Craft Project

My assignment: turn two bowling pins into gifts for people who are retiring from a bowling team.

This project was for my friend Sherry, a former workmate from the Office of Education. The pins didn't look like this when Sherry brought them. They were beat up, well-used. It took 3 coats of gesso to get them to this stage.

Disclaimer: I do watercolors, and I haven't even done much of that in recent years (like 15). I have a stockpile of acrylic paints but do not claim to know how to use them. I have a huge assortment of colored pencils I'd used on gourds. This was a challenging project for me.

When Sherry gave me a list of what should go on the pins, I felt like I'd gotten in over my head. A map of Colombia, a marriage, a travel trailer, a golfer, ice fishermen, a slot machine, bingo. Eeeeek!

I started on the first pin with colored pencils, the same as I would use them on gourds. That didn't work very well. The gourd surface seemed similar to the gesso surface, but colored pencil didn't hold very well on gesso. I decided against acrylics because I'd have to use a brush and my hands aren't as steady as they once were. (Not that I've ever been very good with a brush.)

So I went to Michael's (a craft store) and came back with an assortment of Sharpie pens. Some were the regular ones and some were oil-based paint Sharpies. The oil-based ones worked best.

Anyway, this is how the pins ended up.

Certainly NOT fine art. The style is cartoony, but Sherry was happy with them and I learned a lot. Bob says he hopes I learned to say "no" when someone asks me to do an art project. He got tired of my shrieking when something didn't work. I AM a linear thinker, and can only work on one thing at a time. I didn't do anything else until these were finished.

Now I have to get outside and clean chicken pens.