About zefiart

Blogger, DIY-er, poodle lover, graphic designer, dog groomer, recycler, artist, wonder woman in my spare time.

indian sign

Posted on August 7, 2016 by zefiart

Yippee!

A project I began and finished entirely since breaking my finger!

I had this large piece of plywood, with a thin metal border from when Wayne bought a wood splitter. It arrived in a lovely ply crate which was, unfortunately, destroyed during the unwrapping stage.

I went into the garage to see the unveiling and snuck off with the intact top. I put it in the silver shed where I store a lot of ‘future projects’ (ie junk I have plans for) and forgot about it. For at least a year, probably closer to 2 years… A few months ago I saw it while searching for something, thus it was near the front of my mind when I was wondering what kind of project I could do with one hand.

I had always planned to paint the Indian Motorcycle logo on it for Wayne’s garage. I mean, he’s a cowboy, he loves anything american indian, and its a great sign for a garage…

First I undercoated it with a 3 in 1 primer, sealer undercoat I had on hand. Then I projected the image I wanted onto it so I could trace it. I’m no sign writer, I needed the help!

I worked on it in the grooming room (since it wasn’t being used for grooming!) so I could keep it a surprise for Wayne. I only worked on it in spits and spurts as the inspiration and energy hit me so it took a full 3 weeks to complete.

I began painting it with artist acrylics but they didn’t give a nice finish. The face and head dress (which is a pale beige but looks white in the photos) are textured and not smooth. I had to buy some tiny (and expensive) pots of water based enamel paint. Its liquid and goes on smooth. However they have limited colours – I used those for the red, yellow and black.

The sign will hang in the garage, probably be put up next weekend if we’re lucky. Its something thats best admired from afar… the black outlines are a bit wobbly in places.

Wayne is pretty impressed with his gift. Its for putting up with me constantly complaining about my finger and for using it as a ~~good~~ great excuse for not cooking.

UPDATE

Wayne has hung the sign in the garage.

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passing the time not so productively

Posted on August 6, 2016 by zefiart

So, other than pondering the big questions in life (like is DIY worth it) what have I been doing with myself since the circumcised finger incident?

In short: not much.

Today I managed to make the bed almost entirely by myself. I had to call in reinforcements to pull the last corner of the fitted sheet down… But I was able to wrestle the doona into its cover all by myself.

I call that a victory.

Other than that I’ve been doing a lot of computer stuff. My mouse hand works fine.

Things like a heap of pics for my dog grooming:

And some self promotion for the radio show Wayne and I do:

Or, my favourite:

I’ve taken to wrapping my splint in neon coloured vet wrap.

I’ve been bored.

Tomorrow I’ll try to take some photos of projects which have been finished for a while but lack photographic evidence.

Plus, I finished a gift for Wayne’s workshop which I can photograph and share.

I can do that now cause I got batteries for my camera.

DIY – is it worth the bother?

Posted on August 5, 2016 by zefiart

Seriously, I’ve been thinking this for a while now… in fact its a thought I get every time I go shopping…

And let me say right now, this is in no way an advertisement for Kmart (though if they’d like to throw some money my way I’d be more than happy to take it!)

Why bother making our own stuff when Kmart, The Reject Shop, Big W, Target and just about every other big store sells the stuff we pin, make from scratch or make over from curbside finds.

And (usually) for less than we can make them for!

We spend hours and often $$ making these things when we could walk into Kmart and just buy. No muss, no fuss.

I mean, I’m a fan of old, rusty, crusty and broken, so I’m not a big fan of cheap new imitations… but if you make things to sell then this is what you have to compete with. And not everyone has the same passion for old dirt as I do.

How about some examples? All items on right are from the Kmart website.

Ladder shelves are a big thing, pretty and practical. Image on left from Pinterest.

Who doesn’t love cement lamp bases? Image on left from Pinterest.

Trendy pegboard shelves… Image on left from Pinterest.

Cement planters. Image on left from Pinterest.

Come on, haven’t you been tempted to make one of these? Image on left from Pinterest.

Test tube bud vases… Image on left from Pinterest.

If I didn’t love old things with authentic scratches from many years of use, rust from being treated with a healthy amount of disrespect, and antique grime, I would be decorating my house with this stuff.

So what if it breaks in a year or less? Just buy a new one. Or something else. Just means you can re-decorate again!

So where does this leave us DIYers?

I don’t know.

I will still make, remake and revamp old stuff. For my own home and enjoyment. And maybe there’ll be enough people out there who appreiciate the real thing with all its not quite perfection.

But sometimes I’m tempted…

Like this faux cowhide rug. I plan to buy this soon as I have some spare cash.

So its not real… it’ll look pretty cool on my couch.

PS. Notice the new banner? Like?

our new old kitchen trolley

Posted on July 17, 2016 by zefiart

Today I thought I’d share the fun makeover of a sidewalk find.

Last year I picked up this pitiful serving trolley from the side of the road. The top was broken off, it had no lower shelf and it had at least 3 layers of bad painting… one of which was peach.

Well, that had to go!

I’d always planned to have a movable kitchen trolley in our kitchen but there’s really no room for it. Here you can see the original little side table I planned to make into a trolley for the kitchen.

I brought it in cause Wayne had bought a couple of appliances that were taking up space on our kitchen bench. I needed more space. But this little green side thingy wasn’t the right size… it was nice and narrow and had a drawer (missing in the photos for some odd reason) but it was too long, forcing the table over too far.

See that big blank wall? Watch this space…

Anyway, the little trolley is a bit better in proportions. Its not as long so the table doesn’t have to get shoved over too far, and its not too wide, allowing the dishwasher door to open when its in place! AND its taller and already has wheels!

It was meant to be! Thank you hard rubbish collection day!

This is a project I got the bug to do one afternoon and I almost finished it the same day. Basically it took me one afternoon and 4 weeks to finish.

Thanks to a broken finger.

I used the off cut of the pine slab I had left over from making the kitchen shelves. I cut it to fit on the top. Since it was a lot thicker than the previous top, it sits up above the trolley sides.

I cut the bottom shelf out of a piece of leftover plywood from the TV cabinet/room divider. (I’ll need to buy more plywood to finish that now as I keep using the bits I planned to use.)

The reason it took so long to finish was the whole circumcised finger thing. That put a damper on my creativity for a while. The main work was done though, all it needed to be finished was a couple more coats of polyurethane.

I could do those with one hand.

Once those were done I only had to lug it up to the house using one hand, one arm and one hip.

In pieces.

Then I put it in place and started using it.

Done.

Not bad for a piece of rubbish.

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grrrr frustrated

Posted on July 14, 2016 by zefiart

I’m bored.

Annoyed.

And frustrated.

This morning I had a plan. A friend was coming over thus bringing the count of usable hands in the house to three, which would enable me to make a few things.

Like a spanakopita.

An apple cake.

An apple crumble (I think its called an apple crisp in the USA… a rose by any other name is just as yummy).

Why the heavy apple leaning you may ask? Well, three weeks ago I bought a ton of apples to bake a few things. Said apples are still sitting there, getting less crisp by the day. I wanted to get it done.

But the friend cancelled on me. So I sit here thinking how hard would ot be to peel and cut apples with one hand?

How possible is it to kneed and roll out pastry?

Do you know how long it takes to change a broken plug with one hand?

These are serious questions!

recycled milk bottle armchair – alternative furniture

Posted on July 10, 2016 by zefiart

You know how sometimes there’s an idea in your head you just can’t find the time to do, yet you just can’t let go of?

Well this armchair is one one those.

I’d wanted to make usable furniture out of cardboard, papier mache and other recycled materials for a long time. I had this vision in my head …and one day I decided it was time to make it reality by building it at work in one of my creative programs.

I work in day support for people with intellectual disabilities and am lucky enough to have some creative programs.

We began by using a pallet base for strength. We used milk bottles as the main building material, using tape and glue to create the shape we wanted.

Next we cut and folded thick cardboard around the bottles to give the chair smooth surfaces.

The chair is quite big and it took weeks and weeks to build. We did many, many layers of papier mache to hold it all together.

At one stage we even began to colour the glue so we could tell how many layers we’d done!

As the chair began to take shape we found we had to add more bottles in order to get the size we wanted. We used cardboard. milk bottles and shredded paper to create the curved arms.

Once the chair was ready for its final layer we swapped out newspaper for book pages. We added detail on the arms so it looked more like a ‘real’ armchair.

The pages were stained using a mix of coffee and tea.

After all the work to put the chair together, we ripped a hole into the back so you can see the milk bottle and shredded paper construction.

I mean, what’s the point of it if you can’t see what its made of?

A little surprise on the back with this cute mouse illustration.

There’s another ‘rip’ on the other side too, as if a cat’s had a go at the chair.

Or a mouse?

Lastly we coated it all with clear polyurethane for protection.

We made a seat cushion for it, recycling an old sofa cushion with a new, reversible cover. Castor wheels on the base make it easier to move around and finish it off.

We entered our armchair in Art From Trash, of course.

Its pretty comfy for a cardboard, milk bottle, papier mache chair!

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re-purposing used tea bags into a fish

Posted on July 5, 2016 by zefiart

What do you do with your used tea bags? I dry mine out and collect them of course.

Doesn’t everyone?

Ok, I’m not normal.

I just love the tea coloured stains – I’ve used tea to dye things before, and used flattened tea bags on the dress I made recently.

Anyway, the tea bags and a trout seemed the perfect match for an art project. For Art From Trash of course. This is another of the projects I created at work with the help of one of the guys.

First I drew a trout on a large piece of paper (from a roll so it was long enough). Traced this onto some thin MDF and cut it using a jigsaw.

Since it was going to be a considerable size and moving it in a car would present a problem, I kept the trout in two parts. I glued strips of wood to the back of both pieces at either end. These served two purposes – the ensured the trout hung out from the wall a bit instead of sitting flat against it, adding dimension. It also gave me somewhere to attach hinges, making this a foldable piece of art!

Practical as well as pretty!

My assistant helped me paint on the face, tail and fins by adding all the spots. Then we began the long process of gluing on the tea bags together.

I left the strings on them on purpose – I think the movement of the strings in a breeze gives the illusion of movement.

In order to blend the 2D painted surface into the rich texture of the tea bags I used flattened bags which let the painted colours show through.

Add a hole for the ‘fishing hook’ and it was ready to hang.

Once we’d finished I sprayed it with clear varnish for protection. While that was still tacky I sprinkled it with some very fine aurora borealis glitter – cause, you know, trout shimmer!

This is the finished trout.

And here it is at Art From Trash.

Yep. That is a sold sticker! It sold pretty much straight away, and I’ve had enquiries as to whether it has any siblings.

It was a great success at the show.

the ‘don’t toy with me’ dress

Posted on July 4, 2016 by zefiart

I’m going stir crazy. Yesterday it took me an embarrassingly long time to butter my toast…

I’m eating oatmeal for breakfast ever day cause its easy to make one handed. I got bored of it but its back to oatmeal again. At least I make it nice. You know how you can get all those flavoured instant packs now? I make my own. I still buy the instant packs but I buy plain. I make it with water, then add milk, cinnamon, nutmeg. brown sugar and slivered almonds. yum.

I watched the entire 1-5 seasons of Game of Thrones. Wow.

I’ve gotten square eyes and a couch shaped butt. Can’t wait to get moving and working again.

Meanwhile I called the hospital… they said they’d contact me with a followup appointment but I hadn’t heard from them. They forgot me… Now I’m waiting for them to follow up. Again.

So, meanwhile, how about I share another wearable art from trash entry made at work in one of my groups!

This one was an easy one. We bought this tiny sized strapless little black party dress from the tip shop. I think its about a size 8…

Then we chose toys from our collection (we need more toys! please donate your old, broken, unwanted ones!) and put them on the dress using fabric glue. That way the group could do more since their sewing skills aren’t so great.

Even toys are heavy, so I found I had to add straps to keep it up. We made the straps blend in with the dress by extending the toys up on one side.

Here is the finished dress again. Not bad for a bit of discarded stuff.

It’d sure stand out as unique at any party!

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steampunk faerie jacket

Posted on June 30, 2016 by zefiart

Today I’m sharing the work wearable art entry in the Art From Trash competition. This steampunk jacket was made by a ladies art group I work with.

It started with a jacket from the tip shop and a ton of odds and ends.

We collected anything we thought would work on the jacket and basically hand stitched it all on to get the look we were after.

We really wanted a bustle and that was added using layers of tulle from the discard bin.

We used stud earrings and other small bits of jewelry on the bustle to give to added interest.

One of the sleeves was cut short and re-finished with black velvet lace and beads.

We decided to run the decoration down one lapel and down one side of the back, bringing it together on the lace sleeve.

All the ‘junk’ we sewed onto the jacket is quite heavy so we had to make sure it was balanced.

It turned out well and the ladies were all proud of being part of the project.

faerie dress or something like that using tea bags

Posted on June 28, 2016 by zefiart

I’ve wanted to share this dress for ages, soon as I finished it really, but had to wait till after the art show. I’m doing it now with some hesitation… typing with one finger takes ages and seems to block my creative thinking.

However, here goes. I’ll give it a try.

So.

I wanted to make something special for the 2016 Hobart Art From Trash competition. I wanted to use lots of fabric scraps, lots of whites and natural colours. I wanted to use tea bags.

My dress was inspired by dresses like this:

and this:

in my frocks or art board on Pinterest. Aren’t the just FABULOUS? Wow. If I was younger and slimmer this is how I’d dress!

Anyway, I went through all my scrappy bits. I had tons of cotton fabric pieces in various shades of white so I began the dress by sewing together pieces and then sewing used tea bag fabric to the bodice.

Here’s a glimpse of the front before the tea bags. I dyed some of the lace, ribbons and fabric with tea to tie it all in together better.

Since I’m no seamstress, I had a few glitches along the way … mainly figuring how to fit the dress in such a way that it would be adjustable to different sizes… and to make it so it could be worn by a real person, not just a mannequin in an exhibition.

Lacing up didn’t work

A belt worked better, but still wasn’t quite right.

The armpits were too big and messy…

In the end I could avoid it no longer. The dress needed darts at the bust. That helped shape the bodice.

I also kept the lace-up idea – using it on each side of the front, under the breasts, and the back. Mismatched buttons and jute string are decorative but also useful in fitting the dress at the waist.

The dress itself has a few scrappy layers on the skirt, but in order to make it richer, I added an ‘overskirt’ using a thick, tea dyed satin ribbon. The ribbon adds an extra layer of fabric and ties at the front like a belt.