KoniFrazer.com

Month: April 2015

  • Roll top desk, from old and plain to fabulous

    Roll top desk, from old and plain to fabulous

     

     

    I love it when I acquire a piece of unwanted furniture to transform.  This roll top desk was given to me to do whatever I wanted with it. Yay, how fun is that? As an artist, this is like a blank canvas for me.

     

    roll top desk before

     

    Here’s a before picture of the desk.  Deciding what I was going to do didn’t take me too long.  It’s a fun piece of furniture all on its own.  Making it even better, with some creativity, well that’s my kind of thing.

     

     

     

     

    Roll top desk after

     

    I  used french linen and old ochre chalk paint by Annie Sloan.  It’s amazing to me that you don’t have sand the piece before applying the paint.  Adding some hand painted dandelion flowers on each side and on the inside of the desk top gave it a fun look.  I lined the drawers with old book pages.  Finally, I distressed the whole piece and then added some wax.   Oh and not to forget the brass knobs I replaced with pretty glass ones.  I think it turned out super cute!  Another fun transformation complete.

     

  • Watercolor bird paintings

    Watercolor bird paintings

     

     

    I recently finished a couple of bird watercolor paintings.  The American Tree Sparrow and Cedar Waxwing.  Birds are another favorite subject of mine to paint.

    American Tree Sparrow
    American Tree Sparrow, original watercolor painting
    Cedar Waxwing
    Cedar Waxwing, original watercolor painting

     

    Some fun facts;

    Cedar Waxwings descend on berry-laden trees and hedges, to flutter among the branches as they feast. These birds are sociable at all seasons, and it is rare to see just one waxwing. Occasionally a line of waxwings perched on a branch will pass a berry back and forth, from bill to bill, until one of them swallows it.

     

     

    American Tree Sparrow, a small sparrow like bird with a brick-red cap, white stripes above the eyes, brown striped back and gray breast with a black dot in the center. Female and male look alike. It’s song is a sweet canary like trill in spring as they prepare to move north; winter call is a note, likened to the merry tinkling of sleigh bells.