Turtle Study

 Turtles have always been one of my favorite subjects for driftwood art. On my latest piece I started with two great stones -- they were the perfect shape and the green/black color had just the right texture for turtles. I'd been saving a piece of sun bleached driftwood I found a while ago. I thought this was a great size for this project. 

The question was, the composition. I found a few different pieces of driftwood I thought might work and did some rough arrangements. I changed out the driftwood, the placement and the direction of the turtles. See these variations below.

   

And here is the final!

Painted Driftwood Fish

Painted Driftwood Fish - Fish #1

I've collected a few great pieces of driftwood that look like fish. I've decided to paint them to use as decoration in my yard. Here, I take you through the process.

Step 1: Find the perfect piece of driftwood. This is the hardest part!

Step 2: Place on a piece of craft paper and trace the shape.
Step 3: Draw your design on the paper and cut out.

 

Step 4: Adhere your drawing to the piece of driftwood with a couple dots of double stick tape to hold it in place.

Step 5: Slide a piece of black or white trace paper under your drawing. With a blunt object, trace the design onto the driftwood.

Step 6: Now select your colors and paint.
Step 7: Admire your handiwork!

I have two more driftwood pieces that will become fish. Stay tuned.

 



Driftwood Signs Beach and Lake

Every now and then I find a piece of driftwood that is just the perfect size and shape that is screaming to be a sign! That was the case with these two pieces of wood -- BEACH and LAKE.

I was able to order wood letters from this great Etsy shop in Arizona https://www.etsy.com/shop/azwoodlady. Last year for Christmas I bought a saw for my husband so he could cut letters for me....did I mention I ordered these from AZWOODLADY....never mind, that's another story for another time!

I used two colors of paint on these letters. For BEACH I used the blue as the base and covered it with an aqua, then sanded/distressed it to pull some of the blue forward. For LAKE, I did the opposite. I then added a paste wax and buffed it out.

I just love the color and depth of the signs. Just a fun little addition to any ones beach or lake house. See the signs in my Etsy store here.

Muskegon Sailboat Project

I love how this project turned out. See all the details below.

I received a note via Etsy asking if I could customize the head sail on a driftwood sailboat. I responded 'most likely send me a picture.' This is what I received!

 

Woo, that wasn't what I expected. I thought maybe the sail had a blue stripe on it or something. At first I thought 'no way' but then I started to study it a bit further. I was asked to make two. Luckily I had two pieces of driftwood nearly the same size but they faced opposite ways. So I started by drawing out the colors and then creating a mirror image of the drawing. I then cut out each of the pieces.

 

I was able to find batik fabric which I think looks a lot like water color painting in all of the colors I needed.

 

 

Then I drew the warrior facing both directions and cut him out of black fabric.

 

 

I fused and appliqued all of the colors on to the sail and here's the final product!

 

 

This was a very fun, challenging project. The sailboats are gifts to two children who lost their father. This was the head sail on his boat. It was a pleasure to be a part of preserving his memory.