Sunday 19 April 2015

Victorian Curios (Niches PaperArtsy)

Collecting (well apart from stash we never use) has rather gone out of fashion and the Victorians were certainly experts at collecting and displaying all sorts of things. Snowshill Manor in the Cotswold's  is an amazing example of this type of curio collecting.

So inspired by these Victorian collectors (plus I had a box and some polystyrene eggs) I decided to make a egg display case.


Using my favourite PaperArtsy Fresco chalky finish paints, I  painted the box in Irish Coffee and then used a candle to make some resists marks This was followed by French Roast, more candle and finally a mix of French Roast and Chalk to give a lovely soft grey / blue top coat and a great distress finish.


 For the inside niches I painted in Irish Cream and Chalk.  Using a 12x12" sheet of brown tissue paper I created a master board (needed two in the end) stamping lots of Ink and the Dog Victorian college stamps in Coffee Archival. Measured the niches and cut the tissue into appropriate sized bits and started gluing them in, back, top, bottom and sides!



The front edge of the box was painted in Chalk and dry brushed with French Roast, as were the edges to get the distressed look I wanted.



The eggs were painted in layers of Chalk, Irish Cream, Guacamole, Mermaid to get the soft pastel look of eggs.  Finally a I added some French Roast with a splatter stamp to complete the mottled look.

I'm quite pleased, although the polystyrene eggs went a bit dinosaur scaly egg looking when I used the heat gun to dry the paint, but hey I had fun making!

Hugs

Jo
xx




8 comments:

  1. I love the eggs, and the aged look on your box looks amazing, great colours.

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  2. Love the distress finish of the wood! The polystyrene eggs are just real eggs! Great concept, another triumph Jo! X

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  3. Beautiful eggs but the weathering on the box is just stunning x

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  4. Wow this is amazing - I am crazy about Victorian collections and this is right up my street! The distressed look is stunning and I love how you've made the eggs look so real - how clever and talented you are! Snowshill Manor is now on my list of places I must go - thank you for the info, and the Ashmolean in Oxford is one of my favourites and a real must if you haven't been there already.

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  5. Love, love, love the distressed box,fab x

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  6. I love cabinets of curiosities and Victorian collections - ever since I discovered such things when I was a rather quirky teenager I've had a fondness for such things. This is beautifully aged, Jo. xx

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  7. WOW Jo, your Victorian inspired egg collection is amazing, loving the colours and techniques you used to get that perfect Vintage finish on everything ;-) xxx

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  8. A wonderful project!!! Your painting really looks like an old weathered box!!

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