Yard Sale Find: $5.00 Nichols & Stone Windsor Chair

One day I was driving my Subaru Outback around. I was looking for yard sales and would do a slow drive by just to see if anything catches my eye. I was in Framingham, MA. driving along in one of the hidden neighborhoods on the North side. As I was passing this one yard sale that seemed to be full of junk I saw a glimmer of red. It looked like a wooded chair. So I shifted into reverse and backed my car up. I walked up and I saw it. Hidden behind junk for sale was this magnificent chair. It was a seriously neglected chair. The barn red paint was cracked and chipped and in some areas worn down right to the wood. I asked the man how much he wanted for the chair and he simply said $5.00. That was a perfect price for me.
I took the chair home where I lived with it for a while until one day it spoke to me. The idea came. I sanded and stripped all the cracked paint off. It was when I was cleaning up the bottom of the seat that I noticed a label, a certificate of sorts, It read: Nichols & Stone. It gave the chair number and the color it was. It was also branded with a N&S. I had never heard of this brand before but figured it must be important so I looked it up on Google. Man, I got a history lesson on Chairs and the history of Gardner Massachusetts which happens to be something like the chair manufacturing capital. I have always had a bit of a passion for chairs but I never read about them until this chair entered my life.
It took me 5 weeks to finish the chair once I started. The seat of the chair and the back head rest are completely filled with dots. I put a bead of paint on my itty bitty paint brush tip and do each dot one at a time. I love the way that the dots seem to breathe. How if you look at them they seem to be alive. This chair is full of color and surprise. I have not had it in my home for over a year now. It was at the Five Crows for months where it attracted many an eye. I took it out in November to make room for the holidays. It is currently in the window of Debsan Paint in Downtown Natick, MA.
After reading up on the chair I discovered that they resell for $100-$150. It was a true find for me to get it for $5.00. I got to paint in my groovy way a very fine hand made/carved chair. This is one of my favorites and every time I see it I rediscover it all over again. I love the vibrant colors and classic style of this amazing Windsor chair.

A Wise Kitchen....

After taking a break through the Holidays and perhaps even the entire month of January I have returned to getting the job done.
I have sanded and scraped and sanded again, primed and sanded, primed again and sanded again. Now I have painted, sanded and painted again....I will sand once more and then paint again.
Yesterday I spent an hour sanding four doors. I hope that I will have all three coats on and blemish free by Wednesday. I am actually enjoying working on this project and I hope I can get the groove going and get the top finished and begin the bottom.
Thank you Matt & Jen for your patience.

Personalized Nightmare

 I am incredibly frustrated with this. Personalizing this box was simple and took me but a few minutes. Then the nightmare began.....I sprayed a clear coat for protection which actually caused the paint to bubble up. It was like I put a stripper on it. Needless to say I had to scrape and sand the entire top and start again...this time actually matching the cream color and then redoing the name again. Simple enough....but NO. After repainting it and personalizing it the second time.....I resealed it w/ a different clear coat that messed it up again. UNBELIEVABLE! Now I have sanded the top again and will start all over again and then seal it...hopefully three times truly is the charm!                              

Coffee on My Widowsill

This morning I sat on an old chair by the window just gazing out. The winter frost on the panes of glass gave way as the steam from my coffee danced from the windowsill. I don't often remember to just sit and observe and perhaps reflect. I am usually trying to get things done like get my daughter off to school, the cats fed and the dishes washed and from there my day unfolds.

Today, I awoke with an ache in my heart. I can't quite put a reason behind it other than perhaps it is that time of year again. The day of my birth is tomorrow and I am not quite sure what I should do about it. I use to ignore it but now with my daughter counting down the days it is hard to pretend it isn't happening. She is so excited and she celebrates my life which is so new to me. Nobody really has paid that much attention to the day before her. Usually it is a day that causes me to be reminded that I am an orphan in the world. This morning though, I feel it might be nice to pay recognition to my birth even if I haven't a clue about it. There are no photos, no funny labor stories, no first year baby book.I don't feel sorry for myself about this because it has been my life to not know these things. I guess it has been minimized so much so it is barely anything anymore but a change in the number of years since my first breath.

So, here I am sitting at the window staring out at the world as it passes me by. The traffic passes in spurts but it passes nonetheless. My coffee sits on the sill in a mug that I painted two years ago. I didn't realize how shiny and pretty it is. It just occurs to me that even though the people who made me, who were labeled as my "parents" have long since abandoned me I am not alone. For the elements of what is good and true in this world lead me to another family, a spiritual family. My Lord, my God, has given to me a gift that I sometimes fail to acknowledge. The gift of creativity, the ability to love and the voice to be heard. My hands, my heart and my mind work together with the spirit to create things that are deep within me. I guess I should not discard or ignore what has been given to me but rather be grateful and show the world that I am somebody who loves and lives out loud!

Some Drawings and Paintings XOXOX

A collage of Grooviness! 

Doodles & paintings

& what ever would fit.

A Relationship Developed

I am amazed. I love painting furniture. I love taking these pieces that are so neglected and rather unattractive at first glance and give them a new life. I go searching sometimes for pieces....yard sales and thrift shops. I have to admit though that some of my best pieces found me. Most of my best pieces found me.
The recently completed highchair belonged to a woman who found it on the side of the road. She saw my painted furniture and decided that after years of having it in the basement that she would have me paint it. I am not a business woman....I am an artist with a rather quirky personality. I was nervous about the business aspect of doing this job. Amazingly, I handled it fine and everything went smoothly from beginning to end.
When the chair arrived it was a mess. It was caked in years of grime. The hinges were rusty and caked with grime as well. I had no idea where to start. As a matter of fact I dreaded starting. I looked at this chair and I was overwhelmed. I forced myself to start. as simple as removing the hinges and latches. One small forced step at a time. The whole first week I hated this chair. I may have even sworn a couple times right at it out loud. It was during the second week that I started feeling the groove. The paint was going on, patterns emerging, colors exploding and like magic the nightmare chair was becoming one of my favorite pieces ever!
I delivered the chair last Friday, January 29, 2010. The owner of the chair was wonderfully pleased with my work and put the chair in her living room.
The strangest thing happened after I delivered the chair....I crashed physically and emotionally. I was exhausted for two days. I didn't realize it but for two weeks I worked so hard on the highchair and was so into it that I failed to realize that I was running on adrenalin. It was like I drained my entire being into that chair without pause. When I let go of that chair I was letting go of a piece of me. It is almost indescribable the emotions that were experienced.

Putting myself out there is still so very new. It is not just about painting on a piece but rather it is about my dissolving an itty bit of my soul into each creation that emerges.

HighChair

First time for everything

Welcome into the mind of Pearle.
I was told once or twice or maybe a few times throughout my life that I say things that most people only think. I am not quite sure how to take that. I just know that I like to say the things I think as I am thinking them...and hopefully I wont offend anyone while the thoughts escape off my tongue and out in the open air.
I was talking to a friend a few years back about my love for furniture. My relationship with chairs in particular. There was a chair that I found discarded and ultimately forgotten. I came upon this chair accidentally. I wasn't looking for a relationship. Anyway, the chair was a very handsome chair with so many things to look at. His back was decorative, his arms were long and lean. His legs...I have never seen such beautiful legs. But he was beaten down. His self-esteem had long been worn out. His seat, which was repeatedly upholstered over years, was torn and faded. His stuffing was busting out revealing his age and loss of pride. Me, being a care taker and rescuer of sorts....picked up the chair and brought it home. He sat at the top of the stairs for a few weeks in a corner. Reagan may have sat on him for a time out or two. The cats rested on him. My friends however saw this chair and commented on how ugly he was. They wondered why I had him in my home commenting on how dirty he was and how unattractive he was due to the years of neglect. I ignored them and kept him around. Finally one day I decided to put him on my coffee table and take the layers of cloth and wool stuffing off of his seat. Then I cleaned him, primed him and painted him black. Three months later I sat back and looked at him and this is what I saw.....A chair, a man restored...but not only restored but given a whole new purpose. He was beautiful again. He was unique and wonderful....The same chair that my friends were grossed out by....is now a chair that they ask permission to touch. Amazing.....One thing is for certain...NOTHING STAYS THE SAME! Change is inevitable and what is ugly or dirty or discarded as trash can be saved, can be rescued and can be made shinier than new! He went from the dumpster(2006) to the museum in 2009.
This is the beginning of my blog....welcome into my mind. xoxox
Pearle