fantoush

It has been a very busy few months – I have started so many posts and as usual been distracted half way through for some reason or another – attention span of a very small chi…

BUT I have been achieving! Slowly slowly but I assure you a whole host of exciting projects are well underway and I should have some tasty posts for you coming up. To whet your appetite, here are some pics of what I have been up to. First is another cheeky wee Tub chair. A smart wee tubster with black and white felted wool check and black piping. He is up for grabs and will be in the Fantoush Shop on the website soon.

And this next puppy – well I had serious problems letting it leave my studio – I have a cruussshhh! I did this sofa for my pal and collaborator Jess Buckley of Jessica Buckley Interiors – the lady has taste and the fabric choice is testament to that. I don’t think i’ve ever worked with a more beautiful fabric. If you love the Neisha Crosland Zebra fabric as much as I do, you can order it through the lovely Jess.

Here is the BEFORE:

And my favourite bit – AFTER!!!

The lovely ladies of Ion Magazine very kindly invited me and my house to feature in the September Issue – obviously the most important month of any magazine…Anna Wintour will tell you…

And here is the article – Ion is a great Scottish magazine that started a few years ago letting the people of Edinburgh and Glasgow know what’s going on in their cities, the best places to eat, sleep and shop.   The awesome Susie Lowe took the pics – she is such a cool cat, superbly skilled and lots of fun that she always gets the best of her subjects – her “tits and teeth people!” mantra works everytime.  Susie is based in Edinburgh but works all across the UK. You can find more of Susie’s work here.

A massive thanks to Nicky Howden and Susie for putting it all together.

xxx

This month my excuse for sporadic posting is that my Association of Master Upholsterer’s exam pieces and written project hand-in date is imminent – my project on 20th Century Upholstered Furniture Design is hanging over me like a bad haircut. It’s not all bad news though people because I have been procrastinating creatively making and been Bee Boxing…gettit?  Inspired by my Carte Blanche course with Cait Whitson  using Annie Sloan paints and glazes I’ve made some pretty boxes -  using gold leaf, decoupage and craqueler techniques. Available to order here

The Bees Boxes come in a range of sizes from small jewellery boxes to boxes big enough for games etc. other animals are available such as Monsieur Leopard who is proudly demonstrating his ability to be made on a canvas – Mr Bee is good at that too – box or canvas – the choice is yours Fantoushees.

Wow the workshop is a mess. There is stuff EVERYWHERE but at least it is now 100% work room and no longer 95% spare room and 5% rage and frustration. I decided enough was enough and I tore apart the spare bed – when I told Mother she was aghast – but where would she possibly stay on her quarterly visits??!  The long and short of it is I finally have SPACE! Space which I am filling up pretty fast but space that has given me the freedom to tackle my to-do list.

I had a bonzarino weekend recently with the lovely Cait and Gibson from Carte Blanche on a decorative furniture painting course. I left with a swollen brain full of sweet ass ideas.  During the day we learnt loads of different techniques, distressed finishes, stencilling, gilding and amazing effects with different thicknesses of Annie Sloan paints.  Annie Sloan  is a furniture painting Queen who developed a great range of chalk paints based on traditional recipes which go on nearly anything without prep (bonus for lazy people like me).  Here is what we made.

1) Basic Gilding with Composite Gold Leaf

2) Beautiful lace stencil – the bee was a stencill I drew detail in – imagine a whole wall of bees!

3) Thickly applied paint, force dried with heat to create texture and then finished with a white wax – looks like marble!

4) Craqueler and Decoupage

5) Distressed paint effect – 2 different paints, sanded back  and then waxed. Finished with 3 different wax tints, white, clear and dark – Je LOVE!

Grrrr….

I had an idea for a piece of wall art which did and didn’t work but here it is anyway. I copied a drawing of a leopard on normal printer paper and coloured it in with a black soluble pen (first mistake).  Then I painted this painting canvas black and drew a big circle in the midde. In the circle I painted on special gilding glue and then applyed the composite gold leaf. The leopard was stuck down in the middle of the gold circle and then I varnished over the lot. Being impatient I varnished too quickly before my leopard had dried from the glue and it went all smudgy However it seems to make it look quite aged and semi-authentic so perhaps it’s not quite as bad as I thought.  If I did this again I would find a copyright free image and photocopy it – apparently printed images also run with the varnish so photocopying is best.

The Chair

And just while I am at it here is a chair I am doing for the Association of Master Upholsterer’s exam – eeeek! Now I have to say this chair has been a royal pain in the jacksie.  I had a great idea of using a Russian folk theme after spying a great book on Russian fabrics at interior designer Jess Buckley’s HQ and had eyed up the perfect vintage Nina Campbell fabric on Ebay. But then I accidently necked alot of wine and forgot to up my bid and was outbid by a cruel £0.60…rage.  And then I spent about 200 hours – and I am not even exaggerating staring vacantly into my computer at fabrics online – it is so hard to comprehend a fabric online. Now if price hadn’t been a factor then easy peasy but as I have approximately 3 sherbert lemons and a bag of Wotsits to my name at this point, the idea of using an old beach towel to cover the damn thing was beginning to seem like an excellent option.  I am usually about bold colour ways and quirky combinations but when I saw this grey velvet damask in my upholstery tutor’s box of tricks I decided that I really rather liked it and a deal was made. I got to work on the colour scheme of the woodwork  and athough my chair frame was solid mahogany I was always going to paint it -here are a few photos of the process.  I will post some more pics when I finish it next week.  xoxo

Choosing the colours

Choosing the finish

Base coat painted - drying by the fire!

For decades the majority of us have lived within the confines of conventional lighting, somewhere between the lightshade and the chandelier. Thank Lordy today things have changed and lighting is as much an art as furniture or textile design. Lighting really started to hot up in the 50s and 60s when the pioneering Danes produced spaceship like shapes such as the famous Artichoke or PH5 series designed by architect, designer and all round functional visionary Poul Henningsen.  These lights were dual purpose – yes they looked shit hot but their concentric metal flaps meant that they only emit reflected light so no rabbits in the headlights – form and function my friends.

While I am very pro-function sometimes form wins out.  There are few things that I am utterly gobsmacked by but these Adam Wallacavage chandeliers completely blew me away. Literally my heart races when I see them.  Wallacavage, a Philadelphia based photographer taught himself the art of ornamental plasterwork on a whim and went on to create these absolute masterpieces. Macabre, colour and comedy…and a little bit of function, is there anything else?  This much I know – one day I will own one of these treasures be it a Dixie La Roux or a Fenicologia…I’ve got the time to work it out.

Photos courtesy of  Adam Wallacavage and The Selby

Fenicologia

Dixie La Roux

This devastating and magical room is in Adam’s house which you can see more of at a Fantoush favourite  The Selby