It probably comes as no surprise that a mainstream retail store is NOT the first place I turn to when I have a home furnishing need. Nope, I pretty much either look around and try to utilize something I already have or I head to quirky, out of the way junk, salvage or thrift stores. It’s way more fun to see what I can come up with on my own imaginative whim. My latest need has been a bathroom vanity, three to be exact. Two for our master bath (I’m tired of always having to wait to brush my teeth, and I never seem to be able to get there first, so it’s time for me to set up my own sink action in the corner) and one for my daughter’s bathroom. I knew I wanted to use vessel sinks, so that pretty much opened up all sorts of possibilities for what I could use for the bottom half! I already had the sink for my daughter’s bathroom, and I had initially thought we would just build some sort of a base for it, but for some reason, this ratty orange desk I have here in the studio seemed to be the first thing that came to mind. (You know those yard sale freebies you always see sittin’ by the curb?!...well, that’s exactly where this baby came from – my aunt’s picked it up a few years back for me and I’ve been using it as a prop for some of our studio shoots.) I just needed to be sure the top was large enough for the sink, and luckily it was. All we needed to do was add a couple of slats to the back, drill holes for the fixtures and plumbing and we had ourselves a vanity! I cleaned it up and gave it a couple coats of shellac and the weathered orange patina really came to life! (I swear, shellac makes everything look better!) Next up, our bathroom. I wasn’t sure if I wanted our vanities to match or be completely different, or what. And, one day when were picking up a few things at the architectural salvage store, we spotted this awesome tool bench that had been in some school’s shop class. It was double sided, and had one of those really old style vises on both sides. (A great place to hang towels!) We could cut it in half and have plenty of width to accommodate our bowl sinks. We had it here at the studio while we were finishing up the tile work, and ended up using it as a tool bench for some of our shoots. It really is a great bench to work on, and I was starting to have second thoughts about cutting it in half. But, I did get to enjoy using it as a bench for a short while, so those doubts went as fast as they came, and we went ahead and sliced her up! We had to add a piece of wood to the back, and cut out portions of the drawer to accommodate the plumbing, but they work beautifully! Vanities are so easy to rig up this way, and you end up with some really unique looks. Try it, you'll like it! (And having my very own, - no waiting, no one else’s mess - sink is just as great as I imagined it would be!)
cheers!
michele.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
FoR tHe sAke Of a vaNitY
Thursday, June 26, 2008
The Free ConvenZioNE Spending Spree with ZNE
- "For our first year event, we will have a fun registration and lunch on Friday August 22. Afterwards, we will adjourn to attend Bella Galleria, a very special Gallery and Boutique walk in downtown Pleasanton - complete with gift certificates, special receptions, book signings, and more. That evening we will all meet again at the Amador Theatre for The ZNE ConvenZioNE Show - a very special evening hosted by Michele Beschen, creator of the series B. Original for DIY Network and HGTV, with a program that will include songs, special presentations, and a screening of the documentary - 1,000 Journals.
- On Saturday August 23rd, we will start our day with a light breakfast and inspirational keynote by the incredible artisan and motivational speaker/writer - SARK. Following breakfast, registrants will have the option of attending either one full day or two half day workshops with an extraordinary array of workshop leaders. That night, everyone will gather for a delightful meal at the Blue Agave Club in downtown Pleasanton.
- On Sunday, August 24, we will have a day long sales event - Art Paperie and Pleasantries- with 30+ hand selected artists, craftspersons, and purveyers of vintage goodies and fine art supplies. All event registrants will be invited to attend a special VIP Admission Hour prior to the general public, and during which time all vendors will offer all their items for a minimum of 10% off the regular sales prices.
- We are also very excited to announce that the incredible folk-rock singer Jon Troast will be our musician in residence during the entirety of ZNE ConvenZioNE 2008. He will be providing a lovely live music backdrop during our opening luncheon, and group dinner on Saturday night - as well as performing selected songs during the ZNE ConvenZioNE Show on Friday and at Art, Paperie and Pleasantries on Sunday. Wow!
- Join us for an inaugural ZNE ConvenZioNE event that will set the pace and energy for all of our events to come. Be a part of ZNE history in the making, by registering for the 2008 event today!"
pAinT YouRseLf PreTtY!
Rain, Rain Go Away! For those of us in the Midwest…a reprieve from storms and heavy rains would be most welcome. However, a rained out shoot day means I have a moment to carve out a creative morsel for the blog! We’ve been hammering out a lot of segments over the past few weeks, including a bundle of goodies using pAInT! What I wear while we’re shooting is usually the last thing I concern myself with because my focus is always on the projects and how they look, not to mention, everything I wear when I'm shooting ends up covered in stains, paints, glues…whatever I’m working with, anyway, so I usually just grab something I have at the last minute and go. Same holds true for this round of shooting, BUT I did have a bit of fun with my wearables right before we started shooting the paint series and what I thought was going to be more or less “props and toss” turned out to be some pretty cool stuff that I will continue to wear (and make more of) long after the paint series dries.
I took my plain tanks and pairs of not so good jeans and splattered, dripped, spilled, and sprayed paint here and there. It's kind of addictive...I started looking through my closet and pulled out all kinds of things to toss paint on! I did belts, bracelets, whatever I thought could use a 'splash of color'. Once I get excited about something like that, it's hard to know when to stop!!
The belt and buckle are my favorite…..(the other belts in my drawer look very dull and boring next to this one now!)
I used whatever paints were on hand, including my house paints, but most of them that I used were the liquitex artist acrylics. They adhered beautifully to everything from the leather belt and buckles to the denim and t’s. (Everything has washed up nice and worn well, too!) For the necklace charm, I just took one of those cloth hangers you find with all the picture hanging hardware and treated it like a mini canvas and hung it on one of my necklaces. Great fun!
I love it when stuff you’re just screwing around with turns out to be something ‘more’!
Try it….and Wear it…my friends! A splatter of paint makes everything look better!
Cheers!
michele.
Monday, June 2, 2008
diY InNovaTioN beHinD ThE sCenEs
Ever since I started this business, I’ve always believed that what goes into things behind the scenes should be as playful and unpredictable as what takes place in front of the camera. The production is just as much an art as the projects themselves. And, what I’ve witnessed inside our studio walls over the past few weeks has been creative, do-it-yourself production innovation at its’ finest! We’re in the midst of shooting and everyone has been working hard at experimenting with new things on the production side. So much so that I now know what other people are thinking when I’m trying to explain a quirky project I’m working on…(you know…those ideas that are so very clear and cool in our heads, but when we try to explain them, everyone gazes at you with that perplexed, confused look. Basically, they need to see it to get what you’re talking about). That’s pretty much where my head is when the guys are babbling on and on about how this contraption is going to do this or that, or if we rig it up like this, it’ll do this…I just nod my head in excitement and walk away wondering what the heck they were talking about! “I’m sure it’ll be cool, but I don’t fully get it!” I too need to see things sometimes to understand how it’s all going to work, so it has been great fun seeing the team take their production concepts and ideas and bring them to life. They are doing just as much cutting, building and experimenting in pre-production as I am pulling together the projects. I love being surrounded by people who aren’t afraid to come up with new and different ways of doing things, and actually have the wherewithal to make the ideas happen. That is what it's all about my friends!
(sneak a peek below and enjoy a sweet tune by our friend Dick Prall from Authentic Records titled "The Cornflake Song")
Cheers to fearless innovation everywhere!
michele.
.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
feNcInG tuRnEd StaIR rAiLiNg
Sweet Salvage Style!
When in need of a unique stair railing.....Do It Yourself, as they say. It can be as easy as recycling tossed out steel fencing.
For quite some time now, I’ve been wanting to play around with taking fencing from the home improvement store and figuring out how to manipulate it into ballisters and railings for my stairway. Well, I still haven’t gotten the chance to make that happen, but I AM finally about to install some handmade stair railings created out of old steel fencing…railings that my clever dad has created. He likes to weld and has created things like trellises and sculptures for us all, so I thought this project would be right up his alley. I set him up with some pieces of old fencing that were getting tossed out and a drawing (which he never follows anyway, so I really don’t know why I bother with that step) and asked if he could turn it into a railing for us. He has half of it completed and not only does he not like to follow directions, he also doesn’t do the same thing twice, so each section is different. But as you can imagine, I totally appreciate that kind of stuff, so it is absolutely perfect and works beautifully in our space. The only thing I was adamant about with him was “PLEASE DO NOT PAINT IT!” (he sometimes likes to paint his welded creations, which I’m not real fond of because I think it takes away from the natural patina of the metal) Even as a new railing in my home, I wanted to let the rust and the uneven patina show through, the grind marks shine, and just seal it up as is. That’s the kind of stuff that I think gives a piece character – the things that just naturally happen and are very tough to re-create. We looked into having it powder coated with a clear finish, but we would have had to remove all the rust for it to adhere, so that option was out. I asked my friend, John Brommel (who is the most amazing metal artist) what I should use and he recommended this product by Sherwin Williams called Sher-Coat. This stuff is awesome! It’s more of an industrial type product designed to take a lot of wear and tear. We used an air sprayer to apply and it finished the railings off beautifully. It gave them a nice finish and didn’t cover up any of the natural beauty. We’re looking into other uses for this product on materials like wood and concrete to see if it could be the perfect sealant for some of our outdoor projects. I’ll definitely share whatever discoveries we uncover!
Enjoy the pics below set to some great tunes by Jerry Chapman with the title "I think you know" off his Put Me Together album. I hope it inspires you to embrace the creative talents of those around you and work together to make great things happen! We'll share the down and dirty, how-to side of things and what goes into converting a fence into a stair railing in an upcoming episode of MBCTC.
If I ever move….you know I’m taking that railing with me, right?!
Cheers!
michele.