Rosemaling

Finished dala horse

It's interesting how tastes change over a lifetime. I never used to like sauerkraut, but I just ordered a Rueben sandwich last night and the sauerkraut and rye bread were SO GOOD. I was never interested in rosemaling. Actually at one point I remember thinking it was overwrought, but here we are years later and I'm suddenly and inexplicably interested. Who can possibly predict these things? 

I have no experience in painting and find the idea intimidating. I found an artist, Lise Lorentzen, who has published a number of instructional videos on YouTube and sells some pattern packets on Etsy. One of her consistent sayings is "don't worry, it's just paint" so I decided to give it a go. Since I had a quiet Saturday and it takes time for paint to dry between coats, before I knew it, I was rotating between painting 4 different projects- the dala horse, an old wooden fish I'd bought a while back on eBay and wasn't sure what to do with, a wooden birdhouse that I was making into another license plate birdhouse, and the base coats on a 12" wood plate for which I'd purchased another pattern packet and paints.

Rotating between 4 projects

12" Dala Horse

Supplies:

• XXL Dala horse, Lusk Scandia Woodworks, $42 with shipping
• Digital pattern packet on Etsy, $9.75
• Acrylic paints, mediums and 3 brushes, Jo Sonja, $79 (includes paint colors for a plate project, as well)
• Transfer paper, $6 at Michael's

I started by lightly sanding the horse and getting a couple of base coats on. Then I used transfer paper to transfer the design onto the horse and started painting. It turned out better than I thought it might, mostly because I'm following an experienced artist's painting suggestions with the transfer.

Unpainted dala

2 basecoats and glaze applied

Held the pattern up to a window to trace a mirror image for the other side

Transfer lines traced, starting to paint

2 coats of scrolls, will add some white in areas then detailing

Birdhouse

Supplies:

• Acrylic paint, polyacrylic protective finish, old license plate, wire, old silver spoon (all from stash)
• Wood birdhouse- on sale for $5.40

One of Lise's tricks is to use a hairdryer to get the sticky label off of purchased wooden items- worked like a charm. After a couple of base coats (which take longer to apply because you have to rotate and paint different sides so it can dry properly) I decided to use a couple of the dala horse motifs on the bird house for fun.

Wood fish

I bought this old fish on eBay inspired by some of the painted fish I'd seen in Portugal, but I didn't really have an idea of how to paint it and it sat around for a couple of months. I decided on blue and yellow and gave a go at free-handing it. My c-strokes are a little paltry, but it came out alright.

As purchased

Finished

Finished for the weekend

12" Hallingdal-style plate

Supplies: 

Wood plate $5.99 on sale. Pattern packet $7.75 on Etsy.

I got the base coats and glaze on. Painting the red rim was finicky and took several touch ups. I tried to do a burled finish on the outer rim using a folded up plastic bag, but after all it's not really visible. This pattern is ambitious and I'll have to get more courage to continue.