Memories from Charleston, SC

  Of the many things that I brought back from the stencilling convention in Charleston, SC last week, some of my favourites were:

This "paint" can of lip gloss and lip brush given to me by my student Lois. It will become an essential part of my collection of decorating tools. 

Another lovely gift from a student was a home made CD of music that she thought I would like and possibly had never heard.  She was right and I have played it a lot.

Memories of dancing (a rarity for me) with friends Susan, Judi and Patty.  "You're a cute dancer", I was told.  Rachel informs me that the phrase translates as polite code for 'your dancing is wierd, I don't understand it and you're frightening me!'

I also took home off cuts of Roc-Lon non-fraying canvas.  Here is one of the projects that I taught.  We are making a floor mat from Roc-Lon using a decorating mask from the Big & Bold collection.

Here is student Teri making an 'off curriculum' version of it.

 

I returned with warm memories of friends and students.  This is from the New Stencil Techniques class.  Thank you team. I am the tired, but happy looking one in the front, middle.  The students and their work on the Print Room class were fab too, but I have no pictures. 

I bought a book called Charleston Style by Susan Sully.  It shows beautiful interiors. The cover shows the music room from the Nathaniel Russel House.  There is a chapter on Marty Whaley Adams Cornwell, the artist that Rachel wrote about recently on this blog.  Marty allowed me to view her garden and those of her neighbours.  It was a lovely day until I was savaged by mosquitoes!!

I can now add a joggling board to my list of experiences.  I would love one of these...  .... and a piazza or veranda to place it on (dream on, girl).  Never heard of joggling boards?  Read more here. I was not allowed to joggle on this one.  The peeling paint looked wonderful.   There will have been a class at the convention showing you how to get this effect on a new surface.  I used to teach one.  There might have been a class on painting stone blocking like this too.

 

In a recent post, Aaron, our work experience student, wrote of a lettering stencil that he had designed to look like paint splats. Here it is stencilled onto an apron for Marty, the artist.

and here is a detail of the paint palette  stencil from our Arts & Crafts stencils range and Splatter from Modern Design.

Another good looking  book that made it's way into my suitcase was Modello by Design by Melanie Royals.  I have blogged about Modello before and no doubt will again.  They are one time use stencils cut from sticky backed vinyl.  They allow the most intricate stencil work to be executed successfully, often using gilding leaf, plaster and concrete.  The photographs have been supplied by Melanie's artistic customers and show projects that employ Modello.   Some of my friends were very proud to be published in it and rightly so! 

I returned from the expo with knowledge of products and techniques which I may never use, but it was fun learning. I met great people whilst helping on our booth.

...And lastly I bought a Butter Signature Wrap Dress from Nancy's in Charleston.  I wore this frock so much, it's blurb says there are more than twelve ways to wear it.  There are many more and I wore three of them on one day. Visit the Butter by Nadia web site.  It's great and do take a look, but click quickly on the whirling model before she makes you dizzy.  I particularly enjoyed the video of dress wrapping and the press pages.  I bought a black jersey version, I had no idea there was a whole rainbow of colours and finishes available.  There is just one size. It won't go out of style so maybe next year I'll try chartreuse satin or electric blue!  

I visited many house and gardens with my friend Judi. I'll edit the pics and share a few with you soon.

Helen.

Comments

[Aparna]

These are great photos! Can you tell me where you took the pictures on the joggling board?

[stencil helen]

Hi Aparna,
Since I emailed yesterday I found that the the joggling board was at a museum in Charleston. It is on the corner of Elizabeth and some other street. It was a large house with lots of slave homes. Hope this helps. ...a bit.
Thank you for reading designinspiration.
Can anyone help further?