Annie Sloan • Paint & Colour: Abigail*Ryan

Showing posts with label Abigail*Ryan. Show all posts

6 August 2015

Abigail & Ryan Bell's Shibori Tie-Dye Fabric

For their final project as Painters in Residence, the brilliant husband and wife design-duo, Abigail and Ryan Bell (of Abigail*Ryan), created this beautiful shibori dyed fabric – using my paint, Chalk Paint® as a dye!

The pair were inspired by Japanese Shibori, a tie-dying method which uses real indigo. They knew that my paint would be a great substitute for indigo – it is highly pigmented and works incredibly well as a dye.

Abigail and Ryan worked with three blues from the Chalk Paint® palette to make different dyes – Aubusson Blue, Greek Blue and Napoleonic Blue. They mixed each colour with water, using a rough ratio of 1 part paint to 20 parts water.

The couple folded their cotton fabric and secured the folds with rubber bands and clothes pegs as they went along. They then soaked the folded fabric in the dye mix for around 30 minutes. Once the colour had absorbed they rinsed the fabric throughly, un-tied it and left it to dry. (I would recommend leaving your fabric to drip dry outdoors or by a heater. Once dry, iron or tumble dry the fabric to seal the colour. Hand wash or wash the fabric on its own.)

The couple used the fabric to make gorgeous cushions, and to re-upholster the seat cushion of their Parker Knoll chair – which now looks fabulous with the wood painted in Napoleonic Blue too!

I hope you've enjoyed following Abigail & Ryan's projects as my Painters in Residence and have been inspired by their love of bright colours and design.

Yours, Annie

Follow Abigail and Ryan on Instagram, Facebook, and their website: www.abigailryan.com

And remember to follow #PaintersInResidence on Instagram and Facebook, as well as my Painters in Residence board on Pinterest.

12 June 2015

Abigail and Ryan Bell's Painted Ceramic Platters

After reading my book Colour Recipes for Painted Furniture and More, Abigail and Ryan (of Abigail*Ryan) were inspired by my technique to create a limed-oak look, using Chalk Paint® to create 'transparent colour'.

The couple bought white air-drying clay and began experimenting – rolling the clay out with a rolling
pin and then rolling their signature Irish Linen into the clay, creating texture from the weave of the fabric. Some of the platters were left to dry on plates with slightly curved surfaces and others were roughly cut out in platter shapes with craft knives. Once the clay had dried, they mixed a teaspoon of Chalk Paint® with roughly 3 teaspoons of my Clear Soft Wax to create coloured waxes in Old Violet, Antoinette and Emperor's Silk, which were all applied – rubbed, scrubbed and painted – on to the ceramics to highlight the texture that had been imprinted by the Linen. A few days later, they buffed the surfaces to create a sheen.

Reloved Magazine have featured this project with a step-by-step guide in their new issue, out this week!

Have you ever created a coloured wax using my paint, Chalk Paint®?

Yours, Annie

Follow this blog for exclusive pictures from Abigail and Ryan's residency and follow them on Instagram, Facebook, and her website: www.abigailryan.com

And remember to follow #PaintersInResidence on Instagram and Facebook, as well as my Painters in Residence board on Pinterest.

14 April 2015

Abigail & Ryan Bell's Floral Coral Chest of Drawers

For their second project as Painters in Residence, Abigail and Ryan Bell (of Abigail*Ryan) experimented with mixing my colours to create this bright – almost neon – coral pink.

Abigail and Ryan had a very specific colour in mind for this little chest of drawers – something retro and vibrant to match the clean lines of the piece. To find the colour that sang for them, they began mixing colours from the Chalk Paint® palette; Scandinavian Pink, Emperor's Silk, Barcelona Orange, a little English Yellow and Pure... and voilà! (Mixing colour with Pure as opposed to Old White will create a very clean, bright colour. Mixing colour with Old White creates a softer hue.)

As Abigail and Ryan were looking for a smooth, modern finish, they used my Flat Brush to apply the paint. The pair applied my Soft Clear Wax to protect and finish the piece, and then styled it with a vibrant floral arrangement bursting from the drawers. The perfect stand-out Spring piece.

Have you ever used Chalk Paint® to create a decorative display for your home or garden?

Yours, Annie

13 March 2015

Abigail & Ryan Bell's Succulent Chaise-Longe

For their first project as Painters in Residence, Abigail and Ryan Bell (of Abigail*Ryan) used my paint, Chalk Paint®, to cover an old Victorian chaise-longe in hand painted succulents. And doesn't it look amazing?

Abigail and Ryan painted the leather upholstery of the chaise-longe in Pure, to create a clean fresh canvas to work on. Abigail then began sketching simple succulent forms on to the surface with a pencil. As soon as she was happy with the shapes and composition, Abigail used a small artists' brush to paint the leaves – using certain colours directly from the pot, such as Henrietta and Emile, and mixing bespoke shades of green from Pure, Antibes, Florence and Provence. Abigail left the paint to dry completely and then used a black fine-liner pen to work detail into the paintwork.

The creative couple finished the transformation by painting the woodwork of the chaise-longe in Florence and the trim of the upholstery in Aubusson Blue. A couple of coats of my Soft Clear Wax were applied to the woodwork and the following day the surface was buffed with a clean cloth – this gives a soft sheen. They decided to leave the fabric un-waxed as the piece is purely decorative and will not be used as a chair.

What do you think? Have you ever been inspired to hand paint a pattern on to your furniture?

Yours, Annie

12 March 2015

Introducing Painters in Residence Abigail and Ryan Bell

“We are a husband and wife design duo based in Belfast, Northern Ireland and working together as Abigail*Ryan. We create bold hand-illustrated florals on our homeware using (we think) an uncommon colour palette. We have two pups, Angus (grumpy) & Hamish (happy-go-lucky) and three chickens, Helga, Brigitte and Henrietta.

And Annie's paint?

Colour really drives our approach to painting. We generally like flat modern finishes, and bold saturated hues. I'm [Abigail] an illustrator, so generally create my detail work with pen and ink, but I like the qualities that paint can bring to that and the possibilities that unfold when the two combine.

Annie is an incredibly warm and charming person, and we loved spending some time with her in Belfast. She has a great sense of fun, and an infectious smile and endless enthusiasm. A genuinely lovely person... and her professional achievements are really inspiring. It’s fantastic to see how a business that has been running for such a long time found its stride and now has over 1,200 stockists. A wonderful success story for any entrepreneur to aspire to!

What you’ll see from us

To kick off we hand painted a beautiful Victorian chaise, and we are also using the paint to create a Japanese Shibori-inspired tie-die project to overhaul a Parker Knoll chair frame. We’re also really inspired to create beautiful flat modern finishes with Annie's Flat Brushes, so we have been experimenting with those. They’re great tools!”

Here's a peek of projects to come:

Yours, Annie

23 February 2015

Introducing my new Painters In Residence

It’s been a fascinating ‘first take’ with my first 3 Painters In Residence – Janice Issitt, Alex Russell Flint, and Beau Ford. Their fantastic finished projects have shown between them what you can do with Chalk Paint® when you go with your passion and unleash your imagination. So a big thank you to Janice, Alex and Beau!

I hope their showcase of colour, techniques and style has inspired those who perhaps feel less confidant or more constrained by convention or taste to ‘give it a go’ and stretch the boundaries of what’s possible!

Painters In Residence: A recap

I started this project back in September 2014 (see my introductory post) to make real my motto of ‘endless possibilities’ and get upcyclers, recyclers, and potential painters to explore my Chalk Paint® at the edges of the colour wheel. I wanted to showcase people a bit like myself perhaps, who are naturally expressive, and are prepared to experiment with my Chalk Paint® and say ‘now what finish or effect can I achieve with this?’ They boldy go where their imagination takes them to create quite different finished products and interesting combinations of colours and motifs. They make you sort of you sit up and take notice and I like that.

So it’s no surprise that my next 3 Painters In Residence continue to extend the possibilities of Chalk Paint®. Please welcome them...

Abigail and Ryan Bell

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