Still Playing With Stencils

While the starter edition of the Linearity Curve program is severely limited, it remains my best tool for removing backgrounds and cleaning up blemishes from bad scans. I'm finding it quite enjoyable to play around with the program while watching TV with my husband. When I'm ready to create the cut files, I plan to subscribe for a month so I can export SVG files again.

I'm hoping that once we've finished emptying out our storage, I'll be able to pull out my Cricut and start experimenting with cutting out one of the designs. By then, hopefully, I'll have decided which one to tackle first. LOL

Here are the latest options I'm considering.

I actually edited this one because I thought it would look better with more petals.

Excelsior Fresco Stencils catalog, 1924

Excelsior Fresco Stencils catalog

Blue Label catalog, 1900

Excelsior Fresco Stencils catalog

Devoe Art Stencils, c. 1910

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I tried to make the ties look a little better, but they still need some work.

Blue Label catalog

Living Room Stencil?

I've been playing with my stencil files again. I don't know for sure if I can cut them out with my Cricut, but if I can't, I suspect I have at least one friend with a laser cutter. (I'm hoping, anyway.)

I've spent like four days playing with images trying to come up with a stencil that I like but I don't really know what I want and I keep changing my mind. The downstairs rooms are more difficult to choose colors because we can't use light paint colors because they will get lost in the wall paint color.

I think I maybe have settled on this first one but this one will be a lot more difficult to fudge corners and add extra bits to fill space.

Sherwin Williams 41 from their 1910 catalog

I also prepped the files for this stencil, but I'm worried with all that orange it won't look good over the green wall paint. It does have the advantage of being stencil-able in one pass.

Blue Label 1559 from the 1900 catalog

This third option was the one I picked to do several years ago but now I've mostly abandoned it because I'm not convinced it will look good over the green paint.

Alabastine 305 from their 1920 catalog

I am experimenting with adding a large painted field below the flower but that may not work well because the stencil area is so large. 

One of the main reasons for this post is because I wanted to mention a new-to-me program I found that is super helpful for making stencils. I was trying to use my Cricut Design Space software and it was super frustrating because it just wouldn't do what I wanted it to. It's possible it would work better if I paid them the $15/month subscription, but I only use it a few times a year and have no use for any of their art files.

Anyway, when I clicked on one of my svg files it came up with Curve software. What? I don't even remember downloading that, but I must have. Anyway, its long name is Linearity Curve Graphic Design and the starter version (which is what I've been using) is available for free. I just uploaded my stencil clip art file, asked it to trace it, and it was super easy to remove the background and make changes. I have only used it for a few hours and I'm already a fan.

Update later: I spoke too soon on the free Curve program. I made the HUGE mistake of letting it update and now it's practically worthless unless you pay them. Sigh.

Misc. Projects

I have no idea what to call this post. I spent about 3 hours last week updating Wunderlist again and getting my To Do list caught up. So that sent me and Jeff on a flurry of exciting activities, like cleaning the furnace filters and Vent-a-Hood fans. Super exciting, non-photogenic stuff. Though, I supposed I could have shown you how gross the screens in our air handler had become after too long between cleanings. LOL

I've made a lot of progress selling the huge piles of tile. We have almost a manageable amount of boxes now. And once we are really, truly done with our bathroom, I will donate or liquidate what's left. We've also sold some big, bulky SCA gear. Our basement is looking much emptier, though still an unphotogenic mess.

I've actually managed to raise most of the money I spent on rugs last month, so I'm feeling less guilty for making those purchases. Though my new living room rug still sits unopened in the package. I bought a rug pad for it, but I want to repair the chewed woodwork and paint the wall before I move in a larger rug.

I finished sewing my quilt bindings. And now that I'm looking back thru the blog, I see it took me more than 3 years to finish these bindings. That's really embarrassing. I haven't taken pictures of the completed quilts, but you can see the posts about when I made them here and here. I built them so quickly at the time, but then they just sat there unfinished for way too long. :(

And, I finally gave cutting a stencil a try. I was able to plug my Mac into the Copam cutter and they talked to eachother!! Though, it's hard to show a picture of etched plastic, this is what I was able to cut.

The dragon etched onto 7mil mylar

The original 1910s dragon tile

The cutter didn't cut through the 7 mil mylar but this time I have faith I can eventually get it to work; I just need to figure out the right settings, the right blade, and the right thickness of mylar. I am excited I finally made significant progress on this stencil project. Solving the problems, however, will wait until later this summer.

Woohoo, Stencils Soon!

Just a quick post because I'm excited! I finally took the time to figure out my cutter software. The last two times I looked at it, I didn't immediately get it, and I didn't have the patience to figure it out.

I found this tile photo at flickr. It's an Art Nouveau tile from 1908. I love dragons, so the appeal to figure out how to cut this one out is obvious. I'm sure there are easier ways to get to the finished product, because my technique was tedious as hell, but I have a stencil file!!!

I haven't cut it out of mylar yet, but I think I finally have the file ready to try. If this works, it's bound to send me on quite the stencil spree this year. (It's amazing what you can get done when you're procrastinating taxes. LOL)

Update: I've been having a lot of fun making stencil patterns from period catalogs today. I'll have to go find my mylar and see about cutting these this week. :)

Obsessive Stencil Research

I got obsessed with consolidating stencil research in a new page in the right column, called Reproduction Stencils. I've found some good sources of period stencils and I thought it would help inform others' stencil purchases if folks could associate a design with a particular period. I will continue to make updates as I find more catalogs and more modern stencil sources. If you guys know of any I missed, I'm grateful for the information.

Alabastine Stencil Catalog, 1899 and c.1920

This will also help me make decisions about what stencils I will make. It's way past time I get my stencil cutting technology up and running.

1920s Stencil Designs

I found another stencil catalog, but this one dates from 1924. A bit late for my decor purposes, but I know some of you might be interested in the designs available. Stencilling was still pretty popular in the 20s. Anyway, the stencil catalog is "Excelsior" Fresco Stencils particularly adapted for House Decoration, Churches, Lodge Rooms, Halls, Theatres, etc.  by George E. Watson Co. Again, I recognized several of the designs as being commercially available. In fact, finding this stencil catalog was like hitting a jackpot of currently available stencil designs. I was pretty excited. (How sad is that? LOL)

I'll definitely be putting a page break in this post, because it's going to be LONG!

Reproduction Stencils

I'm obviously on a bit of a stencil groove at the moment. When I was looking around the commercially available stencils this morning, I recognized many from a stencil book, called Arts & Crafts Stencilling, originally published in 1910, by W.G. Sutherland. It has been reprinted by Dover. Frankly, I was surprised how many of the stencils are available from this book. It is obvious The Stencil Library in UK pulled many designs from this out-of-copyright publication.

While I am not going to take the time to scan the individual stencils from the book itself, I will link where you can buy the stencils I've found to be commercially available.

TSL DE127

This floral stencil is shown on page 13 and is available from UK's The Stencil Library, DE127.

This is also a wisteria stencil, pictured on the back cover of the book, that is also available from The Stencil Library, #66.

TSL 66

On page 84 there is a rose border that is TSL TR117.

TSL TR117

More Early 1900s Stencil Designs

I've been idly poking around and I found some more period stencil catalogs. I don't know why I find this so fun, but I do. :D

I found a Blue Label Stencil Catalog from 1900 and I feel like I hit the jackpot, since I recognize quite a few of these from designs that are currently available.

This one you can also buy from CraftHome for $34.95.

Jean Marie

And here's another.

This one is also available from CraftHome for $48.50.

Dahlia Frieze

And here is this same stencil I used again.

This stencil design was offered again by Montgomery Ward in 1915.

In fact, I see more than a few repeated stencils, so now I suspect that either Montgomery Ward bought this stencil portfolio, or they owned it in the first place. Perhaps Blue Label was one of their brands. I'll have to investigate.

Anyway, you can still buy this stencil design from a couple different websites, the least expensive being CraftHome again for $34.95.

Moonflower

Here is a lovely repeating border design.

A nearly identical stencil, and rather better drawn design, is still available from The Stencil Library in the UK for £10.75.

Art Nouveau

I believe there are more, but in my search this morning, I did not find them. I will probably look more later while I'm watching netflix.

Latest Bathroom Sketchup Files

I haven't had much time to play in SketchUp this week as we've been really busy dealing with canning and other neglected projects. But I did take the time to add all the fiddly bullnose tile pieces on my master bathroom sketchup files.

Now that I won that tile auction, there will definitely be tweaks. But at least we won't have a shortage of subway tile as one of the problems. We might even change the tile around the shower so we tile all the way to the ceiling.

We're getting really close to being able to start this remodel. We should have the basement bathroom mostly finished by the end of next week. Then I just need to find a tile installer and a glass shower enclosure installer. I've lined up the woodworker who made the basement cabinet to make the master bath cabinet, but I may get a couple more quotes.

I'm relieved that this week the Mac Store was able to retrieve all my old files off my dead old MacBook. In particular, I got all the photos of our house pre-purchase and during the remodel. And, yes, I did have a backup, but somehow that drive went astray during the post-remodel clean up. I would have found it eventually, but I didn't feel like waiting or spending that long looking for it. I'm now working on making new backups in several places for future.

The last couple of days I've been trying to get my stencil cutting plan up and running. I had the challenge of getting a new operational copy of the cutter software (since it was on the old computer) and now I'm trying to learn it. But it just won't import my image files, even though they are one of the alleged acceptable file types. So, instead I'm now trying to run them through CorelDraw first to convert the file type to something that does work. It's a little frustrating, as I'd really like to stencil the basement bathroom with an historic stencil design that I've cut, and not one I've purchased. I'm spending a lot of time trying to relearn CorelDraw as it's been years since I touched it. Sigh. I suppose it's good that there's so much I want to learn.

Sewing Room Stencilled!

I'm not sure why, but last night at 9PM I suddenly wanted to stencil my sewing room. I got thru 2/3rds of it and sat down for a bit to rest my feet and promptly fell asleep. I woke up 5 hours later to dry paint and dry brushes. :D
It's mostly finished now.

 

I have one more flower I need to add next to the door, but I need to clean the stencil and flip it over first. I also have a bit of paint touch up to do once it dries; I had paint on my fingers and accidentally smeared some on the wall.

Update later: All done :)

Time for Stencils!

I am done painting! I'm doing the happy dance today.

It really helps to get an early start to get these projects done. It's been easier this week since I seem to be sleeping at night again. Probably the exercise helps. :D

I'm hoping to put up a stencil in the frieze on Friday. I'll be doing some tryouts for options tomorrow. These are the two stencils I'm considering. I'd obviously be changing colors.

Mission Pansy and Morning Glory

Mission Trout Lily

Both of these are from American Home Stencils, Craftsman/Mission collection.

My electrician FINALLY called back and he'll be coming out soon. Now this project is just being held up by the floor refinishing which may not happen until September, unless I can find another contractor. :(

Update on Thursday: We pulled up the floor masking and I took new pictures which I've now posted.