Imitating marble and wood.

My God, time has really flied ever since I started at Tibro's craft academy. A whole semester has already passed! I thought I would write a lot here and update you on what we are up to in school, but time has just disappeared. But now I'm here!

During this semester we've been practicing the basics in decorative painting, imitating different kind of marble and wood, ornaments and been studying shades and light. We've also had furniture history and studied various ornaments and design languages ​​through the centuries, which we will later learn to weave into our painting. Very exciting! When we paint, we use and old technique called "beverage mix" (beer + pigment) in the first layer and then half oil and pigment in the remaining layers. But we have also worked with a slightly more modern technique/paint called marbling base. For me who just been drawing with pencils before, this is a whole new world! But it's so much fun to paint with oil and pigments!

Here are some pictures of what we have been doing lately at school.

Painted kålmårds and ekebergs marble with shadows.

Imitating wood - flaming birch.

Imitating wood - different techniques painting oak.

Imitating wood - walnut with frame.

Imitating wood - walnut with frame.

Imitating wood - The beginning of an intarsia.

Imitating wood - finished intarsia, walnut with frame and different kind of birch.

Shadow technique - The beginning of a Mascaron painted with oil. (Mascaron is a relief ornament in the form of a stylized grinning face that merges with a surrounding ornamentation.)

Shadow technique - The beginning of a Mascaron. This sour man is not finished yet.

Now these basic courses are over, but I will continue to immerse myself in decorative painting during term three. We have now started two new courses - gilding and molding. And it's sooo much fun! We are sculpting, molding, building frames and gold leafs and imitation leafs are flying back and forth all over the class room! :)

More pictures and info about that is coming soon. Bye bye for now. Talk to you soon!

Birth posters at Gallerix!

As long as I've wanted to tell you this! Lately, I've been working with Gallerix to create two new babies for their super popular birth poster collection! AND NOW THEY ARE LIVE!

Vi call these two babies for Cuddle and Sweet dreams.

The illustrations are drawn with lots of love! With these motifs, you can then create your own unique birth poster by choosing framing, texts, birth data and color. When you enter your child's birth length, the length of the sketch is adjusted accordingly and printed on a scale of 1: 1, natural size. In addition to your child's name, you can also enter the date of birth, time of birth, birth weight and a personal little message that makes your birth poster completely unique.

These posters costs SEK 495 / pc. Psst! Right now Gallerix has 50% off on all their posters for all new members on their website!

You can only find these birth posters at my new, lovely retailer Gallerix. If you are curious and want to know more, you can also read more about my creative journey and the creation behind these babies in an exclusive interview with Gallerix HERE.

Photos taken by: Martina Wärenfäldt (www.mstudio.se)

Tibro's craft academy

A month has already passed at school and it's crazy how time suddently flies. I am studying at Tibro's craft academy where I'm learning everything I can about decor painting, surface finish and gilding. Until now, we have mainly practiced how to imitate and paint different kind of marble (mixed with some light and shadow studies and furniture history). It's so much fun to finally be able to sit and paint and be creative full time again!

Here are some pictures from the school and the past month.

Practicing "Verte de mer" marble.

Our class room.

Ornaments and shadow technique.

Different stones and marble that we will learn how to paint.

Our teacher is going through how to paint cararra marble (Photo by Kenneth Modin).

Making a foundation for trompe l'oeil - practice. All students are going to paint a butterfly with shadow.

Finished cararra marble with butterfly.

White door vs. a decor painted door.

Ida is checking out the painted panels in the classroom (we are about to learn how to make all these different marblings and grain paintings during our education)

It's so wonderful to be up and running again! I think I will update a little here in between for those who want to keep up with me in my everyday life among brushes, pencils and panels. If you are curious and want to know more about the education or Tibro's craft academy, you can read more HERE. It's truly an inspiring place where we share roof with several other creative educations such as wood sculptors, upholsterers and restorers.

Talk to you soon!

- Sanna