A Collage of Memories

 Artisanship in the making. 

I’ve been working on this project for almost a year.  It started when I went rubble pile diving for some of the old wallpaper I remember from Grandpa and Grandma’s farmhouse.  Amongst the plaster dust and lathe, I managed to retrieve these few pieces.

The blue paisley revives my memories of Grandpa Eugene.  He would have me sit at the antique secretary desk next to the chimney in this room and write out the monthly bills for him.  He’d sign the checks and I’d put them in the envelopes to be mailed.  Grandpa’s birthday was in September.  He had a birthstone ring with a blue sapphire in it.  

When I look at the pretty purple floral, my memory of Grandma Ollie comes alive in my mind.  She had a beautiful four-poster bed with a handmade quilt in the room that harmonized perfectly with this wallpaper.  Her bedroom vanity drawer had a light green Youth Dew powder puff in it, along with several packs of Doublemint gum. Her favorite color was purple.

My vision started out as a collage, tearing bits and pieces into odd shapes and gluing them onto a board.  When I realized that the wallpaper didn’t tear very nicely, I succumbed to the ruler and Exacto knife.  Working with a copycat patchwork design I found online, eventually, the pieces of wallpaper were formed into the geometric pattern that you see here.   A strip of the old border from the ceiling edge was cut apart and became the binding lines between the different paper designs.  Mod podge is wonderful to work with.  After 4 coats over the paper onto the artist’s canvas, the panels took on the matte sheen I was looking for.  

I am not a frame-maker.  I also don’t generally purchase expensive framing from an art store.  Since the panels were 10 x 20, I didn’t anticipate finding anything at a thrift store, not to mention two of them.  Finally, after weeks of web surfing, I came upon a discount frame store in New York where I found an antique-looking off-white pattern for a wooden frame.  At their prices, I could get two frames for less than it would cost to have one framed at a local art store.  Since I didn’t need a mat or glass, I felt pretty confident in doing this special order online, knowing well that I would not be able to return the frames if they didn’t fit.

This seemed too good to be true!  And it was.  Three weeks after my credit card was charged, I received an email that the frames were on backorder and was asked if I wanted to cancel.  No!  I would wait!  Two weeks later, I received an email saying the frame I had chosen was discontinued.  Drat!  Back to the online search with this company.  

Next, I found a black wooden frame with carvings on it, similar to the white rustic one I’d ordered.  I asked the company to replace my order with this design. The frames arrived two weeks later - apparently further delayed because the company moved to a larger factory in Connecticut.  

Yay!  The panels fit perfectly!  But it seems like I can never totally put my paintbrushes

away.

After a coat of off-white paint, followed by a wiping of nutmeg brown paint in the carvings, and nearly a year’s time in the making, my Pfund Farmhouse prints are finished!  The memories that are propagated through these prints are finally sealed in time.