies, trees, flowers, clouds, etc. I have it in my mind - now to get it on paper - and then onto the wall. You have inspired me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. wow, that's fabulous! How did you transfer it to the wall, though?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love how you can go totally wild in bathrooms -- anything goes! Your lily is gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Really beautiful Terry.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a great entry into the bathroom, and the colors are wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow oh wow!!! Love that giant flower.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love both projects. I wanted to fill in some very cold metal panels in my office in Spokane with wine bottle corks. Everyone pooh,poohed it but as is seen by yours it can look terrific. I especially like your lily.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous9:05 AM

    You and Ray have worked so hard at making the foundations, and now the fun part of personalizing begins. The mural is wonderful and you are far more brave than I! Every room in your house is becoming a treat for the eyes--even the loo!

    ReplyDelete
  10. It's fantastic... How did you do the transfer??

    ReplyDelete
  11. Unbelievable lily! Now you need to take that large sketch and use it as a template for a quilt....and if you don't want to do that, send it to me and I will!!

    xo

    ReplyDelete
  12. Your flower is awesome and you did a wonderful job of painting it.

    ReplyDelete
  13. You are just too talented!

    ReplyDelete