Custom Painted Slate Frames~

Sewing Tools Just Must Be Pretty!

  So I admit I kind of chuckled at the flower encrusted hammer my Mother gave me for Christmas one year....who would need their hammer to have flowers on it? I kept thinking.....fast forward to years later, while I am standing at an embroidery frame for 8+ hours a day....and found myself thinking.....this should be pretty too!  I have found there is great joy in having ones sewing tools decorated, and for me, an even greater joy in being able to provide something pretty to bring joy to others! There's a lot of 'Joy' going around....as there should be in life!!  I have been waiting for this frame to get to its new owner so I could share it~ its one of my favorites!

  I have painted it with my signature roses, forget me nots and pansies....oh the pansies~ they just leap right off the frame~ I love how they came out and may need to paint me something with pansies on it now!

 I have made a new Header Page on my Diamond K Folk Art blog for simpler ordering of slate frames that includes paypal buttons and a shopping cart for adding extras~ so you can  buy a plain slate frame, or fancy with paint and monogram, all without having to wait for me to email you back!  Wait time currently is about 3 weeks for a painted frame, as I have a bit of a line formed from when I was up home, but I am doing my best to catch up!

Really???

So its going to be one of Those days is it????

  :::sigh:::  I know better~ but it was cold this morning and I put on a long sleeve sweater to ink a frame....sleeve caught the bottle and ...good grief! A whole bottle of ink spilt on the floor, my hands, my pants, the table~ at least I was quick enough to save the frame from getting anything on it it wasnt supposed  to. Im off to have a cup of tea!!

Holes...HOLES!

 So Many Holes!

   I have been working 12+ hours a day this past week catching up on my slate frame orders~ I do love making them, but ahhhhh...so many holes!  I make each and every frame, myself. With these two hands. Every hole you see gets drilled from one side, then the other, so each slat is drilled twice....then, each one of those peskly little holes gets sanded~ yes, each individual hole, from both sides! One of the last steps before paint and finishing is beveling, so each and every hole again gets another once over to slightly bevel the outer edge~ thats a LOT of holes!  These were the frame I made this week~ some oak and poplar, and yes, you see right, some black walnut~ YUM!

Here is a picture of them ready for paint and/or varnish.  The walnut I partially made in Pa's shop when I was at home, from some scraps he had in the attic...then finished them here at home. This week is painting~ and I have some really fun frames to paint~ all sorts of different flowers...monograms...some 'surprise' monograms...as in whoever doesnt exactly know what theirs will look like ( I love those!) ...and golly I even get to paint pirate ships and skeletons! By the way, a clue may be there too for my next thread palette....

Back Home

Painted Slate Frames And A Recipe...

   Am back home now from Washington and thought I would share one of my favorite slate frames with you~ one of the things that is so much fun for me in offering custom painted things, is that I don't decide what will be painted on them, the customer does! I have painted some things lately that I don't think I ever would have thought to put on a slate frame or thread palette....but they come out so wonderful!  This particular order was a set of frames with teddies on them~ above is one of the two. Set in the middle of the top slat is a little girl teddy holding needle and thread by some spools~ all ready to get her stitch on. There are lounging teddies & faces sprinkled here and there....but my favorite are the ballooners~

  The vertical slats each have a bear holding balloons...one going up...one coming down! I am really loving the watercolour technique on the wood.
 For those of you who are thinking of giving, or getting a frame for Christmas, I would say you should order by October to be sure to get a place in line that will have your frame finished and thru the post ready in time for Christmas giving. I usually get rather busy dollys wise during this time as well. I have never yet not finished an order on time, but I do only have two hands and can only work so quickly!
   Mom sent this home with me~ a watercolour she painted in 1975~

Its a recipe~ my new favorite actually, and its going to get framed and put up on the wall....

"Take:

1 grassy field

2 small dogs

1 new kitten

1/2 doz children

A pinch of brook

Some pebbles

Mix the children and the dogs and kitten well together and put them in a field,  stirring constantly.

Pour the brook over the pebbles. Sprinkle the field with flowers. Spread over all a deep blue sky. Bake in a hot sun. When brown remove and set away to cool in a bathtub. "