Wednesday 24 April 2013

Why don’t you come on over, Valerie?

Well, Open Studios is over for another year, but I just wanted to show you our greeter-lady, Valerie.

valerie face

I have a folder full of display ideas, but I really wanted this one – a lovely vintage lady standee just like ones I had seen here on Nicky Grace’s blog.

Mum set to work and found the original on google images, she was a Jantzen advertising girl.

valerie original

We blew her up to just over 5 feet tall (from about 12”) and used a free website called blockposters.com to print her out tiled onto A4 sheets. Mum added a skirt and also a half moon to the bottom to help her stand up and to strengthen those little ankles.

valerie drawn out 1

Mum transferred the image to a sheet of 1cm thick MDF (£6 from Wickes for 2’ x 6’). Transferring an image onto a soft material like wood is easy – place the template over the top and redraw the lines, pressing hard with something like a ballpoint pen. When you remove the template you should be able to see the groove left behind by the pen.

valerie drawnout

The cutting out is the only bit I did! Mum’s not a friend of power tools, but I am. A quick whiz with the jigsaw and we had this:

valerie cutout

And then mum did her painting thing:

painting valerievalerie with original

You’ve got to admit, she’s very good at it!

valerie workshop 2

And here’s Valerie greeting visitors to our workshop!

valerie workshop

Isn’t she amazing?

Beccy

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