Back to "Design"

I have not written much about art & design on this blog of late. Bernie's fund raising challenge has been on my mind and heart. Also, most of my "design" work lately has been "course design" as the new semester begins in 1 week and I am teaching 4 courses including one brand new "pilot" course with a lot of "eyes" on it. So, I have been designing the course, selecting readings, constructing assignments and putting it all into a computer based course management system!





BUT, I did get back to some artsy type design yesterday. I had purchased a lamp off ebay. It is a mid century, chalk based lamp and it arrived, as described, all painted black with some worn places with exposed white"chalk." I want to use this piece in my house and the colors there are autumnal earth tones with browns and oranges and light greens. So, this is what I did with the lamp:

First, I painted it all brown, leaving a little black showing through here and there. (pic 1 &2 )

Then, I layered that with other shades of brown plus yellow/gold and added some touches of orange to one shape of leaf and green to the other leaves, leaving the tree trunk with just the browns and golds.




Next, I dry brushed it all with metallic gold. (pic 3)


Last, I dry brushed blackened bronze metallic surfacer onto the tree trunk. (pic 4)




This is the result.

I also have a square silk shade to embellish before I re-assemble it all. I'll post the finale production, soon.

The seller tells me that last year they had a pair of these that Martha Stewart bought. Hey, maybe she will mass produce them for her product line. If so, I wonder how they will compare to my refurbished "original?" That would be fun to see.