Busy project

I love to collect things. One of the things I collect are French fashion plates from the 1800's called La Mode Illustre. These are ladies dressed in the fashion of the day. I have quite a collection of these that people had framed and hung as artwork. And that is what I do with them. Duh!

I do not like the frames since they are brown and ick and ugly. I wanted to unify my collection so I am spray painting the frames. I thought about black but that seemed so drastic for these pictures so I settled on bright white satin.

I purchased the spray paint only to get home and realize I needed primer. So another trip to Lowe's to get primer. 3 cans!

If you haven't done this yourself please realize that this is a several day process since there are other obligations in my life like cooking, laundry, grocery, errands, etc.



First I had to select the pictures I wanted to paint. (I did this in small groups so I wouldn't overwhelm myself with a big project). When I purchase these they are usually in pairs so I painted like frames together. I also have several duplicates of the prints but they are in different frames and different sizes.
 


Next I took a whole piece of cardstock and placed it in the center of the picture to protect the glass. Then I taped this down with Frogtape or Painters tape. I very carefully used my exacto knife and trimmed the paint to expose the wood that was to be painted.


 Once I primed each frame, I had to let it dry for about an hour. Since it was a little humid (lol, a little humid in Corpus Christi, that's a laugh) I waited about 2 hours.
Then I sprayed each frame with my satin white spray paint. Again I let them dry for a while.



While the paint is drying I returned to my studio and started preparing another group of pictures. For this group I sprayed them with primer and let them sit overnight. This really worked great. I got up and sprayed the paint early the next morning and they are drying now.

 
 Once back in the studio I carefully remove the cardstock and painted tape. If there is any paint on the glass it is easily scrapped off with a razor blade.

And finally this is what the finished product looks like. I think it is a great improvement.

I still have 1 more group of small pictures to work on and I'll post the wall of fashion once I have them all painted and rehung.

Til then, I hope y'all had a nice Easter and remember why we celebrate it.  Now go create something!


Terri
Waiting for the glue to dry