Artist Spotlight: Part Ninety-Eight and Ninety-Nine

I have two amazing artists this time, neither of which you've seen here before.  First, Dyanne of Deeliteful Jewelry in Van Buren, Arkansas.

Dyanne is a self-described widow, mm, daughter, sister, aunt, fiancee, and friend.  In addition to her online presence, she's actually got a brick and mortar business, so kudos to her for taking that leap!

She was originally led to create exciting jewelry with beads, and lets her inner goddess guide her as to color, size, shape, and combinations.  Like me, she loves bright colors.

In 2012, she added creating lampwork beads of her own to her repertoire.

Her business is a one-woman operation, from creation to shipping.  Her jewelry is unique, and each piece is one of a kind.  She's definitely got an eye for design.

Even better, since her jewelry is inspired by her own dreams, you know you'll never find anyone else making or wearing the same pieces.  If you're anything like me, this is hugely appealing, since I love to stand out in a crowd.

To keep up with her, be sure to follow her blog.

The second artist I have for you is something entirely different, and I love it!  Check out ThinkEco2.

This stuff is just phenomenal!  Meet Brian Behncke and Jules Lavallee, of San Diego, CA, the founders of ThinkEco2 and the brains behind these gorgeous recycled wares.

Brian is a hardworking construction guy with a passion for building eco-chic cedar products.  He works with a crew to build the products, while he and Jules help the community by building jobs and donating many of their beautiful wine racks to help local charities and fundraisers.

I agree with them that it's important to be eco-conscious and to give back.  To that end, they use 100% reclaimed wood for their products and employ 100% US employees.  They refuse to harm additional trees to make their products.  And heck, they even add to the flora by making planters!

My favorite, though, is this amazing patio table.

You can keep up with them on their blog or feel free to contact them to discuss custom orders, which they're happy to fill.

Is It Still Sawdust If It's From Sanding?

I've probably mentioned that we have expensive taste, Eric and I.  We can't help it.  Show us 100 photos of anything, and without even knowing we're doing it, we'll pick the most expensive one.

And we wanted a new coffee table, preferably one on wheels.

See, last year for Valentine's Day, we bought ourselves a Wii and Wii Fit.  We both really feel like we need to be more in shape, and when it's not walking weather, the Wii is a great way to go.  Plus, it's really fun.  We're both competitive too, so we can easily "encourage" (read:  ridicule) each other to try harder on it.  What we had, though, was a big, heavy octagonal glass coffee table, which is not easy to move.  I had it from before we were married.  In the old place, our living room was formatted differently, and we could work around it.  Not so much in this place, cool as the house may otherwise be.

So... yeah.  Wheeled coffee table.

I did a quick online search, and found this table, at Restoration Hardware.  For about $1,000, with shipping.  Huh.

Well, Eric did a search, and he found this.

That right there is the photo that was posted on eBay, of the exact same sort of factory cart that Restoration Hardware uses.  We went crazy over it, jumping out of our skin to "win" it (or... y'know... win the right to purchase it, since that's what an auction actually is), and we got it for $305!!!

So we took a road trip out to PA and got it into the Jeep.

And then into our driveway.

It was ours!  Mwahahahahaha (can you see me rubbing my hands together like an evil genius here?) hahaha!

Every rusty bit of it!  Doesn't look like much, I know.  But wait.

First order of business... taking the whole thing apart.  Yikes.

Second, getting off as much of the rust as possible, with wire brushes, a wire brush attachment to a drill, and naval jelly.

It was a messy job.

And then we had to prime and paint the iron pieces.

We used an easier method for the nuts and bolts, letting them soak in a bowl of vinegar first.

The wood was in desperate need of sanding.  Scraping too, since it looks like somewhere along the line someone painted it with some thick oil paint.

I love the smell of sawdust (sanddust?), but I think I breathed an awful lot of it in.  That, combined with the advent of spring and the starting of leaf buds on the trees, gave me a very sneezy time of it.

When we turned it over to sand the bottom, we discovered something pretty cool.  Someone had written 7/6/27.  We know that these carts were used to transport large items in factories, like furniture, from about 1900 to the 1930s.  Could it be that this one was built in 1927?

Neat, right?

Anyway, then I stained it.  We chose Ipswich Pine.  We both have an affinity for reddish-toned wood but wanted something fairly light and natural.  It came out darker than we thought it would, but we love it, and it looks great with our other furniture.

We could have sanded it further, or even planed it down smooth, but we really like that it looks so weathered.  It's got history.  And you can't tell from the photo, but if you touch it, the wood is really soft and smooth from all the sanding we did do.

Once it dried, it came inside, and everything went back on.  It took a lot of muscle, so I left it mostly to Eric.

I touched up the flat black enamel paint on the cast iron, and waxed the wood to protect it.  So we went from this...

... to this.

Love!

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