1. Stencilling on a Grand Scale
To make a big impression, says
stencilling expert Sandra Buckingham, you don't have to re-create the
Sistine Chapel. Start small, she counsels, and the rest will follow.
Buckingham's latest book Stencilling on a Grand Scale
leads do-it-yourselfers beyond the realm of decorative borders featured
in her best-selling "Stencilling: A Harrowsmith Guide" to a creative
canvas whose limits are determined only by space, time and imagination.
The key to her strategy is that a large stencilled work -- be it a door,
wall, screen or floor -- can be the seamless sum of its parts. In other
words, rather than using an expensive, unwieldy, multi-layered stencil
to create a life-sized tree, use three 10 inch stencils of leaf
clusters, laying and re-laying them to achieve the desired effect. The
only limit to the ultimate size of the finished painting is the room
you've set aside for it.
Whether you are fashioning a greeting
card or a 40-foot mural, Buckingham recommends the same modest
techniques. The methods used to faux-finish a wall -- a vine rambling up
a corner, windows stencilled onto an actual door, a false shelf with
flowerpots stencilled in an alcove -- can likewise be applied to
furniture or folding screens and can be used on any scale.
A
technical review of traditional and new stencilling tools is followed by
a refresher course in basic stencilling methods, including stencil
cutting, hard-surface stencilling, stencilling on primed canvas,
overlays, registration and special effects, among them shading, shadows,
plant detail and painting skies and landscapes. A chapter on freeform
stencilling, with and without masks, prepares readers for the
larger-scale works that are the book's central objective.
Buckingham advises perfecting your free-form skills on less ambitious
projects (lampshades, borders, placemats) before moving to grander
subjects. By the later chapters, stencillers will be comfortable
tackling everything from picket and wrought iron fences, lattice work,
garden gates, French doors, veranda doors and curtains to paving stones,
terra-cotta tiles, carpets, mosaic floors, stone columns, balustrades,
terraces, garden walls and room dividers. As always, Buckingham's genius
lies in inspiration, and Stencilling on a Grand Scale introduces a how-to-world that has no boundaries.
2. Stencilling: A Harrowsmith Guide
Complete with clear illustrations and photographs, presents foolproof
instructions for beginners. It combines step-by-step exercises along
with a range of specific projects for all levels of skill.