Design Inspiration. Planet Stencil Library.

Mai day, lily of the valley and a stencil project

A dear, departed friend from Lavergne in France used to send me lily of the valley on May 1st. She told me that is a French custom to send the flowers to loved ones so I did a quick search to get further info.  Wikipedia offered me this:  On May 1st, 1561, King Charles IX of France received a lily of the valley as a lucky charm. He decided to offer the flowers each year to the ladies of the court. At the beginning of the 20th century, it became custom on the 1st of May, to give a sprig of lily of the valley, a symbol of springtime. The government permits individuals and workers' organisations to sell them free of taxation.

It is also traditional for the lady receiving the spray of lily of valley to give a kiss in return.

How very civilised I thought....compared to the May Day customs of the British.

In Oxford, it is traditional for May Morning revellers to gather below the Great Tower of Magdalen College at 6.00am to listen to the college choir sing traditional madrigals as a conclusion to the previous night's celebrations.   In recent years the Magdalen Bridge has been closed on 1st May to prevent people from jumping as the water under the bridge is only 2 feet (61 cm)deep. Although serious injuries have been sustained there are people still who insist on leaping.

When I was a student we would scale the fire escape from our dormitory at sunrise on May Day to wash our face in the dawn dew, much safer.

Padstow in Cornwall holds its annual 'Obby Oss' (hobby horse) day of festivities. This is believed to be one of the oldest fertility rites in the UK; revellers dance with the Oss through the streets of the town and even through the private gardens of the citizens, accompanied by accordion players and followers dressed in white with red or blue sashes who sing the traditional 'May Day' song. 

In St Andrews, students gather on the beach late on April 30 and run into the North Sea (Yikes, this is not the Caribbean!) at sunrise on May Day, occasionally naked. This is accompanied by torchlit processions and much elated celebration.

And there was more! OK, what is it about the British?  Does our loopiness know no boundaries? Are my fellow countrymen barking mad? As an antidote to our daftness here is a perfectly sane stencil project using VN156 Lily of the Valley stencil. 

Firstly, use a plumb line to make sure the stencil is level.  I have sprayed a light mist of repositioning adhesive to the back of my stencil and I press it to the wall.

I take a small amount of paint onto the stencil brush and work away any excess paint onto paper towel then apply damp paint though the stencil.  This stencil has double registration points. I stick low tack tape onto the walls directly below the points and mark them with paint.

See the marks on the tape? Now I remove the stencil and position the next overlay.

The registration points on the second overlay fit exactly over the marks on the tape.

Using a separate brush for each colour I apply paint to the ribbons and flower heads. Make sure that the paint is not wet.

To repeat the pattern just fit the printed areas on the stencil over a bit that you have just painted.

See, how sane is that? May you have spring in your steps this May Day.

Michele, your friends remember you every Mai 1st. 

Helen

 

 

Retro Telephone Stencil.

The retro telephone stencil has two overlays. There are diamond shaped registration marks on both layers to match the pattern. This is how to use them.

Many kinds of paint or plaster may be applied though the first layer of the stencil. I chose acrylic paint and the dry brush method of applying it. Before removing the stencil apply some low tack tape to the decorated surface directly below the registration marks on the stencil. Mark the tape through them.

 

Remove the stencil and postion the second stencil overlay so that the registration marks fit exactly over the marks on the tape.

Stencil the second overlay in a lighter colour. Remove tape. Retro Telephone stencil is found in the 'Stencil It' collection on our site.

Helen

How to stencil a sisal mat

 

A stencilled sisal floor it is a great way to introduce an accent colour and pattern to a room.

 

Position the stencil in the centre of the rug so that the stencilled pattern to finishes symmetrically along opposing edges. To find the centre of the mat stretch a length of string diagonally from one corner to the other and secure both ends with tape. Secure another string between the opposite diagonals. The string will cross at the centre of mat. Use a measuring tape to help align the stencil before taping it into position and applying paint through it.

The stencil in this project is SIB19-L Elizabethan, featured in my book Stencil It. I used some matt wall paint called Shocking Pink from Crown Paint to which I added a little fabric medium from Golden Paints.  The medium thins the paint without losing either colour or strength. The thinner consistency allows the paint to settle into the fibres rather than sit on top of the surface. I mixed a secondary colour from Liquitex acrylic in a deeper shade of magenta, this was to give some mottling and depth to the pattern. Each colour needs a separate brush

Using a large stencil brush I took up a little of the paint mixture and worked it well into the brush. Then I dabbed of excess paint onto paper towel.  Holding the stencil brush at 90 degrees to the surface I stippled the paint lightly through the stencil. I then used a circular brush stroke to work the stippled paint into the sisal fibre. Once the entire stencil had been painted I re stencilled a few areas with the darker paint. The second colour was applied randomly.

Each corner of the stencil has a diamond shaped cut out. This is for registration. Before removing the stencil adhere a little tape onto the mat under the registration hole then mark the tape through it. I marked mine with green paint, pen or pencil will work.

Line up the pattern by moving the stencil along until the next set of diamonds match with the tape.

Notice the registration diamonds helping to keep the pattern aligned. You may need to click on the image to enlarge it. Make sure that the stencil has no paint on the underside before repositioning it.

To achieve a border between the pattern and the edges of the rug the stencil tape may be placed over the stencil to mask it.

Measure equal distance from the mat edge and mark the stencil at intervals. Be aware that the edges of the rug may not be straight and make allowances. Place the tape over the measuring marks, take care not to damage the design when removing sticky tape after stencilling.

The rug should be ready for use half an hour after stencilling.  It took three hours to stencil this one and an hour to measure. There were four complete squares and four half ones.

For similar stencil projects see the projects section on this blog or order our book 'Stencil It' available from Amazon, The Stencil Library and other booksellers. 

Helen. 

New private class at The Stencil Library for groups of 6 or less.

Invent your own creative day at The Stencil Library. £390 per group (max 6 persons).

Get a group together and plan a creative day to suit yourselves. Lunch, refreshments, a teacher and basic paint/stencil equipment will be provided. The core charge is £390 so if the price is shared between you and five others your share becomes £65 plus any extra materials you may need. You can chose to learn general stencilling skills or work on a specific project. The cost of any extra supplies will be determined once you have decided what you would like to learn.  So, you get to choose the project, the date and the people that you spend it with...which sounds pretty good to me.

The private class has worked well in the past for training as well as celebratory occasions such as birthdays and 'get togethers' . Contact us for more details.  Non private stencil classes are scheduled at Stocksfield Hall on Feb 3rd and May 4th 2013.

New fashion statement... jacquard jeans with a stencil

Fashion press and newsletters tell me that I need Jacquard or brocade trousers this season. I remembered stencilling my jeans to acheive just such a look some years ago. Originally it was to cover a stain. I chose a busy damask pattern and stencilled it silver and pink. I wore them to present The Stencilled Home DVD. They have been much admired and they are now in my EBay pile. I am selling a few items that I may be a little ahem...chunky for.

Stenciling jeans is an easy project. I reccomend making a cardboard template to fit snugly inside a leg of the jeans. Spray the template lightly on both sides with Spraymount then place it into the leg space and smooth the fabric over the card, this stops the material moving as you stencil it. Use a mist of Spraymount to hold the stencil onto the fabric then lightly apply paint using the dry paint method. I use an acrylic paint to stencil fabric; My chosen paints were Lumiere silver and Liquitex medium magenta. Golden make suitable paints too. If the paint requires heat sealing it can be done with an iron. Follow the instructions on the paint label.

Old jeans..new lease of life. Now, you just need matching shoes and bucket!!

Helen.

How to mitre a stencilled border

This is a simple demonstration showing how to mitre a stencilled border.  It is adapted from my book The Stencilled Home.

A mitred corner gives a neat solution to joining horizontal and vertical stencilled pattern in a right angle. To help acheive the correct angle for a mitre fold a piece of paper to an angle of 45 degrees or buy a wipe clean Mighty Mitre Tool from The Stencil Library.

Helpful Hint; Tape the tool into the approximate corner position as a reminder that you will need it before reaching each of the corners. 

How to miter a stenciled border. For the purpose of this explanation I shall describe the project as a panel but it could be any right angled surface such as walls, table top, a door, a tablecoth a floor or a ceiling. I have used BB75 Laurel border stencil from our Budget Collection.

As you approach the corner place the tool over the stencil, align the short edge of the tool with the edge of the panel. Make sure that the diagonal edge of the mitre tool runs through the corner of the panel. Stencil the border towards... and onto the mitre tool.  Remove stencil and tool. A neat diagonal finish should be revealed. Position the stencil to start stencilling the border in a new direction.  The next bit is really easy..

Simply place the mitre tool along the diagonal edge that has just been created. This protects the previously stencilled area. Align the stencil matching the diagonal and the straight edges. Continue the stencilled border in the new direction. Remove tool, a neat mitred corner should be revealed. Here are a few examples.

The final photo shows inner and outer borders that have been mitred. The middle border has a butt join.

I'll save the explanation of that one for a future post.  Both my books can be ordered from The Stencil Library, from Amazon and from other retailers worldwide.

Helen

How to stencil wallpaper with a repeating design of dogs

Linda Barker created a study room on ITV1's television programme 60 Minute Makeover which featured hand stencilled wallpaper with our pattern of SIB14-LR Dogs on it. The homeowners appeared to love it and if you are quick then you can catch the programme on line for a few more days. It's the Wallington episode.

Now, I will show you how to stencil wallpaper using a repeating pattern.

The 'Dogs' stencil is one of 20 designs given in the book Stencil It by Helen Morris. The design was enlarged for this project. The book and stencils can be ordered from The Stencil Library.

This is how to make your own version of the dog wallpaper.

Cut several lengths of paper from the roll, make them a little longer than is needed.  The wall was 250 centimetres high so I cut them at 275. My paper came from Tesco...very inexpensive.

I used a foam mushroom and household matt emulsion paint to stencil the wallpaper. Mushrooms are available from The Stencil Library and are useful for stencilling large areas of flat colour.  I could have used a foam roller to stencil, but there are floppy bits on the stencil which may catch on a roller so a mushroom or a large stencil brush is a safer option.

 

I sprayed a slight misting of spray repositioning adhesive on the back of the stencil and aligned the edge of the stencil along the edge of the wallpaper. 

 

Dab the rounded end of the mushroom onto the paint then bounce it onto scrap paper until the paint is just moist and no longer wet. Rock and tap the mushroom through the holes in the stencil until the shape is covered.

 

Before removing the stencil place some low tack tape under the registration diamond and mark the tape.

  

Reposition the stencil for the next repeat by aligning diamond shapes with the marks on the tape.

 
 
As each length of paper is completed join the next one to it with low tack tape. The pattern needs to run concurrently.  Number each length so that they can be easily matched when pasted to the wall. 

 
 
Try to stencil the join evenly.

 
 
like this.

 

After fifteen metres the stencilled imprint was losing clarity so the stencil was soaked in a hot bath, cleaned, then laid flat to dry.

Paste wallpaper into position!

Helen. 

 

Stencil of the week

Let me show you how to stencil china using a simple technique and introduce you to stencil no 297 rose solo. The rose stencil is a sweet, two layer design based on the traditional folk art roses found on canal barges and narrow boats.

Traditionally they are painted in bright red, yellow and white over a dark base colour similar to the way I have stencilled the wooden storage box. I have chosen to interpret the same design onto crockery using magenta and turquoise china paints. 

I have a draw full of glass and ceramic paint. They are the kind that you fire in a home oven.

I find it easy to use sponges when stencilling this kind of motif onto china. I cut a foam square into four and used a different piece to stencil each colour.

Tape the stencil into position. Not all parts of the stencil will lie flat on a curved surface.  Concentrate on applying paint to the secure area then press the next part into position whilst releasing the area that has just been decorated.

Gather all corners of the sponge square to create a firm, smooth paint applicator.  Take paint from a pallet by dabbing the sponge onto it.  Further dabbing onto a clean surface ensure that the paint gets evenly worked onto the surface of the sponge and is no longer wet.  Rock and dab the paint lightly over the stencil. Roll and release the stencil until the pattern is complete.  Before applying the top layer of pattern the stencilled china will need to be fired.  Follow instuctions on paint pot. Mine read 45 minutes in moderate oven temp.  After removal from the oven wait until the piece cools thouroughly before matching the second stencil over the previous decoration.

Dab, rock, roll and release as before then put it back in the oven to fire the top layer of paint.

This should give it a dishwasher safe finish.

In addition to the decoration of crockery and furniture I like the idea of stencilling this rose design in a haphazard fashion over a wall or fabric. Possibly condensed in one area then scattered randomly over the rest of the area.

There are other barge painting stencils in The Stencil Library's 'Special Interest' collection. 

Helen

Inspired by David Hockney and Barbara Chandler

'David Hockney has put trees on the map — and the design world has them on everything else' wrote Barbara Chandler for the London Evening Standard.   

Barbara suggested that readers could Hockney-fy their walls using spray paint and our largest bare trees stencil.   I reckoned that this was a brilliant idea and worthy of experiment, I told my husband that I'd be late home (again) as I wanted to stencil a wall of vivid coloured trees in our shop.  This reusable, plastic stencil stands at 97 inches (almost 2.5 metres) high, so it is not a five minute job to paint a wall full of them. He suggested that I spend an evening at home instead and he would mock up some walls of trees on the Mac. 

So he did!

A stencil is a tool to apply pattern and colour. The scale of pattern, the colours and method of application are the choice of the user. Bare trees is a negative stencil, this means that the surface becomes the tree colour and one applies another colour to surround the tree shapes.  

This is our version of how to Hockney-fy a wall with our tree stencil. Start by randomly spraying or painting the wall in a similar fashion to this.

Much of the background will be covered when the trees stencil is applied.

The stencil is positioned over the painted background, I use a light misting of repositioning adhesive to hold stencils like this in place and it is important to have the stencil flush to the wall when spraying paint through it. Tonal variety can be added to the stencilling as well as the background.   Pictures 1-3 show this effect. Careful use of a foam paint roller is an alternative way to stencil large areas of single colour.  The following illustration demonstrates the effect of stencilling with flat, peach coloured paint over the painted background.  

Voila, an homage to Hockney's Bigger Trees using paint, stencil and courage. 

Prefer something more subtle? How about beige paint stencilled over a white surface? Or use a silver paint that can reflect the colours surrounding it.

A word about the duo that inspired the experiment. I have featured Barbara Chandler on previous posts, She is a very interesting lady, a best selling photographer, a well respected writer, a champion of contemporary design, a well known Londonphile and her Love London work is enjoying much praise at the moment. See it on murals, fabrics, furniture, cards, books and more.

David Hockney is so much the man of the moment what could I add? His website tells much about current and previous work.  See Hockney's Bigger Picture at The Royal Academy London until April 2012. My husband is a fan of his and says that Hockney has inspired him to take a closer look the landscapes round him and see them not as ordinary but as something to be celebrated.

Bare Trees border and wall stencils are available in various sizes from The Stencil Library.

Helen.

stepping up to the stencilled plate

Louise is one of the design students that spent their work placement with me in 2011.  Whilst here, Louise wrote a blog post about some plates that she had admired at RE a wonderful shop in Corbridge, Northumberland.

Because she was inspired by her visit to RE I taught her how to stencil porcelain and ceramic. We used china paints that can be fired in a domestic oven to achieve a dishwasher safe finish.   We were about to host a Christmas open evening at The Stencil Library so Louise chose a reindeer stencil to decorate two plates that would carry the festive pastries.

Here she is creating her stencilled festive plates.  We used paints from Pebeo and Liquitex.  The paint was stencilled onto the plates using a dense foam sponge.  Gather the sponge into a ball shape take a little of the paint onto the sponge then dab it onto paper or a spare plate.

The result is to get an even, moist application of colour through the stencil without the paint bleeding under the design.

If that should happen clean up by gently scraping the smudges away.

The plate must be scrupulously clean before stencilling it. Louise stencilled the reindeer onto both patterned and plain plates.

She used Pebeo paint onto one plate and Liquitex on the other.  Both were red paints.  I put them into my cooking range to fire over our lunch hour.  Once they had cooled Louise put the reindeer stencil back into place and overlaid a Moroccan tile stencil over it.

She stencilled the overlay with gold paint and we put them back into the oven.  Unfortunately I forgot about them. It was a couple of days before I opened the range door and discovered two very hot plates!  The red Pebeo paint had gone a strange brown colour, both my mother and my husband tried to scrub the plate mistaking the reindeer design for a brown sauce stain. I apologise to both of them, also to Louise and Pebeo.

The other plate is looking fine though and it is a testament to the longevity of both paints that I can not remove either of the patterns.

The pattern on my kitchen work surface is the same pattern stencilled in gold over the reindeer.

In the San Antonio Express, Molly Glentzer writes about my new book Stencil It and the new one from Ed Roth.  Molly is explaining how she decorated a plate using a stencil.  I would not have used marker pens and would not have relied on spray adhesive to stop the paint running as Molly did but she made a good job of it and the result looks great.

Want to have a go? There is a project in the Stencil It book which explains with photographs how to stencil ceramic tiles using a sponge,  oven fired china paints... and a free stencil of a fish.

Helen.