shelves made out of an antique chest of drawers

I love to work with materials of all shapes and sizes, this is what inspires my artwork. I have collected a lot of wood over the past 3 years - reclaimed from the big wood pile at the Sechelt land fill (so much wasted lumber goes there) I store the found wood and objects in the barn. Now I can bring them into the studio to start pulling from to see what I can create.

everything from off cuts to driftwood to plank boards

some how all this will be incorporated into my new shelving

 I think I made about 4 trips to and from the barn to the studio in my trusty wheel barrel 

I knew if I built a door 3 feet across by 8 feet tall, it would be too heavy for the shelving frame so I decided to make shutter doors 20inches by 8feet tall instead, plus I had all the pieces needed to fit horizontally.

 then to use the left over pieces I hammered the ends onto the end to create an artsy look

 I was able to use up a lot of little pieces of wood this way. Many of the pieces of wood were old cedar and smelled amazing when I cut them.

This shelving unit is made out of an old chest of drawers that I paid way to much for when we first moved to the coast.  Then we realized that moth balls were stored in it and I could not get rid of this smell to save my life, after 3 years of a faint smell of moth balls in our clothes I was ready to through it out...so the drawers turned into a wonderful shelving unit and fit perfectly on the end of the shelf.  I simply screwed them into the end one on top of each other, I added horizontal pieces of wood to the two vertical ones in the middle for more shelving.

here is a picture of my inspiration I came across on the web, these suitcase created a temporary store front.

Time for some layering

Back in the studio at night to layer the colours. I use leaves and branches to apply the paint layers. The effect is a bit busy but this wall will be behind shelving so I am not too worried of the outcome.

 using leaves was a great idea as it provided the layering effect I was looking for.  (No leaves were hurt during the painting of these walls, I picked them off the ground long after their green life was over). I plan on painting more to add around the window.

The shelves closest to the left are going to be turned into closet with 3 doors. I originally built them to house all my boxes of costume stock from my previous film days. It was my 1st big build back in 2007 before Maggie. I did not want to rip them down and start again.  Did I mention I am NOT a carpenter? But I love my hand drill and jigsaw.

more little helpers

The sun came out and we had more little helpers with the walls.  Thanks to Abby and Hadley.

 Abby's finished piece using green and orange mixed, good idea Abby

 mixed paint mayhem

Maggie with her paint clothes on, at least she didn't paint her face as a cat again.

Maggie's friends arrive on the scene

 I added orange and green to the layers of colour.  And gave the paint brushes to Zoe and Sebastian and Maggie.

 Maggie stayed on one spot making circles.

 Zoe and Sebastian covered the place in less then half an hour. It was truly amazing.

 With a paint brush in each hand they had an amazing time covering the walls.

Maggie stayed with the one paint brush in her focused little world.

night time painting

 While my little helper gets ready for bed with Dada, I go down to the the studio to do some night painting.  I am putting on a layer of Perfect Purple in the far corner which will be the home of my puppet shelves complete with 8 foot door that swings open.  But first the paint.

before the puppet dream, I use to work in costumes and hung these racks into the ceiling beams so that I had more space to hang my ridiculous amount of costumes, I have since sold most of them but kept the racks to hang other things.  Once painted they blended into the ceiling, sort of.

Adding colour with a little help

 This is Maggie, my two year old helper. She started adding the first layer of paint to the walls. I was very inspired watching her cover the walls. I hope she will be joined by her little friends in the near future.  My visual inspiration is a setting sun in a forest.

"here momma"

Maggie took over the space and directed her 12 year old babysitter to help in the fun.

Getting inspired

OK, now that I have space, what I am going to do? I have spent many a night surfing other sites to get ideas, my "Inspiration File is quite full" ( I will try to add more photos in another file later)

 The floor is grey concrete, yucky, so the possibilities are endless but limited by lack of $$$ - but limitations drive my creativity.  hardwood floors are not a possibility...

 Hmmm... time to think, with a cup of coffee I begin to explore the space, it is really great to get inside my space to see a different perspective.

 drawing up ideas for my puppet closet

dreaming of other ideas of what I can do with the shelving.