My first wood signage

I am going to be selling my polymer clay creations at Oddmall: Emporium of the Weird for the first time on November 19-29, 2016 at Everett Community College, Everett, WA, so in between making things to offer, I was trying to come up with ways to stage my booth.

One of the things I definitely need is a signage. At first I thought I'd order one, get it all nice and professionally done but research told me that it could be pricey... and I did not really want to add more expenses to this venture. So my research turned into a how to make one.

We have some leftover wood from a previous project, so I gathered a few of those and started to gage how big I want the sign to be. I settled on two planks, about a half a foot long each in three layers. I was hesitant at first that mere wood glue would do the trick but good, ol' hubby assured me it was fine. So after choosing the sides with the grain I wanted to show, I started gluing in between the planks. After that, I took some shims and used those in pairs: one pair on the left, another pair on the middle and yet another on the right to be the backing, weighed them down with books and left them to dry till the next day. Hub sawed off the extras after they were all set.

There were so many color combinations to choose from. I could go with wood stain on white, wood stain on orange. White on black. Gray on white. Orange on Black. Orange on white. White on Orange. Black on Orange. 

So to check, I made a small color tests on a couple of shims. Hmmm... nope... I like it but not that much. I still prefer the natural wood look. 

So I decided to stain the wood. It's been rainy, and the big storm of the century was supposed to have whirled through that weekend, which, thankfully, it did not. So I left the stain to dry in front of the heater for a day. While waiting for it to dry, I looked up ways of aging the wood and I saw Reality Daydream's video (see it here). She colored the wood first then stained it. I really liked how it looked so I decided it's not too late, I can color over my stain and then stain it again. 

I chose blue, black, yellow and an off white color and just went randomly with it, no premixing or anything. 

After it dried, I sanded it by hand then applied another coat of stain. It was perfect! I love, love, love how it turned out! Look at those colors. And the second coat of stain just made it look darker and richer. 

With all the colors and that rich wood stain, I decided to just go classic white. So up next was painting the name on. Using a yellow pastel pencil, which was what I had on hand, I wrote OrangeJar.com in my loose, informal script. 

And here it is:

I am going to go over the text again, bulk it up in some areas and make some of those rounded areas more rounded. Also, I'm currently debating whether I want it to have a crackle paint effect but I'm not decided yet. Overall, I like how it looks. I think it's going to be a good first signage. What do you think?

Oddmall: Emporium of the Weird November 19-20

Come November 19-20, 2016 I will be at the Everett Community College in Everett, WA for Oddmall: Holiday Emporium of the Weird! Come and check it out! I'm busy building stock now. If you need anything before then, please go to www.OrangeJar.com or directly to my Etsy Shop at www.etsy.com/shop/OrangeJarArt.

For directions to the Everett Community College, Everett, WA, pls click here.

Crabby Granny is a Grand Champion!

As promised, This is Crabby Granny in her full glory. She's feeling quite cold so she has her shawl wrapped around her shoulders.

Here she is trying to remember the proportions of that healing tonic.

I think she's about to get up...

She has a very nifty yet simple belt. It's made of jute and she can hang just about anything there while she's scouring the woods! One of her staples is a small jar filled with dried herbs. It's her magic potion, a cure-all. And by jolly, it does cure all! She also ties dried branches and other finds by her belt. It keeps her hands free when she's out collecting.

Her shoes are really old and worn out by now. She can really get mud stuck all over it specially when she goes out during a terrifying storm. She says there are mushrooms that grow only during lightning flashes and pounds of thunder, and melt with the first ray of the sun. So she has no choice but collect them while the storm is raging.

A few days ago, after sitting down and writing in her book (I talked about Crabby Granny's book here), Crabby Granny decided to go to Puyallup and hang out at the WA State Fair. She took her rocking chair and cane with her so she was serious about staying there for a while. Must be the flora...

Crabby Granny's cane is made of dark wood. She sculpted a bird's head at the top.

She also made this rocking chair from the branches of a 100-year old tree.
The picked up the felled branches after a big storm.

"Whaddya want?" Granny said.

This morning, she sent me this picture. Seems, she's accomplished more than collecting herbs over there at the WA State Fair.

So that's Crabby Granny for you! I'll get more pictures of her at The Fair when I go visit!

(It's actually Betty M, the NWPCG president who sent me the sms photo about Crabby Granny's ribbons at the WA State Fair - much thanks Betty!)

Crabby Granny's book of herbs

When I started this project, there was only two things I knew for sure: I wanted to make an old woman with a cane. She was going to be either an old witch or an old female elf. With my family's vote, she became a witch. As I browsed through pictures of old women, I gradually leaned towards a picture of an old woman who did not seem too happy with the world.

And from there, her full character started forming in my mind. She lives in a remote but very cold village. She's a traditional witch in a semi-modern era, who discovers natural cures around her and she wants to pass this knowledge down. So one thing that's very important to her is her book of herbs.

This is a big leather book – well, big for her size – is where she records the kinds of plants, their properties, when to harvest them, where to find them, how to prepare the potions and what ailments they cure. It's a work in progress. She discovers new ways of preserving the roots and herbs every time.

To make her book, I took out some handmade paper and cut them to size. I folded the paper and cut them by tearing them apart to give the edges a rough look. After scoring it some more, I stitched them together with brown thread. When I had four sets, I covered the edges of the sewn pages with brown paper.

Check out my uneven stitches!

After the glue dried, I took the end pages on both sides and glued those to the leather cover. I wanted it to look simple and home made, so no fancy folding or decorative scoring on the leather. I only scored lines across the spine of the leather to keep it in shape. 

After everything was bound together, I started to age the paper with coffee. Which is a mistake, I found out a few minutes later. I should have aged the paper before binding them! As you can imagine, the liquid watered down the glue and detached a couple of sets of pages. So I had to be really patient and re-attach each set after the coffee dried off. Good thing the individual pages were held together with thread, at least those didn't fall apart!

Once the binding and ageing was complete, I drew on the pages, and tried to make them as small as I can, with what I hope are still legible writing.

I also gave the leather cover a very good beating: scratched it, pulled it and poured different liquids on it (which I should also have done before binding paper and leather together - oh well, these are great lessons for my next book). After some time, it had the decency to look properly old and aged. But looking at it, I felt something was still missing. So I got my thingamajig out and drew this small tree on the cover. I think that made Crabby Granny happy. It captured her book of herbs perfectly!

The last detail I added was given by Mother Nature. While out on a walk, catching Pokemons, I found a tiny feather on the pavement. It was the perfect size for Granny's hand. So as soon as I got back home, I made a small pocket for it at the back. Granny wants her tools in convenient places, this helps her find her quill easily if she needs to jot something down.

Up next, more on Crabby Granny's details. This is just the first instalment. To check out details of this art doll and her WA State Fair ribbons, please click here.