Embrace Your Mistakes

A couple of years back my grandmother got me a vintage sewing machine desk from a thrift store.  It is very functional; it stores my sewing machine when not in use and holds all types of supplies.  But it wasn't very pretty.  So I had this idea that I would paint it.  At first I thought I would paint waves on it, but my dining room has changed into my art room and I wanted something more colorful.  Instead of practicing on a canvas and planning, I just went for it. 

I had a base coat of spray paint that was dark blue for the original wave idea.  I thought I would add some crackle paint and paint a coat of white over it.  It worked well enough until I started painting details over the crackle finish.  It just peeled off.  The crackle paint did not adhere properly to the spray paint, and I had to scrape the entire thing.  Ugh!!!!!!!!!!

Here it is in the process of being scraped down.

The terrible mess it made in my floor.

With a coat of gesso and the back of it painted black.



I have learned a lot from my mistake, mainly to plan, practice, to take the time to do it right.  I am practicing on canvas right now and learning to paint, repaint, and experiment.  Something I may not have learned if I had not made this little mistake.  I think crackle paint would have been boring, now I am in the middle of a bright and beautiful painting that I am pleased with.  I am also very happy with my canvases, and will share them with you in the next few days.  And I will also be sharing some more work in progress shots of this desk.