Working Along....

Boxes Boxes Everywhere..

  I have been keeping busy busy as always~ pandemic or no pandemic, there's never enough hours in the day for me.  Been steadily working to fill orders for slide top boxes I sold at the end of Feb in Williamsburg~ these take soooooooooooo long. Making them is the easy part.

  Before I can paint them, each has to be prepped first~ finish sand and then not one, or two, but three full coats of varnish. I can only do one side at a time, and they must cure between each coat, each side, so this is when this work gets painfully slow.  Not hours of varnish...not days....weeks!

  This box is a special, only available at Williamsburg, and what makes them super special and exciting is, that each person got to choose what they wanted painted on it. What was special to them in Colonial Williamsburg. Each box has 7 scenes on it, so many possibilities! I designed the box after two kerchiefs in the collections there, and all are lined with Virginia Gazettes that were printed at the Williamsburg Print Shop on the big press.  I first draw on the design with India ink using a steel nib pen, same as what was used in the 18th c.  Sometimes I use quills, but for things this detailed, I use a steel nib.  I use watercolour paint to then paint the scenes~ in this case, all are monochrome blackwork, my favorite to paint.  In the pic above, you can see the difference between the lined box above, and my finished on below. 

I love love love to paint blackwork, anyone who knows me will know! On this box this particular side is the same as mine...but I'm having loads of fun getting to paint just about every other building in Williamsburg on these boxes!