Sunday 31 December 2017

FARRAGOZ Student of 2017

We have never chosen a student of the year before. I do not like the idea of saying one person's work is better than that of another. We do not have classes and exams like in normal schools. Learning anything online is very difficult. You need an extraordinary amount of motivation just to keep going.




Our mission is to do everything we can to make sure every student gets enough from our courses to change their lives. But often what we do is not enough.

A few days ago I read through the British New Year Honours list for 2018. In case you do not know, the British parliament recognises successful people in different fields for their contribution and the Queen bestows titles on them. In short, it is the making of knights and dames.  I read that in a lot of cases, they were not only honoured for their achievements, but for their efforts to change the lives of others such as through charity work and educational programs. One such person is the first Briton in space, Helen Sharman, who joins the Order of St Michael and St George, for her long-standing commitment to educational outreach in science and technology.

So I thought to myself, which FARRAGOZ student in 2017 stands out as doing not only exceptional work but also gave back to others.



Our student of the year is without hesitation Moacyr Santizo. Moacyr enrolled in the Patina FINISHES Course only 4 months ago and is a very talented painter. He works hard and produces a lot of his own work. He never hesitates to try new techniques and recipes. But that is only half the story because a lot of students do that. We see the work they produce in their shops.



What makes Moacyr different is his dedication to help others in his group. When he paints samples or furniture, he shares in his group, an extremely detailed analysis of the techniques including what he found difficult, his workaround, whether he was satisfied with the result or not and what he would do differently in the future.



He is always first to welcome new members to the group and always gives excellent feedback on their questions. This takes time and effort from him and we appreciate it.

So, Moacyr, congratulations on being our student of the year!

To all our other students producing beautiful patina throughout this year, well done, thank you for sharing your magnificent work with us and keep it up.

To those students who had life happening to them in 2017 and could not produce those patinas they dreamed of, drop me a line and let's give it another go in 2018.

To everybody, thanks for your loyal support throughout the year. We would like to wish you all a healthy, happy and successful 2018!


HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Tania
&
The FARRAGOZ Team
xxx

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Friday 22 December 2017

Beach Themed Christmas

Living with your toes in the ocean makes a beach themed Christmas the obvious choice.


The wreath on the front door was actually the Christmas table centrepiece two years ago. I am surprised it lasted this long!





I suspended several decorations in this colour scheme from the chandelier in our stairwell using vintage velvet and silk ribbons.





This is a very common dune plant that is green in winter and dries out in summer. The birds feed on their seeds for months.









The paper nautilus, periwinkle and tiny abalone shells are from the beach.













I love these old star decorations my aunt bought in France many years ago.





The pewter tureen is a Paris flea market find.









We bought the gold trimmed white crockery over twenty years ago when I decorated my aunt's flat in Paris. The two of us had such great fun running around the city and dragging almost everything two flights up the narrow staircase. When she recently gave up the flat, she shipped the crockery to me knowing how much I loved it and what sweet memories it would hold.









The vintage glass baubles are all flea market and charity shop finds. The sea star, which I found at a shell shop is one of the very few nature items I have ever bought. Somehow finding objects in nature for your collections is much more satisfying than buying them from a shop.




The white shells, arranged back-to-back, were quite worn so I could easily string the vintage ribbon through them to make this wreath. 






From all of us at FARRAGOZ, we would just like to thank you for all your support and friendship and wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!


Tania
&
The FARRAGOZ Team
xxx
#beach #seashells #christmas #christmasdecorations #vintage #baubles #christmaswreath #pewter #fleamarketfinds #paris #ocean #paintfinish #onlinecourse #homemade #patina #distressedpaint #painteffect #HappyHolidays #shabbychic #wornpaint #nature #handmade #frenchstyle #paint #chippedpaint #oldpaint #learnonline #glassbaubles #mercuryglass #painting #classes #paintingclasses #paintinglessons #paintingtutorials #courses #paintingcourses #traditionalcrafts #crafts #howtopaint #howtomake #decor #homedecor #seastar

Thursday 2 November 2017

Download your free artwork of Passage Jouffroy in Paris


The third FREE ARTWORK DOWNLOAD is now available. It is a charcoal pencil on paper sketch of shop windows, signs and a clock inside the Passage Jouffroy. This passage dates back to 1846 and at the time, one of about 150 in Paris. These covered walkways were the shopping malls of the era. Passage Jouffroy is home to Hotel Chopin and Musée Grévin. The clock in the artwork sits above the hotel entrance.





The artwork was exclusively created for FARRAGOZ and is now available for you to DOWNLOAD, PRINT and FRAME. 

If you have already subscribed, your link to the download should already be in your email inbox. If you don't see it there, please check the spam/junk folders too. If you have not yet subscribed to our FREE ARTWORK DOWNLOADS, please do so now at https://goo.gl/hYXFdb


With all our love to you ~ Enjoy!

Tania
&
The FARRAGOZ Team
xxx

#free #FreeArt #freedownload #artdownload #art #patina #artofpatina #FARRAGOZ #paris #withlovetoyou #freegift #homedecor #FrameableArt #decor #ParisPassage #PassageJouffroy #HotelChopin #homedecor #onlinecourses

Wednesday 11 October 2017

Download your free artwork of Abbaye de Chanteuges


We had such a wonderful response to the launch of the first FREE download. The last 10 days the FARRAGOZ team has spent a lot of time fixing little snags in order to present you with this second FREE download. It is a watercolour of the Abbaye de Chanteuges in the Haute-Loire, France.





If you have not subscribed yet, you can do so now at https://goo.gl/ytuHQw

If you have already subscribed, please check your email inbox for your second download. Remember there is always a possibility it ended up in your inbox spam/junk folder.



DOWNLOAD... PRINT... FRAME

With all our love to you ~ Enjoy!

Tania
&
The FARRAGOZ Team
xxx



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Thursday 28 September 2017

Art download created especially for you


I love receiving gifts! I think we all do. So many treasured items in our home were gifts. Each one, no doubt, carefully selected for us, keeping in mind our love for nature, art and patina.





But, as much as I love receiving gifts, I love selecting that perfect gift for someone else. The excitement of hunting for it, wrapping it in gift paper that not only compliments the contents but reflects the person's taste and finally, topping it off with layers of sumptuous ribbons, is a whole ritual for me. But the best part of all is handing it over to the recipient.





So the question arose: What do you give your friends, scattered all over the world, that they would love, and how do you get it to them?

Our answer after lengthy deliberations: You generate downloads of original artworks that were specially created for this purpose, and give your friends access to them - a new image every week. They can then print these in the size of their choice and frame them, building a collection.





And that is exactly what we've done!

You can now download the artwork in the image above for FREE. The Seashell Artwork was exclusively created for FARRAGOZ and can be printed in any size up to 35 inches (90 cm) wide.





To download this Seashell Artwork and receive a WEEKLY FREE ARTWORK to add to your collection, click this link to subscribe: https://goo.gl/ytuHQw



With all our love to you ~ Enjoy!

Happy Birthday!
Happy New Year!
Happy Christmas!
Happy Holidays!
Happy Everyday ~ whatever you are celebrating!

Tania
&
The FARRAGOZ Team
xxx



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Thursday 24 August 2017

What sparked my love for old things?




As a little girl, I often accompanied my mother and aunts to visit their great-aunt and great-uncle. The couple, who lived on a charming little farm with enormous old oak trees and bordered by a rambling river, fascinated me and left a lasting impression. Their house was filled with old, interesting and strange looking bits and pieces and gently worn antiques. To this day, whenever I catch the faint mouldy whiff of an old book, I am transported straight back to those visits.

He was a retired school teacher who, in his day, would drive his car, wearing a dust coat and gloves. It was never said, but I have always imagined there were some goggles and a cap to complete the outfit and, in my mind's eye, I've always seen him speeding down dusty lanes just like Toad from Toad Hall in The Wind in the Willows




Great-great-uncle Alec is pictured above in his teacher's attire.


They never had any children of their own and somewhat doted on my mother and her sisters. I was still very young when they both passed away, but I was fortunate to inherit a few trinkets and pieces of furniture. Among these were some of their cherished memories in the form of old postcards. And so it was that I started collecting nostalgic postcards.

As the years went by, my collection grew but I never had a way to display it effectively where I could see it all the time. Then, a while ago, my aunt who shares my passion for old things, gave me a small poster that advertised a Paris to London trip by train and boat. This set me wondering about how these postcards would originally have been displayed at train stations and ports like Dieppe where they were sold to tourists. And so the idea for a postcard stand started to form.





Most of my postcards are from the early 1900's. Travel at that time must have been very exotic and much more of an adventure than it is today. Trips were slow and expensive and often took months to complete. It is difficult to imagine today in our always-connected era, how cut off one would have felt. I recently read that back then, men often joined the army because it was an opportunity to travel and see the world.


Slowly a design for the postcard stand started to emerge in my head. I decided to create a space behind a little glass fronted door for posters to give the stand a focal point.










HOW I DID THIS

It dawned on me that a basic hollow core door with no trimmings would create the perfect structure to start with. These doors are sturdy, not too heavy and inexpensive. And best of all, I already had one that was just taking up space and collecting dust.



{See MATERIAL LIST towards the bottom of this page}


I quickly drew up a rough sketch of what I wanted it to look like, incorporating an old picture frame I had, and added the measurements. The door was 40mm in depth. I decided to add a frame around the outside of the door to create a recess of 30mm deep. This called for 16mm MDF board strips of 70mm wide. I calculated the measurements for each of the 4 pieces that would make up the outer frame. Next, I measured for the narrow shelves running inside the recess. Again, the same 16mm MDF would do the trick, but the width would have to equal that of the depth of the recess, ie. 30mm.


Once I had all the measurements, I had my strips of wood cut by my timber supplier. I also got a few lengths of wooden moulding from them that I would add to the front of the outer frame just to round it off nicely.





Back home, I assembled the whole thing using wood glue, clamps, small nails and a hammer. First, the outer frame followed by the old frame and the narrow strips to form the shelves. Next, I sanded down the sharp edges a little to get rid of that newly-cut-wood look.


With all the woodwork done, it was time to start painting. The wood needed to be stained first with my homemade stain for it to appear like old wood when distressed. I love using this stain because it is so easy to mix and apply, it's odourless and it costs next to nothing.


My next step was to mix casein paint in several colours of my choice. Because I make my own paints, I always mix colours in small quantities in order to have no or very little wastage. I applied a coat of very light grey paint, followed by what I like to call a 30's green. If this was really an old piece it probably saw several layers of paint in different colours during the course of its life so I painted it another two different shades of teal.


I thought it needed some definition so I painted all the front edges and the outside of the main frame black, followed by a dark grey and was now ready to start with the distressing of the piece.





Next, I found a font that I felt matched the 1920's-30's era and printed out the "Carte-Postale" sign. After transferring the outlines of the lettering onto the paintwork, I was ready to paint the letters a charcoal colour and distress that too.









All that remained to be done was to seal everything and drill small holes through which I threaded fishing line. This line will keep my postcards in place and stop them from falling off the narrow shelves.






So, to sum up ...


MATERIAL LIST

1. hollow core door
2. 16mm MDF board
3. mouldings
4. old picture frame
5. tape measure
6. wood glue
7. clamps
8. small nails
9. hammer
10. sandpaper
11. primer ~ recipe from FARRAGOZ Online Courses
12. casein paint ~ recipe from FARRAGOZ Online Courses
13. paintbrushes
14. polish
15. electric drill
16. fishing line



HOW TO

1. draw design
2. measure and cut MDF and moulding strips
3. glue and clamp MDF and moulding strips
4. secure MDF and moulding strips with nails
5. sand
6. prime
7. paint grey
8. paint green
9. paint first shade teal
10. paint second shade teal
11. paint edges black
12. paint edges dark grey
13. distress ~ methods from FARRAGOZ Online Courses
14. transfer letter outlines
15. paint letters
16. distress letters
17. drill holes
18. thread fishing line through holes
19. seal


I am as pleased as Punch with my postcard stand and I love the fact that I can so easily change the look of it by adding or replacing postcards.






And I am sure Uncle Alec would have been pleased to know he had such a profound effect on a little girl. I think of the postcard stand as a monument to him.




Happy Painting!

Tania

xxx


P.S. I am going to print and paste this post on the back of the stand. Maybe in 100 years, when we are all long gone, someone will find this stand in a junk shop and decide to start collecting old postcards!

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