Aug 03

Andy’s “Friend” – Rehabilitated

Can you believe he went from this sad, rundown, pea-soup-lookin’ old man…to this new and improved awesome guy (plus entourage)? It’s like he saw the God of Style and couldn’t help but be reformed.

What a turnaround, and I couldn’t have done it without help from Sally “The Slayer Seamstress ” Hauser. I first started by stripping the green layer, and found that, woohoo, there was another layer beneath it! I thought about leaving it, for padding, and I tried shampooing it, but seriously, it was dirty. So, I stripped the orange layer as well. This guy has had a colorful past.

Okay, so next step, pull out nails (pulling out twenty of these 5-inch, thirty-year-old nails reminds me that I should probably get a tetanus shot soon). I am now left with a box, some springs, wooden feet, metal plates and buttons that will need to be recovered.

After staining the wooden feet a dark, chocolaty brown and painting the brass to silver, I drag all the remaining parts over to “The Seamstress Slayer’s” house. She is a vetted reupholsterer and I’m hoping she can help me out with the piping around the top ledge. Of course she does, plus much more. But I have to beware because she is the dangerous type and does “accidentally” shoot me with the staple gun, though I should be lucky that it’s not a rattlesnake this time.

After my near-death experience, we covered the wooden box and springs with new batting and muslin so it’s nice and clean. Sally suspects that, because of the style of the orange fabric, that this ottoman may have originated in the 1930’s or 40’s. So it is probably a good thing that I decided to replace it rather than cleaning this 80-year-old (wow) fabric.

I am pretty happy with how he turned out. Clean and off the red chicken.

I had some leftover pieces and I’m not about to throw away this awesome fabric. So pillows to go on the couch where the ottoman will be is just what needs to be done to pull everything together.

Little details, it’s what I’m all about. This is the custom tag that I tacked to the bottom.

Filed under: Blog, Uncategorized — Tags: design, fabric, furniture, ottoman, patterns, refurbish, rehabilitated, retro, sew, sewing, shop, used, vintage — admin @ 9:19 pm

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Jul 24

I Found Some Artists

It seems I’ve been hanging out on Etsy more than Twitter and Facebook these days, it’s possible. There are so many fantastic things to stumble onto here, I just love it. It’s great place for finding unique jewelry and one-of-a-kind art. I’ve found so many artists that I love, I’d like to share some them with you.

I was scrolling through local Phoenix artists and designers who are on Etsy and found a few who have some awesome work available. One local fine art photographer, Tyson Crosbie, joined recently and has some great prints available. I actually own one of his small prints, it’s like a piece of Phoenix history that looks like a painting but is actually a photograph.

Another local artist I found is Jason Hill. This particular print brings back memories from my childhood. My mom worked in this building in the early 80’s, so I remember going there when I was young. This might be out of stock soon, since I may have to buy it

I absolutely love these nature inspired sculptures by Heather Knight at Element Clay Studio. I want a wall of these sea creature and botanical influenced tiles. I think it’s fantastic that they are white and not painted.

Okay, and how freeking cool is this necklace! These are created by Jessica Rosenkrantz and Jesse Louis-Rosenberg at Nervous System Design Studio. They both graduated from MIT where they studied math, architecture and biology, impressed? Also check out their blog where they talk about the process and other projects they are working on.