Rock On

The good folks at Bargain Shop at 1910 West Beverley Street in Staunton sold me two antique rockers, gave me a great deal.  I'm working on this for the Roberta Web Child Care Center fund raiser Rock-a-thon scheduled for mid December.
 

This is the "before" photo:

I got it to the gallery and spent some time with the steel wool roughing up the surface so that the paint would stick.

I started the first coat, and let me tell ya... the guests in the gallery were not rooting for me at this stage.  There were some comments about ruining that old rocker and a little hostility from the purist crowd.  I understand, and on some level agree.  But the finish on this rocker was so bad and the bones so good... I really hoped that my work was not going to be entirely destructive.  But at that stage you just have to trust the process.  (And really, that is the part to do without an audience!)

I had chosen some commercial batiks for the fabric for the cushion and the inspiration for my color scheme came from the fabric.  Plus, I wanted to end up with something that would be the kind of thing I'd enjoy having in my home.  So I started into getting a variety of colors on the rocker. 

There is so much detail work on this rocker that it takes a really really long time to get one coat on it, much less two. 

Finally the second coat was finished:

Ready for a little detail work to bring out the features of the piece.  I blended lots of colors looking to achieve that batik fabric look. 

The gallery closed and I was ready to call it a night, so I had to stop there.  I'll be back soon to finish up the details on this one.  I made a template for the seat, so I don't know when I'll make the cushion but I believe it will bring together the whole project.  Or at least I trust that it will, we shall see.

Rock On,

Carmen Rose