September 21, 2010

Fleur de Lis



I heart fleur de lis motifs!

My husband and I, plus the beasties, often go up and visit his family on weekends. They have a spare bedroom that has pretty much become our room. My mother in law was redecorating and I offered to do some art for the walls, and below is my contribution. The overall style of the house is traditional with a lot of metal work designs. I was trying to get these fleur de lis to look like hammered metal, without the cost or effort! The green and purple colors I took from the bedspread which she already had. I chose a poem in french about spring because the sun is so beautiful through the window and fleur de lis is a french term!
I started with three canvases of equal size and painted them with green and tan spray paint. Then I added some texture with a sponge in the reddish purple. The inscriptions are done in a brown sharpie, I also put the english translation on the backs just for reference. My scrip writing is casual at best! The fleur de lis them selves were sketched and then cut out of brown paper bags. I then took my white school glue and did the contouring. When the glue dried I sprayed over with the brown spray paint. To highlight the ridges of glue I sponged white heavy on the tips and lighter towards the centers. Spray adhesive on the backs of the motifs secured them to the canvas, and there ya go! They were so light that pushpins were all we needed to hang them.
I like sets of three, not only because of the number, but because you can arrange the pieces in multiple ways for style or function of your space. The triangle way she hung these above the bed makes a bigger headboard. 






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