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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Bradford's Elegant Light Fixture Panel

Bradford is our most popular reader--both for his expertise, (which we all enjoy him sharing with us)--and for his comments and questions about the projects of other contributors. He is always uplifting and complimentary. That's a wonderful quality and we love him for it.
Today, he has shared pictures of another one of his wonderful projects. And this is what he told me about it............"here are a couple of pictures of a project I did for a friend years ago...It is of an overhead lighting fixture in a guest bathroom....I don't think the pattern for this come from a book but rather one of the packets that had a pattern sheet and idea sheet years ago"
Neither can I remember where the ivy patterns came into the picture. We did them in several different books. It was a very popular design in one of the QVC kits and I demonstrated it a lot--for years. Everyone seems to remember it the most--because it was the demo and also because of the popularity of ivy. It was the #1 selling design for several years in a row. 
So  Bradford's explanation is all we know about the bathroom light fixture project, but I wonder what the rest of the room looked like. Many times people will do a design that repeats an icon or motif that is somewhere else in the decorating scheme. Chances are--there were more ivy leaves. If not before they finished, then certainly after the panel was put in place. His panel turned out so beautiful --someone would have been inspired to expand the theme. I would probably want to see this border repeated around the 3 upper edges of the vanity mirror--especially if it was a slab mirror without a frame. You could make a lot of ivy leaves as suncatchers and stick them in a random pattern around the 2 sides and upper edge of the mirror-- and then use Etching Medium as the background to dull the area of mirror outside and around the ivy. Etching medium is the perfect mirror effect, because it creates a colorless contrast to the part that you leave open in the center and creates an effective framing effect. And it's easy enough to clean, occasionally. Just wipe (gently) with a cloth sprayed with window cleaner. Be careful to leave the center and bottom of the mirror open because they have to be cleaned every week. 
I got so excited about the ivy leaves motif, that I dug around and found some additional ivy projects that could have gone along with this ceiling panel. I didn't find a mirror with ivy around it, but I found a window and some accessories. Bradford, forgive me for slipping in on your project, but it inspired me to share MORE!
Here is the window. It could have been done by making the leaves as suncatchers and arranging them in a pleasing way on the window, then adding Redi-Lead or cured leading strips for the tendrils. Each of these leaves has white combed into the green around the edge. It gives the ivy leaves a different look.

Here are some accessories that you could do with the same leaves. In this case, it also makes more sense to do them as suncatchers and arrange them FIRST, then add tendrils and Crystal Clear for the background to hold them all in place.

2 comments:

  1. Do u have the stencil for the ivy??

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  2. Please I had them at one point n lost them and would love to have it again. Thank you. mjnarveaz@gmail.com

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