I already wrote about the amazing chair made by Wisła Nicieja - with a photo of me handapainted on it - and today I am going to guide you through a process of changing an old table lamp into a beautiful object, gilded and painted with some Marimekko pattern.
Lets start with the table - I bought it in a second hand furniture store for 80zl, which is less than 30 dollars. I knew that the person who could help me turn it into something special was Wisła, and there was a weekend when she was over in Krakow. On a Sunday afternoon we kicked off the painting process then (and by saying we I mean Wisła, while I sipped on vintage cider).
First she drew the pattern I chose to appear on the table. I am a big fan of Marimekko patterns, so I wanted to have the Unikko flowers appear in my living room. Wisła copied them on the table surface, using a page from an interior design magazine dedicated to Marimekko.
Then she used a special glue for gilding called mixtion to cover the surface around the future flowers. That part was going to be gold. It had to be left for three hours to dry (in the meantime we went to town for a coffee).
When we came back she tested the glued surface to see if it was dry enough. Obviously you can't let it dry completely. The whole trick is that it has to be sticky enough to be able to hold the foil. Once the glue was ready, Wisła started the application of gold foil. She then polished it (with my sock, yes) and removed the pieces that didn't stick to the glue. And finally she started painting the actual Marimekko patter.
And then... my lamp was ready!
