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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

A random sampling

 Well mostly my life revolves around the shop these days~
painting furniture, ordering inventory, ringing sales, talking to people
about Chalk Paint®, and trying to just keep up.
 The latest offerings in furniture are this Empire dresser~
 A Hepplewhite chest on chest dresser~
 This Gothic dresser~
 The other thing I have been doing every Sunday is teaching my sell out workshops for Annie Sloan enthusiasts.  Its a four hour class and I teach 11 women~it takes a lot of prep work and I am happy to have Colin setting me up for the class. He goes to get the lumber for the samples and does all the wood cutting and the layout of the supplies for the class on Saturday after we close in the afternoon. Much like setting a table~he gets it done!  I just have to make the dinner!! 
 After class I ring up the sales~most people wait to
 take a class to decide what they want to buy and which colors they plan to use. 
 The week before I told you all I was in Colorado at my fellow Stockist pal Robyn Story's vacation home. 
What a blast I had sneaking away from my shop duties!! Here is a few snippets of what went down~
 Robyn sent all the supplies ahead~holy moly! We planned to do our work in the kitchen and laid everything out for an impressive looking photo!! Who wouldn't want to jump right in and start creating? We had no rules~we would be led by our creative intuitions.  Robyn and I were joined by another stockist Stepahnie Kahrs Granit.  It was a 5 day submersion into the creative part of our minds...no stores to watch, only paint and play time. 
Robyn's kitchen got some protective coverings before we began~good thing too as
the paint and product was flying!
We went from the kitchen table over to the island and back again~
most days beginning right after coffee and a bagel until 11 pm!
It was so interesting to see what the others were working on~sometimes one of us
would say "thats not looking so hot" and it would end up being one of our favorite samples!
So that in and of itself was a learning moment...
just keep on working a piece until you LOVE it!
 
 The kitchen table looked like this at the end of every night.
Totally busted up with rags and dirty brushes and pots and bowls of all kinds of stuff.
We had little pots of gilder paste opened besides 
bowls of clear and dark wax~you name it, we had it opened!
We were creating masterpieces!!!
 Step one and step two and step three~we kept photo journaling it 
to try to remember the genius of our ways!
Of course we managed one night out on the Colorado town~
 When we were finished we had some real beauties~this one was Stephanies~
We used Artisan Enhancements Transfer Gel and Crackle Tex along with Gilder Paste on top of Chalk Paint® to create these pretty boards with Robyn's exclusive fine arts images that she owns the rights to.
I will be tailoring a course soon at Maison Decor based on our Colorado Creative trip and it will based upon many of the techniques and results we got while in Colorado. Stay tuned!
We made some beautiful browns with Chalk Paint®  and then gilded the lily on some with Gilder Paste (bottom) and even some Pearl Plaster (top left).
The next thing on the docket coming up soon will be the Annie Sloan convention for Stockist in New Orleans! Justin and I will be headed there for the first week of April. Stores might be closed for a few days, but this trip is a highly anticipated event and I cannot wait to see Annie again and introduce her to Justin.
I will get to see all of my friends that I have made through this past year~its going to be fantastic. We take seminars on subjects and attend talks by Annie, and they always have surprises in store for us too.
For more information and how to purchase Artisan Enhancements
visit our online store here. I will be creating some pieces of furniture in 
the shop before I go away. They will have the Colorado Creative collaborative 
methods we used and I look forward to seeing what you guys think!


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13 comments:

  1. Amy what fun! I loved seeing the Annie chalk paint genius's at work! You churned out some real beauties and what a fun trip you got to take....imagine that bonding over paint!

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  2. Looks like you had so much fun! Love so many of the effects you achieved! Also, LOVE your empire dresser :)

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  3. What a great post. I am so glad you had such a wonderful experience in Colorado. Your son is very handsome- He has beautiful eyes. xo Diana

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  4. What fun to have classes in your shop! And traveling too!Wish I lived closer!Just painted my first fabric chair with AS paint and I LOVE it!
    xx
    Anne

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  5. Oh...makes me wish I could drop by your store and play...so very hard for me to see and not get to do. Loved all the experimenting you were doing. Can't wait to see how you use your new techniques.

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  6. amy, it's so honorable that you are going to such lengths to develop your craft and invest so much education into this finishing work. i am very proud to know you and to witness your work ethic which continually inspires me. i am visiting you one day!

    best to you.

    michele

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  7. Sounds like so much fun Amy! I LOVE that last group of moldings, the finishes are beautiful! I would love to do that middle one on my front door.

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  8. I really need to make a trip to MA and your lovely shop!!
    Mariaelena

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  9. Amy - you are going to be so successful with these new techniques! They are just so beautiful, so unique - and I've never seen anything like them! Bless you on your continued happy venture, girlie!! You are rocki' the ASCP world!!

    xoxo laurie

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  10. Forgot to say...I love those mercury glass lamps!

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  11. Look how far you've come in such a short period of time, Amy! How neat that you are getting all of the hands on experience from the "best" teachers, and other pro's out there!
    You are amazing!
    xo

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  12. Looks like you had a great time experimenting with those beautiful techniques...the piece that was created with the Artisan Enhancements, etc. was amazing!!
    How great that you will be teaching a new course based on what you learned from your trip!...

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  13. Amy! I can't believe what an expert professional real live business woman and Annie Sloan expert you're becoming. It's so cool. And the pieces that you guys painted to sell in the shop look so gorgeous and high end! The quality and imaginative finishes are so perfect for each piece. The workshop you went to looks like it was fun, just an emersion in creativity... and you look so cute in the photo of you in Colorado. I'm just amazed watching it all... wow

    Cindy

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