A Real "van Gogh"- Kathy that is.

Completed Piece " The Real van Gogh".

On October 2, 3 and 4th we were fortunate enough to have Kathy van Gogh down here in the London area. On the 2nd we had a quite dinner with Kathy and all our employees. So besides Kathy and Bobbie and Bobbie's sister Ann we had Penny, Laura, Jesse, and Emily. I was kind of out numbered. It was good though because everyone came away awestruck by the fabulous Kathy. Unforturnately in preparing the meal, which consisted of my famous French onion soup (both regular and vegetarian) lasagna (meat and vegetarian) I didn't get any pictures though I think Kathy did. A fine time was had by all.



This is the picture from the Weekly News

The next day I headed to the London location while Bobbie and Kathy enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, and they headed out to a Meet and Greet at the Port Stanley Location. There they met our other employee Shanna who wasn't able to make the supper and Bobbie and Kathy also were met by local newspaper editor and publisher Terry Carroll where Terry interviewed Kathy for a future edition of the St. Thomas Weekly News.

I have since found out that although they put a picture and a byline in the next issue of the paper that the actual interview will appear in the Elgin - This Month - a monthly magazine which is produced by the Chamber of Commerce and the Weekly News, which is a big score as it is only published monthly and only outstanding news features are in it. While at the store Kathy received a couple of mystery books by local author Terry Carroll. Yes, the same person as the editor. We sell his books in our store and he graciously autographed two of his books for Kathy. An interesting side note is that Terry has been shortlisted on the lists for a number of mystery writer awards in Canada and the U.S. I think it amazing sometimes on how lucky we are to have all the creative people in our lives that we do.

Before Picture
 


It was then on to the London Location were lunch from the Organic Bakery was served and our part time student Jesse had arranged and did an excellent job of choosing some excellent wraps and salads.

We were then off to the Meet & Greet in London where we had it at the Brydges Street Merchant Market - Antique Mall. There we were meet by Cy Edy who just happens to be Bobbie's son and also manager of the Market.

Here we met by a good crowd of people coming to meet and see Kathy. Kathy demonstrated some of new products we are launching as well as some of the more familiar items of the original makeup line. Now the story of the 'real van Gogh'.


On the previous weekend we had brought a piece with us to the Paintologist Workshops in Port Perry. The original piece is pictured above and it was painted a rather unattractive brown colour. Most of the knobs were missing but there were some distinctive features about this piece.

On this day Kathy used this piece to further demonstrated the Furniture Frosting which is part of the Furniture Makeup, of the van Gogh Furniture Paintology products.

Furniture frosting has been designed to take your furniture refinishing to the next gorgeous bling level.

It was inspired by the beautiful iridescent lining of the Abalone shell. Elegant and timeless, Furniture Frosting helps you, the artist to create contemporary opalescent finishes that will have everyone asking, "how Did you do that?"

During the workshop we demonstrated how to apply raised detail to an object. The two bottom drawers on the dresser both have detail added by pulling our Facial Face Lift (embossing plaster) through a stencil. In this particular case we used the Versailles border which is one of the ones in the van Gogh Stencil line.

The body of the dresser was painted in vGFP colour Revenge. No distressing was done. . The key holes were spray painted with a gray hammered metal paint. The knobs were painted vGFP colour Mascara. We overlaid the stencil on the embossing and then painted through the stencil with the same vGFP colour mascara. This gave a tone on tone effect which we feel is quite luxurious looking. Just a coat of French Caffeine Wax was applied to finish it off.

So with this piece because of Kathy's involvement we call our "real van Gogh". It is currently residing at our Port Stanley Location. If it is still there in November it will be relocated to our soon to be opened second location in London which will be at the Brydges Street Merchant Market - Antique Mall at 1255 Brydges Street, London, ON. Till next  time keep painting, and come and get your hands dirty!




Sideboard du Provence

In March a group of vGCPC Paintologists met at Kathy Van Gogh's studio in BC. The workshops evolved around the new Make-up for Furniture line of Kathy Van Gogh's paint line. It was interesting to hear the mantra develop of the four things needed to hit maximum creativity. 1. Good Music 2. Bare Feet (not sure I like this one but I think I could develop a bohemian lifestyle. 3. Paint Brush in one hand and 4. a glass of wine in the other hand. It seemed that for the most part we all and especially me seemed to bring about our best work when 3 pm came along and the wine came out. I recently completed a project which was based on a cupboard door that I had done during one of the workshops. Here is a picture of the project before I started.

 This is a 1915 medium oak sideboard. Notice the beautiful pencil legs and scalloped edge along the apron. Original knobs are wood. and were left on the sideboard.

To the right see the first step in the transformation. vGCPC Facial Lift (Embossing plaster) with the small version of the Versaille Panel Stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils was used to create a beautiful raised motif on the 2 doors and the middle drawer

These next three pictures show closeups of the embossing on the doors and the drawer.

The above picture shows the next stage in the transformation. The side board was coated with one coat of vGCPC colour Balsamic.

 This next picture above shows the second colour vGCPC colour van Gogh, was added to the sideboard and you will see it is distressed awaiting the next step in the transfromation.

Ta Da. This is the completed project. Notice the door down at the left hand side of the picture. This was the door that was the original inspiration for doing this piece. After distressing the piece copper leaf was applied and burnished into the finish. the final step was a coat of  vGCPC Cabinet Concealer (also known as Antiquing Glaze)

Project is done and ready to go. One change that was made when one of the original door knobs split. Not having a copy to replace just the one knob, all four knobs were replaced with a cast iron know with a fleur-de-lis design. This is one of the most complex jobs I have done so far. Want to see it in person. See it at our London location. We are open there Monday to Saturday. I look forward to seeing you all, new customers and old.

John Robinson - Master Craftsman and Proprietor at Stan Portleys - Timeless and Unique

www.stanportleys.com / www.facebook/stanportleys

Looking for a home

Two Tone Vanity

It has been awhile since I have blogged. We have been very busy with the opening of the London store and I have been a little under the weather. But that is neither here nor there. Anyway look to the left and you can see a small diminutive desk / vanity that is looking for just the right home. Come in and see us and we can consult and you will have a gorgeous piece of furniture when completed.

Curved Mirror

To the right you will see a mirror with a fanciful curve looking to complete someone's home. At this point it is painted in the vGCP colour 'Chalk'. but as you see to the right it was originally a gold colour. It is over 6' long and 30" high.

Oval Top Cabinet

 To the Left is one of two round top cabinets. In a recent post I have shown that the first one has been painted in "Morgan's Kitty" which is a real black with the inside being painted "lipstick.

The second one still needs to be painted and they both have yet to be distressed and waxed.

They are waiting for their forever home so if you are interested come down and see them at the London Location.

Carved Mahogany Table

 To the right again we see a beautifully carved and gorgous mahogany occassional table. The three elegantly carved legs go up to a amazing turned support. Note the graceful curves and scallops of the top.

Since this picture was taken the item has been painted with 'Stan Portley's' signature colour "Billowing Sails" which is similar to the vGCP colour 'Chalk' but a little bit creamier.

Imagine this piece sitting between two reading chairs in front of a fireplace. A glass of wine to tease the pallet.

 Now to the left again is a small server. It is as we see it with brass inlays and a brass rail along three sides of the top. It also has an elegant brass insert for the door and two shelves on the inside.

This piece would be a natural appointment for that formal front hall or it could become a real funky piece in a small modern apartment.

With the brass we could see it making a little bar with a fanciful lines in that first apartment.

Small Server

 Again to the right we see a lovely four drawer vanity or server. Notice the lovely gorgous lines of the curved front. Of a diminutive size this piece could be the highlight of your parlour.

Come out to the studio at our home south of Sparta to see this great item.

Imagine the change you could bring about in this piece whether you do it yourself or if you have us do it for you.

Small Server

 To the left is another small server with two drawers and two doors.

Just imagine a beautiful round glass tray with cute crystal appertif glasses and a bottle of the finest Port or Sherry sitting on the top to tease your pallet.

Store those extra bottles of fine liquor in the cabinet below for those 'just right moments'

Nesting Tables

The Duncan Fife nesting tables to the right would be just the right item to set around you living room for when you have guests.

Imagine a dark stained top on each of the tables along with a lightly distressed, shabby chic apron and legs.

They would be so elegant. The finely turned legs and base are truely one of a kind.

 And here is another wonderful piece. As the item before imagine a dark stained top on table along with a lightly distressed, shabby chic apron, stretcher and legs.

This could be an absolutely fantastic piece.

Well there you have some gorgeous pieces waiting for their home. Come out and see us. Let us know what you would do yourself or let us do it for you.

Consulation is free and you could be going home with a great original creation. That's it for now, this is John Robinson - Master Craftsman for Stan Portley's for we are Timeless and Unique

4 Pillars of John

4 pillars unpainted

Well now comes the time to talk about the 4 pillars. My intitial thought with the pillars was to create a backdrop to take pictures of furniture as well as have it double as a background for any displays in the front window of our London location. See the assemble pillars to the right.

My wife also gave her two cents and made a few suggestions. She has a mantra that she uses around me when she wants to get me to agreee with her ideas by saying that I need to get into my feminine side. The reason for her saying this will be made clear later in the blog. Enough to say that she and Ann have great fun with this one at my expense and knowing what I know I try and roll with the punches but not as well as I should all the time. And of course I do get some back some myself but need to be very careful on how I do that as after all it is the two of them against me. However, it is all in fun and that is that.

Bobbie prepping the pillars

Anyway, Bobbie, my wife and her sister Ann thought that the pillars would be a great idea. So off to the lumber yard to purchase the pillars. My wife Bobbie thought we could get away with 3 but not knowing the actual concept I had I explained and told her we needed 4. There was also a requirement for other lumber and hardware so I purchased those as well. We then took the pillars to the London store where I put them together and Bobbie painted them. See the pillars to the left here. The stand 8 ' high and have a 6x6 post inside for stability. Bobbie painted them our Stan Portleys ' Dragon Gray" and gave them a coat of the clear table top finish to boot. To the right had side you can see Bobbie prepping them for the paint by filling in the screw and nail holes. You can see this in the picture to the right the cap with the bolt through it which will provide the stability to the whole thing.


Pillars with levelling base installed

I then set the pillars up by the front window but found out a couple of things. One the floor wasn't level and two that I would need to add some stability to the bottom of the pillars as well. You will see from the pictures to the right and below the general configuration of the base is in a u-shape. Also what you cannot see is that there are over 24 levelers on the underside of the platform so that the whole apparatus can be levelled. The platform also extends past the front pillars and this is to also provide some stability especially for when they get moved. Again the concept always was so that the whole thing could be easily moved and also taken down. The pillars at the bottom fit into a well built into the base so to reduce the chance of the pillars slipping out at the bottom. Both top and bottom of the pillars are also trimmed in a fancy moulding.

Pillars with base installed, side view.

All that is left to do is tie the top up so that it would be stable. This was done with pieces of 1X10 which were cut to fit the angles at the top. Holes were drilled in the boards and then they were bolted down. Now we get to the feminine side. I had thought of various materials that could be hung in spaces between the pillars. Carved wooden panels, or even fabric covered ones. Bobbie and Ann became involved and it came down to "we" decided that panels of sheer curtains would be ultimately appropriate to hang between the columns. Being ever ready to appease the ladies, I devised a way to hang the sheer curtains between the pillars. Open style brackets were made, angular ones for the side panels and doweling was purchased and cut to accept the curtains. Bobbie finished painting the top and bottom of the display and everything was now complete. One other thing was that Bobbie did not like the fact that I had bolts showing up through the tops of the boards on top of the pillars so a request was made to install something over the top so I purchased some finials and installed them over the bolts after having modified them.

Completed pillars with sheers and top installed.

One other thing is that we are in the Lifestyle at the end of the week so "we" will be taking this down and moving it to the Western Fair District and putting it up for the backdrop of our display for the show. It will definitely be an excellent display and till then I bid you adue. This is John Robinson - Master Craftsman and Proprietor for Stan Portleys - We are Timeless and Unique.

Bobbie's Coveralls

My wife Bobbie has always been one to dress well and look good no matter what she wears. A good example of this is she is one of those people who can put on almost any hat and look good in it.



Front of Coveralls

When Bobbie is at home and when she is most relaxed she is usually in coveralls. In fact, she even has some which are like shorts for the summer. Her favourite brand has always been Ikeda brand and when they stopped making them a number of years ago she searched all the thrift shops in the area and bought up all she could find. (Probably why I have less room in the closet these days, though I am told by most that for the male in the family I should count myself privilaged that I have something in the Master Bedroom closet at all.)  Anyway, Bobbie still combs through the shops to see if there are more that have come in or she has missed.

At our recent workshop, our first one, Bobbie wore her white Tommy Hilfinger coveralls which she has saved to use as her, to quote an old adage, 'Her Sunday go meeting coveralls'. She had decided that a good way to commemorate her first workshop was to have each person who attended put a vGCP (van Gogh Chalk Paint) Collection paint covered handprint on her coveralls and then sign it.

Back of Coveralls

For those who are not aware there is a significance to the paint covered handprint and its association with vGCP Collection paint in the various logos you see on the paint cans and promotional material. I think you usually pictures of Kathy van Gogh herself with paint covered hands most of the time. Makes it kind of a fun part of the whole empowering experience of using VGCP Collection products and in taking the workshops.

Anyway if you look at the picture above you will see the front of her coveralls and some of the hand prints she received from the day. Tuxedo our tuxedo cat is checking them out too! Quite the inquisitive cat. The picture to the right is the back of the coveralls and the one to the left and below is a closeup of the hand print of yours truly. It certainly shows how small Bobbie is. Either that or my hand is really big which I have been told by some is true.

My Hand Print

Bobbie plans on over the next year to add other handprints to the coveralls as we do workshops to signify various firsts in our journey with the van Gogh Chalk Paint collection. Our next first. Our first London workshop which is scheduled for Saturday February 9, 2013. Hope to see some of you there. If you not signed up yet, email us at info@stanportleys.com. You can also call us at 519.601.3666 at our London store. If it is outside store hours please leave a message.

Stay tuned for the next blog about the 'Pillars of John'. Bobbie calls it getting in touch with my feminine side.

Well bye for now. This is John Robinson - Master Craftsman for Stan Portleys - we are Timeless and Unique.

Our 1st Workshop

Well we finally have come to our first workshop. All the prep is done and it is just time to let you know a little of what has transpired since the last blog. I had posted on facebook a couple of items that Bobbie was working on and we are now ready to reveal them. Soon. Just teasing.

Margaret with Chair

Barry with plate rack

Now this past Saturday we start out our first workshop. We have two Margarets, a Barry, an Ann (my sister-in-law) and a Penny. As well as Bobbie and myself. We have the back of the Port Stanley store all set up and I added some pics to show how things went on. Here are a couple of pics of the participants with their unfinished project pieces.

Margie with table

Margaret has a chair, Barry has a small plate rack, and the second Margaret decided she should be Margie for the day so we were not confused between the two has a small table. Penny who will be working in the Port Stanley store was there for some more indoctrination as she will eventually do some of the workshops. She is quite artistic and has a thing for the unusual. Barry was in training as we may have him painting furniture especially as we seem to be getting some inquires on doing painting for others.


Bobbie explaining about brushes

We started off with a brief discussion on chalk paint and its history and about vGCP (van Gogh Chalk Paint) Collection specifically. Told them about cave art, Tom Sawyer and frescos. I think they were all inspired as they all took to the training quite readily and with enthusiasm.

Margaret with her first coat of paint.

We completed most of the sample boards before lunch before we retired to the Kettle Creek Inn which was just down the street. Here we enjoyed meals of chicken pot pie, fresh lake erie perch or wild mushroom ravioli for our meal along with copiuous amounts of tea, and coffee. We came back to start on the projects and soon everyone was working furiously.

Margarets finished chair

Some of the projects took on a greater depth than originally anticipated but having started at 10:30 am and finishing just after 4:00 pm we did quite well. Margarets chair had an undercoat of van Gogh with a top coat of Cashmere with some wet distressing to accentuate the piece. This was finished with a coat of natural beeswax to seal the paint. Interesting enough this piece of Margarets had been partially stripped by her a few years ago and she never finished it because of the time it consumed for her to do it.

Margies finished table

Margies finished table was in Dragons Gray. She had done some distressing but it had been somewhat heavy in a few places, due to some hard spots on one of the cloths she had used to wipe down while distressing. This was a great opportunity to show the versatility of the van Gogh Chalk Paint Collection and the areas affected were recoated and then dryed with a hairdryer. The distressing was finished and a light dry brushing of Cashmere and  a little more light distressing was done, and then Margie waxed the base and put a light coat of table top finish on the top to complete the project.

Barry had done his piece with a coat of Muse. He did some light wet distressing and then proceeded to wax the project. Barry also chose to highlight some strategic areas with the dark wax to finish his project.

The finished projects above were amazing and all took great pride in their accomplishments. One note I will make is that if you notice that Bobbie has some coveralls on with some distinctive marks. This will be for another blog on another day. Till then this is:

John Robinson - Master Craftsman for Stan Portleys - We are timeless and unique.

Our Speciality Colours.

In determining our speciallity colours we had so much to choose from. Initially we wanted an offwhite that was similar to the 'Billowing Sails' we have used in our painted furniture up to now. Bobbie had also wanted one that was close to a robins egg blue so we choose one that was like that and we named it Bobbies Blue. I thought we needed a real true gray and real dark black and we named them Dragons Gray and Morgan's Kitty.

Tuxedo

But first some of the reasoning for the black was that we take old frames that have no pictures in them and put in hardboard and paint the hardboard with 'chalkboard' paint. That is up to now. Now we have our own signature colour, Morgan's Kitty which is solid black. So with this I need to deal with how we came about with the names for these two colours. Morgan's Kitty comes from two things, one that a character named Henry Morgan was an ancestor of mine and also if he had a kitty the kitty would be black. Our own cat Tuxedo is the inspiration for the black of Stan Portley's speciality colour 'Morgan's Kitty'. In fact you can see from the picture at the right he is a rather well dressed cat and even has a white shirt, white gloves and boots and evven a little bow tie on his chin.

Dragon

His brother Dragon is also a tuxedo cat, not because he is black, because he is gray but he has the same distinctive whiter shirt, white gloves and boots that his brother has. And if you haven't guessed his is the inspiration for the Stan Portleys speciality colour 'Dragons Gray'. See Dragon to the left.

 But I digress, getting back to chalkboards. we have a new addition in the store. One of the projects Bobbie had been working on is a mirror which was in too bad shape to use as a mirror but we have found that the mirrors take the paint quite well and make fine solid chalkboards. See the picture below:

Mirror transformed to Chalkboard

This item is actually quite heavy as mirror was a good quality mirror in its time. Other frames that we have done and can be seen posted on our website www.stanportleys.com

So till later this is John Robinson - Master Craftsman for Stan Portleys - We are timeless and unique.

Keeping Bobbie Organized

Bobbie has sort of taken over the garage at the farm for her home studio. For one it is heated and as the garage is attached to the house it makes it convienient for her for other things. Although for the most part she is pretty organized she doesn't think in the same lines as I do when it comes to getting her work area so she can work efficiently. Probably never will but it still behooves me to try and help where I can.


Bobbie working in her home studio

To start I put up a bunch of pegboard and gave her  some pegboard hooks to use and she also purchased some herself. With this she has most of her hand tools, and other things which she requires on a regular basis. I then set up some shelving which again she has put all her 'stuff' and organized it, at least it must be according to her thought processes anyway.

We had a set of drawers which were on wheels and an old decrepit kitchen cart she scrounged from her sister Ann. We set up some towel bars and paper towel holders. All this has lead to her being more organized if you will. I have also set up some of my surplus saw horses so she could save her back by putting her projects up so she can work on them more ergonomically. I picked up at a garage sale a little three wheeled automotive type seat which she can sit on while she is zipping around the studio and working on the lower parts of the projects she is working on. I also built a special shelf for her to keep at least one can of each colour of vGCP Collection paint on, of course I set it up in alphabetical order for her.

Bobbie's new cart and repainted wheeled seat.

Now for Christmas I happened to be looking at the local TSC Flyer (TSC is a farm supply store) and they had red four wheeled equipment carts on for a really good price. I looked and at them and said, "Self, this is just what Bobbie needs to complete her organizing of her studio", "She can put all the paint, wax, brushes and accessories that she needs on the cart and she can move it around the studio the area she needs it to be it." So I did one more thing. As 'red' is not really Bobbie's colour I thought that if I were to paint it a different colour, one she liked. See picture to the left. I also repainted the wheeled seat to match. She has plans on outfitting it with all kinds of organizational extras. Baskets was one thing she mentioned. She has liked this idea so much that we went out and bought two more so we would have  one at one of the stores as well. Well all in all Bobbie has told me she quite likes it. Will she ever be organized like her engineer hubby. Probably not but I still say mission accomplished.

John Robinson - Master Craftsmans & Proprietor - Stan Portleys - Timeless and Unique.