Kindred Spirits

This morning I was on the check-out line paying for my groceries when the gentleman behind me took notice of my old tattered wallet (which I blogged about once here, when it turned 30).

"I've had it since 1978", I bragged. "Got it in Woodstock."

Meanwhile, he was pulling out his wallet to pay for his groceries, and totally trumped me.

"Poughkeepsie, 1964".

Thistle Stencil Project

I've had this wonderful old Arts & Crafts era curtain panel hanging in my one dining room window for the last several years, but sunlight had faded it to the point of near invisibility. The design was a stylized vertical leaf and thistle border, and I decided the only way to salvage it was to reprint the entire thing using stencils.

Stencils get a bad rap 'cause they're always designed in queer apples and hearts and teddy bear motifs.   In this case I just traced and cut the existing elements of my panel and then stippled away for two days (and that's mostly drying time in between courses).

It was all just an experiment for the most part---I used cheap craft paint and already had the acetate sheets and stippling brushes lying around.  (The most important thing is having sharp exacto blades for cutting out the design).
Below I am using a tiny stippling brush to color in the thistle flower seeds.

Here is the finished product:

I really love this motif.  I know I did a little bit of a wham-bam-thankyou-mam job on it, but I'm still happy with the results. It had been so faded for so long- that hanging 

it back up felt like seeing an old friend again.