I first fell in love with this sweet and elaborate Victorian Tea-Cart when I saw the image online … I had to have it!  I drove for an hour, to meet the woman who was selling it … she was apologizing for its condition — there was a significant crack on the top, and some water stains, and the top had an awful finish.

Which, for me, is perfect!

She thought I might be wanting to refinish this … ohhhh, no!  This is the perfect sort of item I love to find … well-constructed, past its prime, and the antique value is already gone — whether it’s refinished, or painted, it will no longer have that elusive (& vastly misunderstood/over-valued) “antique value.”

I held onto her for 2, almost 3 years.  She came with me in a move.  She was stored in the shed, where I do my workouts (& store yet-to-be-painted furniture/accessories).  During that time, I wondered when I would recreate her, and how.

Fast-forward to my remembering that I have to prepare for an art show!  No more wondering!  Time for painting!

First, the repair work … I filled the crack with several applications of wood-putty, and then sanded her smooth.

Just look at all those curvy-scrolly lines!  Gasp! Swoon!

Yes, I’ve transformed my Victorian living room into an art studio … I taped a tarp to the floor, to protect it, and the “studio” overflows into the kitchen … and the bedroom … and the hallway.

Yes, I pretty my live in an art studio.  C’est la vie.

Next, the intimacy of priming.  It’s intimate, because this is when I really get to know the piece … and I listen to it, to what it most wants to be.  I often get a vision, or I “sense” the color-scheme.  This one wanted to be OVER-the-top.  I use a water-based primer, either Kilz brand, or BIN, and I cover the entire piece.  The primer gives the paint a “grip” and ensures that it endures.  I would never-ever paint ANYthing without first priming it (I learned this the hard way, more than 22 years ago, when I first began this type of art).

This gives me the “blank canvas” upon which I can work my paint-magic.

Then, I took her downstairs, and outside, in order to add the metallic spray to the scrolly sections.  I’ve not yet found an acrylic brush-on paint that gets the vibrancy of metallic sheen that comes from a spray — and obviously this needs to be done in a well-ventilated area, where overspray won’t get on anything else.

I chose an antiqued copper spray.  Once dry, I took the tea-cart back up to my living-room/studio.

Next, I put faux-marble on both flat surfaces.  Here’s my process:  I painted the area white for a base.  When dry, I swirled several shades of grey (not quite 50 😉 ) onto a paper plate.  Using a damp sea-sponge, I dabbed it onto the swirls, and then pounced it randomly around the surface.  Once dry, I paint on white veins with a detail brush, and then come back in with black “shading” accents to give it dimensionality.

Faux-marbling can be done in any color-scheme – for the standard green marble, I start with a base of black (grey for lighter shades), and then several shades of green.

Then it was time to work on the other surfaces … being careful to cut in to all the scrolly/curvy metallic parts. I wanted to create a harlequin pattern on the top. Looking up the “how to” I saw that the diamonds had to be twice as long as they are wide … lacking a yardstick, I just “winged it” and voila – it worked!

I added little gold dots where the diamonds connect, and then moved on to other areas.

Here’s a closer look at the handle-bar, and the “back” of the tea-cart.  Lots of dots!

No, I don’t count the dots, nor do I count the hours I put into each piece … this is a labor of love, of creative-expression, and it just takes what it takes.  I love the process as much as I love the completed project.

I didn’t want to replicate the harlequin pattern on the bottom … and the notion of fleur de lis came to mind.  I painted two of them, in black, and then added copper and gold accents to each.

Even before receiving her polyurethane, for both protection and gleam, she was already a beauty!

Ta-Da!  And here she is, in all her completed-radiant beauty, basking in the sunlight!  She’ll be one of the featured pieces of art in the upcoming “Everything Old is New Again” art show, at Lunaria Gallery, in Silverton, Oregon, throughout the month of March!

Join us for First Friday, the opening of the show, on Friday, March 4th, from 7:00-9:00 at 113 Water St., Silverton Oregon.