October 13, 2012

My Oriental Flair

     This little gem of a project happened into the store a few weeks ago.  The old tole-style chandelier needed a complete redo; from cleaning and washing, to rewiring and painting.  The burly, yet competent boys in the workshop took care of the inner-workings of this vintage beauty.  The chandelier had great bones but a tattered exterior.  I was given the job of painting this fixture in an unexpected style which challenged my scope and, honestly ,made me a bit leery.

The "store", aka Summerour Lamps, is a 40 year old family business in Charlotte, NC.  The facets of the business include lamp building and design, shade making, restoration and repair, as well as a retail side open the the public, and a wholesale line which is shipped and sold throughout the U.S.  The stores style is mostly traditional, but style does not take precedence when is comes to what we can restore, repair, and custom design.  We can make a lamp out of pretty much anything...within reason;  boots, guns, antlers, golf clubs, musical instruments, wine bottles, etc seem to come to mind.  We work extensively with antique porcelains and chandeliers.  We can clean, restore, rewire and UL Approve most lamps and fixtures.  Lampshades, from drums to traditional full fabric shades, are made in-house.  Our services extend to relines and recovers of your special lampshades as well.  This synopsis will hopefully give you insight as to why I like cool lamps! This business in not in my blood, it is my husband's family business, yet I am immersed in it and inspired by it everyday.


The chandelier was brought in by a long time, loyal customer who was redesigning a bathroom in her home.  The antique dresser, shown below, was being re-purposed into the bathroom vanity and plumbed for a sink. She wanted the chandelier to match the dresser...



When I paint, I paint without rules.  I've never taken a class, so I simply do what comes naturally to me.  My style has definitely evolved over time, however I don't feel I am a "seasoned" enough artist to paint in someone else's composition.  Does that make sense??  Even though the technique used on the dresser looked fairly elementary, I was very intimidated!  Oriental/Asian is really not my personal style even though we sell a lot of it in the store. It took me about four days of walking by the chandelier, circling it, making mean faces at it...before I actually took the plunge.

I used this funky little paint brush, that I bought at a local art store, to paint all the scenes in red.



The ivory/ecru background was first spray painted on, then I went back over it with a brush to better match the color and to give it more of a hand painted, old look.  A few strokes of umber on a very dry brush finished off the weathered look.







I work with a lot of interior designers and I truly respect what they do.  I am sure all of these designers have a personal style, a comfort zone where their energy is most in-tune; however I admire the way they adapt.  They face the challenge of stepping outside of their box and into someone else's personal space and designing it for them!  Their eye matters, but their personal style has to be set aside.  It's not about them.  Kudos to those designers who accomplish this on a daily basis.  It's not easy!  This chandelier project has taught me to open my mind, to broaden my scope, and to experiment with different techniques and styles.  Who knows what I have yet to discover about myself...an unforeseen shade of indigo!




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