It’s a sunny Sunday morning and for the first time in days I’m taking a break. I don’t even feel compelled to go move a huge pile of stuff from one room to another! So to celebrate, I am introducing a new blog feature. One I am calling “Second Helpings” which I will share with you every Sunday. (I guess I could have called it “Good Gaudy”, but that might have been pushing it.)
As you know, I am a second hand object addict AND I paint everything, the end result of which is a houseful of painted second hand objects. Obvs. I even have one room in my house which is dedicated to the storage of said objects. We call it the Butler’s Pantry, or The Monument to Materialism. This is the door I painted that opens into that room:
I’ll give you a tour another time, but today I want to show you my very first venture into “Second Helpings”.
I bought a set of oversized cups and saucers at a friend’s moving sale and because I appreciate both the decorative and the functional I wanted to be able to actually drink my mochalottachocolattes from the cups when I was done with their transformation.
The product I use for this kind of project is a water based paint for porcelain and earthenware which have already been glazed and fired. In other words it’s perfect for the second hand dishes you can pick up for pennies. You paint your design, “fire” in your oven at 300 degrees, and when it’s done it is safe to eat and drink from and to wash and use over and over. Score!
The color stays true, it mixes and blends fairly well but comes in such a wide array of shades there’s really no reason not to invest in the premixed colors which suit your palette.
I’ll dish up a new visual treat for you every Sunday and share the products or techniques I use beyond the obvious “slap some paint on the sucker and call it good” method (which I have been known to use on occasion). Every post will involve a second hand find and my transformation of it, shall we say from the profane to the sacred? Ok, let’s not.
Take a break, it’s Sunday. Even God would stop for a mochalottachocolatte in a hand painted cup this pretty!