A Chair, a Book, and some Paintings

chapel chair

A few weeks ago in our wanderings H and I went to Arkwright's Mill in Cromford, Derbyshire, for little lunch in the cafe and so H could have a wander around the exterior of the Mill. There is a small Charity shop for the mill, a tiny little room filled with books, bric-a-brac, a little thrifting was called for. Sitting forlorn and dusty in a corner behind some truly hideous pottery was this little chapel chair. It was love at first sight, and a bargain at £15. I have seen others for anywhere between £50 and £100 so it was definitely a keeper.

1950 copy of Alice in Wonderland

My Mother in Law helped me clean it with some wire wool and oil it down and it sits happily beside the fireplace. M isn't entirely convinced, but I think its fits perfectly into the house it just needs a little cushion on it to make it perfect. Along with the chair I bought a copy of Alice in Wonderland from 1950, its battered and torn in places, so it was the perfect to tear up and stain for my vintage book page paintings.

pages from the above book stained and painted

Which as you can see above is exactly what I did, painting some toadstools for a custom order. They turned out brilliantly especially the teal one, though for some reason I can never seem to photograph the book page paintings to do them any justice. I stained another dozen or so pages in the same tea staining sitting so might attempt to sketch out some doodles to paint on the pages. I really want to paint more toadstools though, no particular reason I just really like them, I definitely need to do some more teal ones, I love teal and mixing toadstools, teal, and tea stained book pages just seems to fit together so well.