On holiday

The start of a new year always reminds me of a trip to the stationery shop to purchase new school items. I have to admit I am a bit of a stationery addict to the point where Nick has to put a leash on me whenever we go into Officeworks - I tend to wonder off and put items in my basket without realising what I am picking up. I spent an enjoyable couple of hours in Singapore in their stationery shops and came home with a whole array of new pens and notebooks that you couldn't get here in Australia. 

A new year also gives way to new challenges, resolutions and projects. I am enjoying the 365 project which Nick and I are taking part in and I have a couple of personal projects to tackle throughout the year. This week though I have had a week off work which has enabled me to get back into my morning gym routine and spend some time with my cameras. Doing the 365 project has already started me thinking of how to compose ordinary shots - so much so it sent me to Masters (our local DIY shop) this morning to purchase items to make props - in particular a faux table. I have not tackled much DIY since I taught folk art and did the markets back in the '90s so it was an enjoyable trip down memory lane.

An extremely helpful member of staff showed me all the lengths and thickness of wood and gave me the rundown on the best choice. Something extremely light weight was required to enable portability. I picked my timber, quickly did maths in my head (and got that entirely wrong as you will see) and off he went to get it cut to size for me. I got lengths of 11mm pine (it was the thinest they had) wood glue and a roller were also purchased.

Back home I layed out the wood. My idea was to lay it one way with a mm gap and glue another layer the opposite way so I could have two different 'tables'. As I said my maths did not add up at all and I ended up with it not square - each side having an overhang. A quick call to the man who states 'working in wood is unnatural' and was told to put it all together and he will trim it up when he gets home.

I still had a lot of acrylic paint from my art days so the choice of colour to stain was only hampered by my imagination. My original thought was white on one side and a wood grain on the other. A suggestion was made for French Blue instead of white as all of our dishes are white. I agreed with the thought I can make another one with two different colours. Picking the brown was a bit tricky but went with Burnt Sienna after testing all the brown paint in my stash. The paint was watered down and a roller was used to apply it to the wood wiping it straight off with a damp cloth to stain the wood rather than paint it.

Both sides done and dried time for a test shot. I think another table might be in order over the next couple of weeks (once I decide on another colour and I have checked my maths - twice!).