Sorry I’ve been a little behind in my posts. Spring has sprung and so have the floorcloth orders! Theresa and I have been painting like crazy; trying to keep up. A while ago I mentioned a mural project which will be done for the new Weathersfield, VT school. Theresa has prepped the canvas and tomorrow we’ll figure out the hem, which needs to accept an iron bar for hanging. This is basically a hanging floorcloth, made on #8 canvas and painted using the same techniques as we incorporate for the floorcloths. We will paint a coat on the back to give the piece a little more stability, but other than that it will be created just as we do the floorcloths.

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Sometimes it doesn’t take much to carry a design from something very basic to something very intriguing. Usually, it all comes down to loosening up and letting the paint do its own thing. Read the rest of this entry »

Your floorcloth should lie very flat to the floor. If it doesn’t people may trip over it and the edges can get bent over and cause cracking in the painted surface. If you are buying a floorcloth, check for the following:

1) That it has a hem- I prefer a sewn hem, but a well-glued hem is good too. At least a 1″ hem will provide enough weight to help keep the edge down to the floor.

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Early American Life Magazine does a special issue every year which features a list of the top Traditional Craftsmen in America. Canvasworks has been selected 9 times, and will be featured again this year in the August 2008 edition of the magazine. It’s a tough process. Applicants send several photos of their best work, and must explain in detail how their work is historically correct. A group of jurors, made up of historical crafts experts, reviews all of the applications and chooses only a handful from each category. Read the rest of this entry »

Today Theresa and I delivered and installed a floorcloth to a home right here in Weathersfield. This was a very interesting project because the homeowners requested it to be T-shaped to offer the most coverage for their well-used front entryway. Since they live just 2 miles away, I visited the home and took measurements and photos and even met face-to-face with their sheep and chickens! That was last fall when the leaves were still on the trees and the grass was still at least a little green. I snapped a shot of the view from the living room window:

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What was that? Did I hear someone ask, “What’s a floor cloth?”"

Well it’s a piece of very heavyweight canvas, several times thicker than a painter’s drop cloth, which has been shrunk, primed and sewn to whatever size is needed. Then layers and layers of flexible, durable paint are applied, a design appears, and then the final 5 coats of flexible polyurethane are applied.

So where can you use it? Just about anywhere your floor is bare- front hall, kitchen sink, or dining room, or (my favorite) under the kitchen table, where the most food gets spilled, the most dogs hang out and where kids insist on making a mess!

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Today I went on a little journey. Understand that I rarely leave my little paradise here in Weathersfield, but from time to time I have to hit the pavement and show people my floorcloths and check out what the rest of the world is doing. I headed Southwest to Manchester, Vermont, about an hour’s drive away. I drove through snow squalls and over huge potholes. It’s not even spring here and we’re paying the price of a very snowy winter!

One of my first stops was Equinox Antiques , where I met with owner, Mark Reinfurt. As I stepped inside the door and took a quick look around his shop, a painting caught my eye. Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you who don’t know me very well, I have a little bit of a split personality thing. I design and paint and hang out in the studio for what seems like endless hours (and this time of year it pretty much is) but when I’m not in the studio I’m usually in the barn or sitting on a horse. I have been a “horseperson” a lot longer than I’ve been an “artisan”. Read the rest of this entry »

Canvasworks is going to try something new for workshops.

Here’s the deal:

If you would like to attend a workshop I need you to help me out.

1. Pick a weekend and post the dates here under “comments”. What seems to work best is to do a long day on Saturday (9 am -5 pm) and a shorter day on Sunday (9am to 2 pm). If that weekend works for me I’ll leave it posted and see if we get some more people signing up. If it doesn’t work for me, I’ll let you know and you can try another date. Please be advised that my daughter and I compete in horse shows throughout the summer and weekends are pretty much booked up from May until the end of August. Go ahead and post a date. If I can make it work I will. But I reserve the right to deny any dates proposed.

2. If you know of anybody who would like to join you that will increase your chances of getting the weekend you prefer.

3. The weekend use of my studio is $800. If I have 4 students (the minimum I need to run the class), they’ll each pay $200. If I have 8 (that’s the maximum I can take) it’s $100 each. This seems to work out pretty fairly. The more people are attending, the less individual attention you’ll get, but you also pay less.

4. Each attendee will receive a 2′ X 3′ primed and hemmed floorcloth, a full set of brushes, a pattern of their choice and enough paint to complete the painting part of the project. It’s up to each student to purchase and apply the polyurethane after the class. Bring a bag lunch each day and if you need a place to stay overnight I can suggest accommodations.