Make | Folk art enamelware

This enamel tumbler make is a simple and mindful way to spend an afternoon. You could even make a whole set for summer garden gatherings.

You will need:
Enamelware tumbler
Posca paint pens 3m tip, or enamel paint and brush
Clear spray varnish

1 Make sure your enamel surface is clean and dust free before starting. Your first motif is made up of four branch lines working upwards to the top of the tumbler.

2 Repeat this motif around the tumbler, leaving equal space between each of your motifs.

3 Add small bud shapes at the ends of the branches using other colours. We used ochre and pink, to complement the blue and give a nod to traditional folk art colour palettes.

4 Add your bottom border by drawing lines (around 5cm long) at the base. Along each of these lines add small teardrop-shaped ‘leaves’ that join at the same point along the line and mirror each other.

5 You can then use one of your alternative colours to add a small heart shape at the end of the blue line, creating a folk art floral.

6 Create your top border by drawing on curved lines that have curved teardrops working out from the main stem (a similar shape to paisley) and then use your alternative colour to add a collection of dots working outwards from these teardrops.

7 Add a final border of dots underneath your central branches, working around the whole tumbler. Leave to dry.

The instructions for this make were taken from our August issue feature, Paint Your Flagon, in which Becki Clark shows us how to paint the tumbler above, as well as a bowl and plate, all in a pretty folk design. You’ll find the project from page 106 of the issue, which is in shops now.

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More from our August issue…

Life Skills | Furniture painting

Spend a day learning a new skill. Mindful and mind full (in a good way). Clare Gogerty joins an Annie Sloan workshop in Oxford

If you've ever attempted to paint a piece of furniture only to be disheartened by the laborious process of sanding, painting and waxing, the day you discover Annie Sloan Chalk Paint is a day of wonder. Developed nearly 30 years ago, it brushes onto surfaces including wood, leather, concrete and leather, with no need to sand or prime. Suddenly that tired old bedside table can be revitalised with just a coat of paint and a layer of wax.

You can develop your skills at an Annie Sloan workshop. I attended one run by Annie at her Oxford HQ, but her stockists in independent shops nationwide are all trained in her techniques and run their own. The morning was spent painting a wooden box with a neutral colour (Old White, in my case), letting it dry, then painting a thin coat of another colour on top (Paloma, a soft grey) and scrunching it off with newspaper. This process, known as frottage,
creates a two-tone marbled effect similar to rag rolling, and can be used on any surface, not just wood.

Colour theory was tackled in the afternoon, with Annie encouraging us to think of colours “like ingredients used in cooking”. She urged us to be brave with colour in our homes and, using her palette of 37 Chalk Paints, fabric swatches and an outline sketch of a room set, we created schemes for a living room and a kitchen/dining area. By the time I got home, no piece of furniture was safe from my brush.

To find your nearest Annie Sloan stockist and your nearest workshop, which also includes gilding and waxing, visit anniesloan.com.

 

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More from the February issue:

Mindfulness | Colour therapy

There could be thousands more colours than your standard rainbow seven, if you take a moment to consider how you might name them.

Anyone who’s ever had to choose a paint for a wall or a piece of furniture will have found themselves immersed in colour charts and sampler pots where there’s more to colour than their product codes or Pantone reference. Every shade, tone, and hue comes with its own name– chocolate comtesse, mineral grey, crushed oregano, millennial pink. In a description of just two or three words, a whole world can be conjured up or reimagined.

But what about all those colours yet to be given names? What would you call the blue the sky turns 20 minutes after a summer sunset, for example? Or the particular grey the clouds look when half the sky’s about to storm and the rest is brilliant sunshine? How should you describe the colour of your mother’s eyes, or define the shade you like your tea? Don’t let the paint companies have all the fun. It’s a mindful practice to look carefully at the colours around you and really see them.

ART PROJECT

Start a colour experiment to recreate colours you love in paint in a journal, logging what you mixed and in what proportions, and then name your colours however you like – striplight yellow, garden shed brick, bank holiday traffic. Baby’s comfort blanket, granny’s dining table, mum’s golden flecks. Colour can capture moments, memories and places as well as words or pictures.

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Nest: The poetry of paint names

This month, Home truths gets to grips with a spot of decorating

As well as how to hang wallpaper successfully, how to choose which brush and which finish, murals, and whether eco paint is worth using, we pick our favourite wallpapers. Turn to page 118 for more, or read on for a look at the poetry of paint names.

For most of us, description of colours stretches from ‘bluish’ and ‘a bit pink’ to ‘sort of off-white’, but to the paint-namers, these are translated to Alpine Frost (Graham & Brown); Wendy House (EarthBorn) and Clunch (Farrow & Ball).

While some of these are spot-on, helpful and often poetic, others are, frankly, baffling.

Try these:
Mizzle – a dullish green (farrow-ball.com);
Tracery – beige and Trumpet – yellow (littlegreene.com);
Smidgen – pale blue and Marbles – pinkish white (earthbornpaints.co.uk);
Wild Swim – murky brown and Buffel Tuft – cream (both paintbyconran.com).

Read more from the September issue:

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Competition: Win £150 worth of Earthborn Claypaint (closed 29 August 2014)

Earthborn is giving away £150 worth of lovely Claypaint to one lucky reader of The Simple Things. This fabulous prize includes two 750ml tins of Earthborn’s new Claypaint - designed especially for furniture and smaller painting projects - and a tin of Furniture Wax, plus some other Earthborn goodies.

Claypaint - a clay-based emulsion that has a distinctive, ultra matt finish that softens and enhances the light in your room - is available in 60 luxurious shades.

Not only beautiful and a pleasure to use, Earthborn paints are also designed to be healthier to live with. There are many wolves in sheep’s clothing making eco claims, but there’s no need for dressing up here – Earthborn Claypaint contains no oils or acrylics and are VOC free, which means no nasty emissions and high breathability. Add to that they are licensed to carry the EU Ecolabel, you are reassured the paints are better for you, your home and the environment.

Even if you don’t win, you can still finds lots of information, browse colours and buy Sample Pots at www.earthbornpaints.co.uk.

And for even more inspiration and to keep in touch, say hello via twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Enter the competition to win Earthborn Claypaint:

Visit www.futurecompetitions.com/earthborn before 29 August 2014.

Terms and conditions apply. See www.futuretcs.com For more information visit www.earthbornpaints.co.uk