Sunday, March 30, 2014

Pysanky / Ukrainian Easter Egg Tutorial

I am by no means an expert at this and I apologize to all of the real Pysanky experts, heck I'm not even Ukrainian! 

So here we go.  A non Ukrainian Pysanky tutorial:


You will want your eggs at room temperature.  Wash eggs thoroughly and wipe with vinegar.   You can create your pattern with a light leaded pencil.  I use an elastic to try and keep my lines straight. 

You start with  the lightest color you want on the egg, which is usually white.  Everything you want to remain that color, cover with wax, using the kistka.  My wax is red colored so the wax is red on the egg!

 Then you dye the egg the next color working from light to dark, mine being yellow


 Wherever the wax is, the dye will not penetrate.  You keep going until you come to your darkest color which is usually black. 





 You end up with an egg covered with wax.  Now you remove the wax with the side of a candle flame. 
 With your egg close to the side of the flame, carefull melt the wax.  Wipe with a paper towel, repeat beside flame and wipe until wax is removed.
Oops,  I had trouble staying in the lines...blame it on the raspberry wine!

  I used a Dremel with a pointed carbide burr bit to create a small hole at each end of the egg.  Blow the contents into the sink or compost, as the egg insides are not useable. I rest my blown egg on a skewer poked in styrofoam and apply a coat of sealer. 
This one got two coats.

Shiny!!

 A doodad kind of gem is applied with hot glue to each end of the egg and it is placed in a fancy egg holder .

  And if you stand back, way back....it looks pretty good...right?
In fact you might say to yourself,
 "Self, she is totally Ukrainian!"

 Enjoy your perfect dust collector and Happy Easter.
Cheers!
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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Dormer Dribble

 After two trips to town for more supplies (crown molding), we are here!
It only took a week.  Go Feral Turtle!


I have used this BAD BOY for many years cutting outside crown mouldings baseboards, craft crap....etc.  We got along great and did many crazy projects together!  We even built trusses for the dormers!  You've been a reliable man Delta!


  Put a man in the mix (Mr. FT), and some inside crown mouldings,
 and you get one of these BAD GIRLS!!
I hope she holds up as well as Delta Man


Yep she's suweeeeeet!
Stay tuned for more dormer drama!
Catch up on the whole series here.




Friday, March 21, 2014

Picture Perfect Easter Egg Holder


 We start the day with bird poop, and of course barn board.

What's a piece of barn-board without a bit of dung?
Well I guess it's barn-board without dung but really the bird crap is not the main attraction here.
The main attraction is another pysanky holder, but this time, on the wall.



Cut out all the letters and frames with one of those cutters that I can't name cuz they don't sponsor me!
 Okay I used my Cricut......which is a handy tool for letters.  


All the letters and frames are put in place for adhesion.

Eventually I just rubbed that blob in.  It added that patina look to the board that even
Annie Sloan Chalk Paint can't give you!

I used a substance that sealed the paper to the board (a sponsor op for you Modge Podge).... and then gave the whole thing a coat to seal in the dung!

Made a bow using wire to hold it secure

and then added the bow to a long strand to hang the dung art with.


Whoever receives this little beauty or dung holder, however you see it,
 will get to glue their own Ukrainian Easter Eggs to it!

Now I bet the only thing you can focus on is the bird splatter up in the right corner.....am I right?

Of course if you missed any of my Easter Egg holder collections, you can take a 
look at them 
Here    Here   and   Here!

If you want to see what reno we are working on at the moment,
 you can see the whole series here.

Cheers!

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Thursday, March 20, 2014

Dormer Floor Part 17

If only I was like Tom Sawyer.
  I could have swoon-doggled some poor sucker into painting the ceiling. 
  People were crashing their cars, straining their necks like me, to see what the heck I was looking at.  
 Of course I was almost cross eyed trying to look down so I wouldn't slip on the ice.
But before all that came a painted ceiling.
Nothing exciting like copper or tin...just white.

Or you can see the whole Dormer Series Here




Now before you say "What????  It looks the same!",  I left the edge unpainted!  But you are right...white is white.  Just not egg carton white


And now.......Drumroll Please...............









This is why I liked this so much.   It looks like I ripped the damn stuff myself in my very own  sawmill!



This is what I woke up to  yesterday:
Picture the birds singing happily!
The arrow on the left is pointing to bare ground.  Can you believe it!    The arrow on the right is one of the Adirondack chairs.   This week was the first time we got a glimpse of these chairs since Christmas. I was screaming, " Look out campfire coffee, here I come!"

And then I woke up to this......again.......

Next step is the molding!
Cheers!
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