Design Inspiration. Planet Stencil Library.

Stencil inspiration using VN5 Shadows, an optical Illusion stencil.

Our VN5 Shadow stencil must be one of our simplest stencils and it is one of my favourites, we were inspired to design it after seeing some knobbly, rubber floor tiles. There are two layers to the VN5 Shadows stencil and they repeat so that you can stencil large areas with speed and accuracy. After painting the base colour onto your surface mix a darker and lighter shade of it to apply through the stencil. I went one stage further with my application and applied white acrylic paint through one of the stencil overlays then applied Raw Sienna acrylic over it. I faded out the colour to expose areas of white paint. This method further accentuates the illusion of a highlight. I could have applied a stippling of white highlight after stencilling the Raw Sienna but I found this way round looked smoother.

Rachel chose Canton Green from Little Greene Paints as the base colour for her hallway.

She mixed some of the Canton Green colour with white acrylic paint for the highlights, then, for the shadows she mixed Black and Burnt Umber with the green.  I think the effect is gorgeous. Rachel did not do the same 'arty highlight bit' that I had, it was not needed. So, with a little patience, a little paint and a stencil you can create some fabulous effects. I would recommend two of our extra large stencil brushes for a similar project or our large double ended brush.

Helen.

Chinoiserie with stencils.

This time last year I was creating sample boards and fabric for a client that wanted a handpainted Chinoiserie room with stencilled wallpaper and matching fabrics. These are a couple of shots from the samples, in case you are inspired to stencil something similar for yourself or your customers.

The stencil that I used for the samples was the Chinoiserie panel CH4 from our Chinese Style collection. The panel can be used independently or as part of a set of four stencils which repeat in sequence to make a long and very wide decorative border.

The minimum depth of the border is 44 inches (1118mm) that size is described as the 'small' panel on our website, but you can order it up to 96 inches deep (2438mm) and we describe that size as X. If even more height is needed consider marrying it with a contrasting design above or below the panels. I add extra butterflies and birds to further extend the height if the area is very high. Using all four of the panel stencils will give the effect of handpainted Chinese wallpapers of the 18th-century. The stencil that I used is 96 inches high but I only needed to use a section of it for the samples. I have reused this same stencil for over twelve years now and it has travelled to many countries. When I decorate the room for our customer I will have the luxury of a using a new set and that set will belong to them after I have completed the project. One of the advantages of using a stencil to create a mural such as this is that the stencil gives the shape, structure and form but the stenciller controls the colours and can make each flower bird and butterfly differ from the next by way of colour choice and shading. 

The fabric that I used was silk, if the budget does not stretch to real silk there are some good fakes that are washable and give an effect of silk. I used a silver leaf wallpaper to stencil onto. This again is top of the range. If your budget does not allow such luxuries select a less expensive wallpaper or stencil directly onto the painted wall. The advantage of this paper is that the client will be able to remove it, roll it up and transport it to a new home if desired. There are a few tutorials on 'how to stencil onto fabric' on this blog and I have put a couple of them onto YouTube. A quick and simple demonstration of stencilling onto material can be found on this link.

Helen.

A stencilled caftan in Marrakech

Last March I visited a friend who owns a riad in Marrakech. Before I went I stencilled a caftan to wear around her house. 

The caftan was made for me by a lady in our village. This was it before I started painting.

and this was it after.

If you would like to know what went on between those two photos, read on.

I chose the stencil DE173-Border 81 because I had not used it before, it is an art nouveau style border depicting papyrus in water and I thought it would be a perfect size for my project. A more 'normal' use for this stencil would be to decorate the area above a picture rail on a wall.

I wanted one of the tall flowers in the design to be central at the base of the caftan, flanked by two shorter ones. To find the centre point of the base of the caftan I folded the fabric like this....

I made a crease at the centre of the hem to align with the centre of the tall flower motif. To stop the fabric sliding whilst being stencilled I cut a vague body shape out of wallpaper and sprayed a light misting of SprayMount onto to one side of the paper then inserted it into the caftan. I smoothed the fabric over the slight tack on the paper taking care not to lose the crease that I made earlier. The centre stem of the tall flower was aligned with the crease on the fabric. The caftan has side splits so the pattern does not have to flow around the entire hem of the garment. The back of the caftan can have a central flower too.

The border was positioned along the hem, there are some diamond-shaped holes cut into the stencil to help create regular pattern repeats and to make sure that stencil layer 1 and 2 will align with each other. Place both layers of the stencil together and check alignment and position before any paint is applied. Then set aside layer 2 and spray or tape stencil layer 1 in position.

I used a mid-tone blue to stencil the leaves and white for the water. Dip only the tips of the stencil brush into paint then eliminate the excess paint by 'stirring' the brush in circles onto a wad of paper towel until the paint is distributed evenly through the brush tip and the paint is damp, not wet. Apply the paint through the stencil with a gentler version of the stirring motion. 

The colours were chosen to go with scarves and other accessories that would go to Marrakech with me. I like to take minimum luggage so everything has to work together. After the mid-tone was applied I added shading to some areas with a darker blue.

Before removing the stencil I placed small pieces of tape onto the caftan directly under the diamond shapes. I marked through the diamonds onto the tape. The diamond shapes cut into the second stencil fit directly over the marks on the tape. The tape is marked rather than the fabric, all the bits of tape are removed at the end of the project.

Once stencil layer 2 was in position I applied magenta and orange through it, two colours that are always in my suitcase and wardrobe. I added silver paint to complete the water part of the design. I could have added another layer of white but my favourite sandals are silver so the colour had to be featured. A clean, dry stencil brush is needed for each colour.

To reproduce the border along the hem just position the diamond shapes in the stencil with the marked tape on the garment.

When you reach the outer edges of the garment find a natural looking place to finish the pattern. I applied masking tape onto areas where I did not want paint applied and then filled in the rest. with colour. Do the same on both layers of the pattern. 

On one edge of the pattern I appear to have applied a butterfly stencil to the gap in the pattern, I can not remember whether that was deliberate or just that I forgot to do the opposite edge.

The top of the caftan was stencilled with designs from our Ottoman and Moroccan style stencils. I had used them one on of our guest rooms and they were perfect to reuse on this project. This was the front of my stencilled caftan...

and this was the back....

and this was me wearing it on my friend's roof terrace in Marrakech.

I was holidaying on one of the fabulous 'creative retreats' that she runs from Maison 28, her riad in the heart of the Medina, Marrakech. Some of the retreats are based in the city and others go further afield.  I can highly recommend both the riad and the retreats. Outside of retreat season, Maison 28 is available for hire. You can host your own retreat!

I will tell you much more of my visit in a future post but for now, you can follow the link and learn more about the offering at Maison 28. Did you notice that I'm posing by a matching stencilled cushion? That'll have to wait for a future post too.

Helen.

 

A perfect pagoda

I do like rummaging in our photo archives, which I admit are massive and really need a good edit. I found a couple of pictures of stencils in our 'Chinese Style' collection that I don't remember posting before and they are rather splendid stencils. One of them is the pagoda which features in photographs above and below this text. My husband was using it in a guest room in our home, he then painted it over and re-stencilled it in brighter colours.

This was the brighter version. The photo is by Di Lewis. Other stencils include TP55 Pavilion 2 on the chair and the central panel shows a stencil based on the style of Jean-Baptiste Pillement. It is a special order and not available through our website but we have similar stencils in the Silhouettes section of our Chinese style range. However, you can always ask us to make you the one in the picture, we will still have the artwork for it. 

Customer and decorative artist Linda Milne in Australia sent the following picture. She used our stencils directly onto the wall but they are framed within a painted panel of contrasting colour and bordered with a coach-line. Alternatively, they could be stencilled onto canvas, the benefit of this is that they would be would be portable and sets could be created as gifts. The central motif in Linda's stencilled decoration is available by special order too. She chose smaller versions of the stencils.

 

During my trawl of The Stencil Library photo archive, I found another stencil which is a tad 'pagoda-ish'

It used to be on our kitchen wall. Since designing this stencil we improved upon it and the later version is offered for sale in our 'Chinese Style' range of Chinoiserie stencils. You can find it here. The stencilling employs two colours, True Gold is one of them and I dabbed and stippled an aqua colour over it to create a verdigris effect.....and the cushions are stencilled too.

Helen

 

A farewell and thank you.

Today marks the end of an era. Rachel, my colleague, cousin, manager of The Stencil Library and co-author of this blog starts a new chapter and leaves us. Many of you have met Rachel, spoken to her on the phone or benefitted from her help and expertise by email. Her dedication to our customers over the past twenty-five years has been nothing short of brilliant, so those will be big shoes to fill.

I hope that you, along with Chips and I, will wish her the very best of success with her own business, Madame E Vintage, which was born from her passion for clothing and art from the last century. Madame E sources and sells the most intriguing, unusual and wonderful finds, she specialises in the fashions, art and ephemera of the early to mid 20th century but will stray from the time zone if the piece is interesting enough.  Do visit her online shop. If you are on Instagram you may enjoy following her at @madame.e.vintage, I do, she combines interesting stories and arresting imagery. Rachel will still be popping into The Stencil Library to help us out and do holiday cover, I hope that she may even write a blog entry every so often, she has been responsible for all the Stencil Inspiration' posts of the past year. I shall be taking them over but I can not promise to be as prolific as she.

Once again, a huge thank you for all your time and for your company, Rachel. Starting anew is an exciting but scary place to be, we wish you good luck and great success! 

Helen