Painted the vines and berries of my Taunton Chest...

Well, I bit the bullet and gave it a try. I bought some artists oil paints, thinner, pallet knives and two different striping brushes at Grand Art Supply downtown Lansing.  Great store, if you should find yourself in the area.

Having laid out the pencil work freehand, I figured I could paint it that way as well.  I was mostly right...

Please forgive the crummy camera-phone photos. Hardware not totally installed in this pic

I've since added several coats of tinted seedlac, so that the paint has a nice aged look.  The retina-searing white is now a nice yellow / gold, the blue and red berries are no longer so bright.  It looks really good, I will post more photos once I've rubbed out the surface with wax.

I'm unhappy with a line or two, but will leave it that way as a reminder to roll the brush when turning corners. This is to store my socks in my bedroom (old houses are awesome but the bedroom storage space is abysmal) so I will look at it every day.  Even with a couple of crummy lines, I'm still ecstatic.  This is my first ever attempt at painting this way...

Meanwhile, my next small chest is well under way... This one is the same basic build as the above chest, but is on bracket feet. This makes this chest a little later in style, more of a transitional piece between William and Mary and Queen Anne.

Check out the massive pile of pine shavings. That trash can is also full

This shot shows the glue block / actual leg. Brackets haven't yet been cut

Center joint, nice and tight thanks to my new 3/8" dado plane from Josh Clark.

It actually sits on glue blocks, which extend roughly 1/8" below the bracket feet. In these photos, the brackets haven't been cut out yet, but they have been now.  New photos will be taken as soon as the clamps come off.

This one will have the same pulls as the painted chest, but will just be painted brown. I am contemplating a "graining" effect, simulating walnut, but I haven't yet decided.  If I do that, I may just want to keep it instead of put it up for sale...

Zach