Onward to New Projects!-Boxes - Photo

The carousel project is complete and I'm getting ready to start a new project.  As I stated in the blog at the beginning of the year, my goal for this year was to create a carousel and make a new walking stick.  That is still the plan, but I need a little bit of a break before I take on the second project.  The carousel was a long term project.  When I finish one of those, I need to play for a while before I take on another intense project.  For the next couple of weeks, I am planning on just doing some small, quick, fun things.  Once I've had a chance to mess around a bit I'll be ready to settle into another serious endeavor.  I plan to start the walking stick in mid-August.

Until then, I'm giving myself permission to play.  One of the projects I plan to work on are painted boxes.  I saw an article in GreenCraft magazine about a woman who started to paint boxes to use as gift boxes.  The idea intrigued me.  Recycling boxes such as cracker boxes or heavier cardboard boxes that I receive in the mail has a certain appeal.  It will prevent waste and it will give me some time to work on my painting skills.  Although I paint the paper mache' items I make, I don't have fine art painting skills or even folk art painting skills for that matter.  I thought I'd try painting on the boxes.  If they come out okay, someone gets a present in a unique box.  If they are terrible, they get tossed.  It will only cost a little time and a bit of paint.  Maybe I will learn something. 

With that in mind, I saved three boxes.  I've already learned something.  I started by giving them a coat of Gesso to help the next layers of paint adhere to the shiny surface of the boxes and to obscure the boxes product information.  The colors on the boxes were so vivid that you could still see them through the Gesso.  So I added a second coat and I could still see the original printing.  Next I tried some white craft paint.  It was too thin and I could still see the print.  I decided to get serious and painted the boxes with a tube of Titanium White.  That more or less covered it.  I can barely see the colors from the box.  At this point, I think I can start painting and feel confident that none of the original colors of the box will show through.

Now I just have to figure out what I am going to paint.  Check back to see how things are going.  Otherwise, look for me to begin the next walking stick in mid-August.