I love that word. "Estate" sale, "Estate" sale. Like saying it somehow makes all the really old plastic furniture worth a little more. But, as usual, I digress. If there were an ugly art contest, like those ever-so-sweet ugly pet competitions, this would win, hands down.
The purchase had to be mulled over. After all, what in the world was I going to do with this? There was only one reason I couldn't pass it up. It was a perfect match to one of the images on my recently purchased toile fabric for my kitchen. And where there is one tacky piece of perfect art, there is always it's mate, and they both came home with me.
They sat in a drawer in my craft room for about 6 months and I decided to take them apart the other day to hopefully inspire my creative juices. It worked! And glory be! All the other owners of tacky art would have taken their mildly hideous pieces home from the competition the minute I walked in with these ugly mutts. What I found inside was a cheap piece of molded silver plastic so flimsy I could cut it with a pair of scissors. So I did.
I trimmed the corners, just in case I find a use for the small corner border pieces then cut around the center frame with a ruler and my utility knife. Did I say "thin piece of molded plastic" because it was a piece of cake to cut. Each piece of art got a good coat of cream colored spray paint to cover up all the green. After mere minutes in the Arizona sun these babies were ready for a coat of spray glue on the back and voile'.
I glued them to the inside cabinet on either side of my kitchen sink, let the spray glue dry overnight, then used paintable kitchen caulk around the edge of each picture to ensure the look of a cohesive piece. When dry, I simple brushed a light coat of the same cabinet paint to give each piece a hint of wood grain.
A completely new life has been created and I will challenge anyone (who hasn't read this little blurg) to suspect the humble beginnings of these beautiful, custom carvings.
