Ashley Hackshaw, Author at Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo

Art Studio Ideas – Painting the Floor White – Basement Art Studio

July 25, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

I’ve been working on revamping my art studio. It’s always felt like a basement (it IS in the basement) but I’ve had improvements in mind that would make it feel more inspiring. When I first started my art studio looked like this:

Over time it’s slowly been transformed into a space that I can really use. The first step was painting the walls:

Then Brett helped me build an wall easel system using 2x4x that can be easily moved and adjusted:

But still something felt off…maybe it was too cluttered…not to mention that the floor was always gritty from the cement. Then I woke up a few days ago and decided that I needed to paint the floor white!

It didn’t take that long to paint. I should have done this a long time ago. Here’s a short time-lapse:

A post shared by Ashley Hackshaw (@lilblueboo) on Jul 19, 2017 at 11:15am PDT

Painting the floor suddenly makes the room seem bigger and also brighter and cheerier. Brett placed that big piece of 4’x8′ styrofoam on the floor so I could test out the size before we actually build a worktable:

The past few days I’ve been moving everything back into the space. And now I could spend all day down there! It stays about 60 degrees all year round. I’m feeling inspired.

Here are a few links to the studios of famous artists…I love seeing artists in their work environment:

Norman Rockwell’s Studio (so neat and orderly!)

Jackson Pollock’s Studio

Willem de Kooning’s Studio

Chuck Close’s Studio

I could list a dozen more but I’m hungry and can’t write anymore!

Burning Designs onto Leather – Leather Pyrography

July 18, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

If you own a craft wood burner you can easily use the same technique for burning designs onto leather:

I found these little leather tags at Michaels in the jewelry section and thought they’d be so cute with some little designs etched onto them:

I use the smallest tip of my wood burner for writing. I usually lightly sketch out my design with a toothpick first and the use the wood burning tool to etch my design. You can add depth to any design by experimenting with different hatch marks and varying the pressure used:

I also use the tool to burn the edges of the tags as well. It adds adds a burnished look to the piece:

You can paint leather with acrylic paints if you make sure to remove any shine or coating. These were raw leather and I just scuffed up the piece a little where I wanted the paint to go. I love how this tag turned out as part of a necklace I made for the shop:

You can use the smallest of leather scraps for burn projects too. I made these little labels for these torched hearts I made last week:

For these I just cut out small pieces of leather and used a wood burner to write the lettering:

If you can hold your hand steady you can write super tiny:

I’ll share a few other pyrography projects I’m working on soon. In the meantime you can follow my current projects on Instagram! Thanks for reading!

Torched Wood Project – Scrap Wood Hearts

July 13, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

I recently had the chance to review the new Bernzomatic TS3500 torch and for a torched wood project I made these scrap wood hearts! They were so easy to make in an assembly line of multiples:

I had a chance to review the new Bernzomatic TS3500 torch:

I use torches for many different DIY projects around the house. You might have seen the aged galvanized ornaments I made last year:

One of my favorite torch projects from the vault is How to Make Solder Pendants:

One of the most often see uses of the Bernzomatic torch is the aging of wood. Just look at how easy it is to age a piece of new wood by applying the torch flame:

I used my new Bernzomatic TS3500 torch to age wood as well. With all of our DIY projects around here I always have an abundance of scrap wood laying around and I wanted to come up with a use for them.

Torched Wood Project – Scrap Wood Hearts:

Step 1: I collected a small pile of maple scraps leftover from the farmhouse subfloor we’ve been working on:

Step 2: I used a sanding block to sand the edges of the wood to make them slightly rounded:

Step 3: I knew I wanted to create a mask of some sort that would block the flame of the torch in certain areas and I experimented with quite a few different materials and the best result was from of all things a hot glue gun! I used a hot glue gun (using an everyday craft glue stick) to apply a heart shape to the wood:

Step 4: Then I had a chance to test out the torch. I didn’t think there would be much difference from the previous models I’ve used but I was pleasantly surprised. The trigger start is much more intuitive for me (i.e. squeeze to ignite) and the ergonomic handle is much more comfortable for longer sessions of use:

The other thing I like is that there is a wide degree of flame strength that is easily adjusted using the knob (and there is an arrow guide to make adjusting simple). The Bernzomatic TS3500 is the perfect torch for the DIYer to tackle a variety of projects. To start the project I had the flame on full strength and I easily burned the entire back of the maple:

Step 5: When the wood was cool to the touch I turned the piece over and started on the front. I burned the corners of the wood first and then moved into the center where the glue heart was located. I turned down the flame to medium and the glue melted almost immediately but completely protected the wood from being torched leaving a heart shape behind:

Step 6: I waited until the wood was cool again and before removing the glue I used a slightly damp rag to remove any loose charcoal dust from the wood:

Step 7: Next I carefully used a razor scraper to peel the glue off of the wood. It was easiest to lift areas of glue off with the scraper and then just pull the glue off by hand. I lightly scraped the wood once the glue was peeled off to remove most of the residue:

Step 8: Then I sprayed the wood with several coats of clear furniture lacquer which results in a hard, glossy finish:

The finished block:

I love how smooth and glossy it turned out:

These would make great little gifts and can be set on a table or apply picture hardware to the back for wall hanging:

Optional Step: Another addition that can be added are these little scrap leather tags which were just made using a small wood burning torch and screwed onto the wood:

The finished blocks:

I think they look really cool!

Have you finished a torched wood project recently? I’d love to know! I find torches so useful even outside of my DIY projects. Last winter I used my torch to melt the water in the concrete water bath that the chickens drink out of and a few winters ago I had to use it to heat the water in our condensate line to get the heat going in the house. I’ve even used it to remove paint from old metal hinges and other hardware.

A big thanks to Bernzomatic for letting me test out their new torch! Make sure to check out all the cool DIY projects that Bernzomatic has on their website here.