What Stu does while Donna writes....

I was privileged to attend the Idiom Art Furniture Workshop, April 14 - 18, at Fishbon del Sur on MarIScal Lamar in El Centro, Cuenca. This wonderful program was put together by 2 wonderful ladies: Kathryn McCullough and Sara Coppler. We took unfinished, very basic handmade furniture and turned each piece into a work of art. The workshop ran from noon to 5 everyday in the wonderful old house now studio, Fishbon del Sur located on the first floor in the home of Laura and Clay Bodine. Two creative folks that have brought their energy to Cuenca in this delightful studio. I look forward to their many events.

Our first day was spent with introductions, basic ideas for completing our creations, traveling to the Rotary Market to select a piece and returning to the workshop for sanding and priming. Here's a photo of us in the back of the delivery truck and the beginning of my project, Donna's bench.

The second and third days were spent applying color and touching up areas with second and third coats of paint to get even coverage. All this time I was struggling on how I would personalize the piece. I wanted to celebrate Donna's writing and display some of the inspirational things she likes. I vacillated between decoupaging some of her book covers or putting the text of some of her sayings etc. on the bench.

On the forth day I started laying out the text I had chosen to decoupage on different areas of the bench. Experimenting with different styles and positions. I finalized the layout and proceeded to apply each item to the bench. It took some time and I had to repair/replace a few that tore when trying to position them where I wanted. Glad I made a number of copies for back up!

Our last day was spent finishing the final detail before applying clear (water based) polyurethane. 2 Coats and the project was finished and ready for transport home and a reveal to Donna. Well, she loved it. She told me nobody has ever made something just for her. It now sits at the end of our hall. We will walk past it many times and I hope it will inspire her spirit, writing and enrich our lives daily. We might even sit on it once and a while and just chat!

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Here are some photos of the others, 22 women, hard at work on their creations. I shared my "man cave" with one lady who renamed it the "diva den".

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