Bourbon Barrel Project on Town Branch

Well, here they are the bourbon barrels....  I am SO excited to have the opportunity to participate in this project.  I love it when history, heritage, community, and art come together and this is one of those times.  I will include the link at the bottom if you would like to know more about the project. I submitted 2 designs for this project, but I did not really expect to be chosen, but I hoped at least one would be chosen.  I called to arrange pick up of my one barrel, that I was overjoyed to have, only to be told I had two designs chosen.  I think they are beautiful in their raw form, but I am going to have so much fun transforming them, and I decided to blog about the process.
Day One:  August 1, 2013

Chad goes to pick up the barrels and I came home and this was the first time I saw them.  I can attest that they smell just like you think they would, which to me, is wonderful!  I love bourbon, I love that it is Kentuckian, and I love wood barrels.  Chad and I recently toured the Woodford Reserve Distillery, and my very favorite part of the tour, was getting to see all those barrels stacked in the warehouse.
I just love them.

 Day 2: August 2, 2013

The next night, I was working late on a mural job, and I got home around 1:00am, and saw that Chad had been working on making room for me to work on them, adding lights to the workshop, and building me a stand to hold them up to a comfortable work height. Wow, Thanks Chad!  (I think he is as excited as I am about them).  He is definitely doing his part so far:). This is how these will be displayed, so I have to work on them sideways.  Now I am ready to get to work!

 Day 3, 2013

 First thing, I have to do is to get all the rust off the straps and sand the splintery wood.  So, a rust bath it is.... I mixed up a solution of White Distilled Vinegar and Dawn dishsoap and used a wire brush to scrub all the rust off the straps.  It came off with ease and is ready to prep for paint.

We thought it was pretty neat to find the date on this barrel.  It will be painted over, so I wanted to save the picture.

This is Barrel Number 1, which is titled "The Bourbon Trail"  To  bring the design to life, the first step was to sand , which I did, and then to stain.  I was originally going to set them both up so that I could work on them at the same time, but I decided I just want to do this one and get it done and then work on the other one.  I never can focus on just one thing and get it done before moving to the next. I always am juggling on average 7 or 8 projects at once.  Chad is betting against me being able to stick to that strategy on this project. I may break down and set them both up, but for now I just want to focus on this one.

I will keep posting about the progress, but if you would like to know more about the Bourbon Barrel Project on Town Branch you can  go to the link www.bourbonbarrels.org You can also like them on Facebook and follow all the barrels as well as  important opportunities for viewing them when they are on display.


Until we meet again,
JD

It's chalk and chalkboard....Or is it?

 To Chalk or not to Chalk....

This is a little boy nursery, who is yet to arrive.  I was given the idea by  the client and designer,  but they wanted owls instead of lovebirds which the inspired picture showed.  They wanted baseballs and hot air balloons incorporated into the design. The room has two full walls, two doors, and the little space above the door that are all chalkboard paint.  The other two walls are white.  They were also going to be incorporating red and yellow into the room.  So I painted the trees, the owls and the hot air balloons, in paint made to look like it was chalked, but the kids ( there is also a precious two year old)  will be able to "play" too.  I love this idea for any child's room, nursery, playspace, school classroom, workspace.... you name it. I truly enjoy
painting this kind of fun space! 

Door Wall where crib will go

 To the left is the close up image of ball throwing owl

 In this image, the two little baby owls look on to see who gets to catch

This guy is hoping it comes to him.

These little owls have either taken leave of the game or they are just in time...

They are on the white wall, so the paint is charcoal.